Site

I understand that editors will not give reasons on this forum for not including a site in the DMOZ directory, but I wanted to create this topic as an open discussion.

Submission history: We first submitted this site a couple of years ago, then again in January of this year.

About us: We are UK web hosting business, have been established since 2002, and are genuine.

Client base: Over 2,000 - from small to large web sites.

Despite submitting our web site we are seemingly being rejected (although we are not sure because you are not notified) and we really can't understand the reason for the rejection.

The funny thing is, one of our resellers is listed in the same category. It seems strange that their site makes the category and ours doesn't (given that we are obviously a superset of their company).

My questions are therefore:

1) If a competitor edits the directory that we are applying for, what is to stop them from denying listings for other companies?

2) Can anyone shed some light as to what we may be doing wrong?

Our site is located at <removed>. Any input would be much appreciated, we feel we are certainly a worthy inclusion in the directory.

Thanks in advance,
Paul

We don't discuss specific websites here as this forum's subtitle Forum for discussions about the process of suggesting a site for inclusion. General discussion only, no mention of specific sites here please. and the sticky thread at the top of the forum make clear.

I suggest that you read this forum's FAQ, and the following boilerplate.

ODP is a volunteer organisation and editors edit where they wish, when they wish and as much as they wish within the constraints of their permissions. We have no system to force people to do work that they don't volunteer to do. ODP is not a free listing service for website owners and it does not attempt to process their listing suggestions within the time scales desired by them.

Some volunteer will volunteer to process your listing suggestion in time but we can't predict who or when that might be. Elapsed times can range from a few days to a few years. Please be patient.

1) If a competitor edits the directory that we are applying for, what is to stop them from denying listings for other companies?

Click to expand...

Everything is logged here and such abusive behaviour is usually discovered.

2) Can anyone shed some light as to what we may be doing wrong?

Click to expand...

Lacking patience.

We first submitted this site a couple of years ago, then again in January of this year.

Click to expand...

Your memory is entirely at variance with our logs. Be aware that re-suggesting a URL replaces any previous suggestion, thus forcing it back down to the bottom of the heap (if a passing editor chooses to work in suggestion date order).

The point about specific sites taken on board. Apologies.

Question 1) still stands, though, wouldn't mind your thoughts on this.

You beat me to it, thanks for your quick replies Jim

jimnoble said:

Your memory is entirely at variance with our logs. Be aware that re-suggesting a URL replaces any previous suggestion, thus forcing it back down to the bottom of the heap (if a passing editor chooses to work in suggestion date order).

Click to expand...

Interesting. So presumably someone can hijack the inclusion of another web site by continually resubmitting their URL?

Just trying to understand how the system works.

paj_mccarthy said:

Interesting. So presumably someone can hijack the inclusion of another web site by continually resubmitting their URL?

Click to expand...

In the 10 years DMOZ exist we have never experienced such behaviour.
Do you realy think that the time involved with continously suggesting a competitor website wil be of a any benefit to your own website.
And if it ever would happen we are capable of handling such behaviour without damaging the website or its owner.

jimnoble said:

.

Lacking patience.

Click to expand...

I originally submitted an application in 2003. It's now 2008, and we have submitted 3 times in that time period (one of them being 5 days ago). We deserve to be in the directory as we are a decent, reliable and well-established host and we abide by the submission guidelines. We can't be accused of not being patient in this scenario.

pvgool said:

And if it ever would happen we are capable of handling such behaviour without damaging the website or its owner.

Click to expand...

What is your process for detecting and handling this behaviour?

As with all anti-abuse measures, if we told you, we'd have to kill you

jimnoble said:

As with all anti-abuse measures, if we told you, we'd have to kill you

Click to expand...

OK make me an editor then

paj_mccarthy said:

OK make me an editor then

Click to expand...

We would still have to kill you when we told you the anti-abuse measures
Not all editors know about these measures, and some of these measures are deliberatelty kept unknown to most editors.


If you want to become an editor you send a request to DMOZ.
A good starting point would be to read the FAQ and General Advice About Becoming an Editor thread

I got rejected as an editor, so that's not gonna happen anyway!

Why is that? You were told what the problem was and were invited to apply again.

Did the email say "do not apply again"?
If not a list of possible reasons was given.
A new editor should be able to determine which of these reasons are for his application and he should be able to correct them. You can see this as part of the application.
Many of the current editors have been rejected the first time.

jimnoble said:

Why is that? You were told what the problem was and were invited to apply again.

Click to expand...

Apparently I hadn't listed all sites that I was involved with.

Maybe I'll reapply at some point, though.

paj_mccarthy said:

I got rejected as an editor, so that's not gonna happen anyway!

Click to expand...

I was rejected twice before I was accepted.

If you're seriously interested in editing, try reading this post.

That's some good advice Old Sarge, I believe I followed what you have written in my previous application and was rejected on grounds that I didn't list all of the web sites that I was associated with.

I'm still confused as to why I was deemed to be involved in more sites though, but that's another issue.

The one category I would be suited to moderating / updating is the one category that I am heavily personally involved in (ie. with my company). On a similar subject, I think a new category should be created in the following directory:

http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Hosting/

to cater for the new breed of hosting providers..I think it should be called Cloud Hosting or alike.

I presume there is a mechanism for suggesting new categories? Excuse my ignorance.

A category of over 2000 listings is waaaaay to large for a beginner. We prefer to start them off in categories of below 100 listings.

I presume there is a mechanism for suggesting new categories? Excuse my ignorance.

Click to expand...

We're discussing them internally all the time, but we don't actually create them before we have a slack handful of sites to put in them. Until then, websites are listed in the parent category.

jimnoble said:

A category of over 2000 listings is waaaaay to large for a beginner. We prefer to start them off in categories of below 100 listings.
We're discussing them internally all the time, but we don't actually create them before we have a slack handful of sites to put in them. Until then, websites are listed in the parent category.

Click to expand...

I'll keep my eye open for when you create the cloud hosting category then, and I'll reapply. You'll see a lot of new cloud hosting providers in the next year or so.

I'll keep my eye open for when you create the cloud hosting category

Click to expand...

Such a category will probably not be created unless or until there's a volunteer editor with an interest in that topic. We may or may not have such an editor at the moment. But if you are interested in the topic, and think the world would be a better place with such a category in the ODP, why don't you find a nice small category to use in you editor application (perhaps one that corresponds to a hobby/recreation, or your home town), and then once you're an editor you could help us discuss and set up the category.