Resubmissions

(Disclaimer -- I really hope today was the first time I've submitted my site, before I write this)

Since I've noticed a lot of emphasis is put on submitting a site once and waiting it out, and resubmitting just means extra work for the editors, why not add an option to resubmit your site that goes straight to the trash can. If all the duplicate submissions are destined for deletion, why not automate the process and save everybody the headache?

So let met get this right... you're saying that there should be a resubmit function, that deletes the current submission in unreviewed and submits it again?

That would pretty much be useless unless the editor sorts his/her unreviews by date. (Which the default is alphabetically) I wouldn't see the purpose.

I'd rather see something that checks a submissions URL, and denies it if it finds the same URL in that category. (That could cause other problems, though.)

We'd really rather not talk about what might or might be done automatically.

The reason is simple. We can divide our spam into two significant chunks. A significant minority (say 1/8 to 1/3) of the submittals to the ODP are deliberate malicious recidivist spam. That is, a few malicious spammers -- the "Sanford Wallaces" of the serp perp world -- are producing much of the spam we get.

Another significant part is DDOS-type spam -- myriads of gullible greedy folk who believe the "make money while you sleep" ads, and each "submit their affiliate-banner-farm site only once or twice (a month)" -- in the aggregate, it ads up.

Any automated system can be automatically evaded. The less information we give about our system, the longer we can take advantage of the flip side of that truism.

Busy said:

Since I've noticed a lot of emphasis is put on submitting a site once and waiting it out, and resubmitting just means extra work for the editors, why not add an option to resubmit your site that goes straight to the trash can. If all the duplicate submissions are destined for deletion, why not automate the process and save everybody the headache?

Click to expand...

If you think this over just a little bit, rewind and play back looking at a different angle, I'm sure you'll realise it can't be done. It doesn't take a genius. Barrning that, let's just say: "Humans do it better"...

musicman2059 said:

So let met get this right... you're saying that there should be a resubmit function, that deletes the current submission in unreviewed and submits it again?

Click to expand...

No, you don't have it right. Doing it that way would be way stupid and would add work. I don't know what kind of "crazy scheme" you guys think I'm talking about, so let me clarify.

#1 is the normal process of submitting a site. Leave that alone.

#2 -- Nobody is supposed to resubmit, but they do anyways and it adds work for you guys, right? Put a little box that says "Resubmit your site" The box is for people who don't read the directions. Nobody ever gets the resubmissions. Nobody has to look over them. Nobody has to delete them. No time is wasted on them. It's just a dummy box for dummies who think that resubmitting will speed up the process of acceptance (or rejection).

I'm sure you guys get a lot of "crazy schemes" to improve DMOZ on here but I did put thought into this before I posted it. The negatives of this idea are that it's slightly insulting to the end user, and that it sends a somewhat confusing, mixed message to those that DO follow instructions.

And the 4 positives... well I'll just use jgwright's
extremely convincing arguement of "It doesn't take a genius." And I see hutcheson's point that this stuff really is better off left a private topic kept out of earshot from spammers, so I won't post anymore about this stuff. I hope this was more clear, as I really hate being misunderstood.

hutcheson]deliberate malicious [B]recidivist[/B said:

spam.

Click to expand...

Good word! (I had to look it up) I think I'm going to start using that one!

I think I see where you are going with the, and I think it is a pretty good idea, except for a few things.

The main thing is that not all resubmissions are bad things. Many are, and the system deals with a lof of them automatically. Some are good: the submitter actually reads the submission guidelines after the fact and resubmit to give us better titles or descriptions; or they realize they have submitted to the wrong category, or any number of other reasons.

Any system that throws out the good resubmissions is of questionalble value.

I see your point. Guess I hadn't really heard anyone mention a DMOZ resubmit in a positive light before. And it's always so easy to come up with answers when you don't have much experience with something, I'm sure you guys see plenty evidence of that on a daily basis. Thank you for the thoughful response Mr. Gunner

I got it, and I think it's hilarious!

Nareau

Busy said:

I see your point. Guess I hadn't really heard anyone mention a DMOZ resubmit in a positive light before.

Click to expand...

You'll see some in the "Site Submission Status" forum, here and there.