Some questions about suggesting a Site

Hello. Some months ago i submitted a site to dmoz.org following all the instructions: i looked for similar sites to my site and i added my site to the same category. I followed all the instructions about site suggestions.

One week ago, and checking my site statistics i saw an Editor from dmoz.org visited my site. (editors.dmoz.org was the site from where that visit came to my site) Since then i have been checking my site in dmoz.or to see if is listed in the directory, but i have not found it listed.

I would like to know if it takes more time to be listed or that means my site is not right for some reason, and why. I also would like to know if i should suggest my site again.

What if the dmoz editor who has to allow my site owns a site like mine and he/she does not allow my site because we are direct competitors? Should i become an editor in the category i want to list my site and suggest my site again?

Thanks!

Listings don't take "time". They take editor action: so "it takes more (or less) time to be listed" is not true OR false: it has no meaning.

"my site is not right for some reason" is a possibility (depending on how you look at it)

If you're thinking "there's a reason my site is not right", then you're wrong. A site doesn't need a reason to be not right. A site needs a reason to be right. If you're thinking "There's no reason why my site is right", that may be true. What's the reason for a site being right? "Significant Unique Content" is the only possible reason. You, of course, already know best how much of your content is unique information, not found anywhere else on the web. There's nothing we can tell you.

There are many other possibilities. The editor thought the site needed more review (possibly by someone else); the editor decided the site was more right for another category; the editor was interrupted by real-life issues in the middle of working. All of these are, to be blunt, neither your business nor mine, and it would be inappropriate for us to discuss them.

What about the DMOZ editor who is a direct competitor? Here's a simple way to check if you're being rational, or just paranoid. Look at the other websites listed in the ODP, that are created by your direct competitors. Are any of them competing directly with each other? If there is only one direct competitor of yours listed in the directory, then your hypothesis is a possible theory. If there are two direct competitors, your hypothesis obviously does not correspond with the facts, and is not worth further consideration.

There's no reason to suggest your site again, regardless of which possibility it fits.

There's only one reason to become an editor: because you want to list OTHER people's sites, even if they are direct competitors. You may -- but that has nothing at all to do with your site.

I think there's always a reason to (1) review your site, or get friends to review your site, to make sure that a visitor can quickly see what kind of unique content you have, and can find the interesting bits, or (2) add more unique content to your site. That's what would make the site more interesting to any surfer. And indirectly, since ODP editors are surfers, that might have something to do with the ODP.

But the logical order of events is not (1) appeal to the ODP editor so you can (2) get to the public. That is virtually guaranteed to fail. The order is (1) say something interesting to the public, and (2) and ODP-editing member of the public will (probably, eventually) be interested.

Thanks... and sorry

Hello Hutcheson. And thanks for your answer. First of all i would like to appologize because i think i haven´t express my self right in the firs post. My english is not too good. .

When i asked if it takes time to be listed i meant if from the moment the editor check my site and he/she lists my site in the ODP, my site appears at the moment or it takes a few days.

The content of my site is unique. There are a lot sites like mine, cause is a stickers online store but the designs i have are mine, so no one else have those designs.

And i think i send it to the right category.

I don´t know about the possibility the editor might be from a competitor site. But i found really strange there are not too many sites in the category, and i know there are a lot sites that could be listed under that category, so i found it at least courious. But i dont really know how the editors and odp works on this, so i was just supposing and maybe, as you said i was just a little paranoid. Sorry about it.

Well, i think i just have to wait and see...

Thanks

Many websites are suggested to the wrong category. It's common for an editor to look at a suggested site (thus creating an entry in your server's log) and then send it off towards a more appropriate one. For a given listing suggestion, this can happen several times.

Also, we have several patrolling robots checking if suggested sites are working.

The bottom line is that you can't assume anything at all from a dmoz.org hit in your logs. (Incidentally, I work with referrers disabled so as to avoid exciting anxious website owners.)

dqcolor said:

When i asked if it takes time to be listed i meant if from the moment the editor check my site and he/she lists my site in the ODP, my site appears at the moment or it takes a few days.

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At the moment the editor lists a website it is available for anyone to see.
But the fact that you saw a reference from editors.dmoz.org does not mean that an editor reviewed your website.

But i found really strange there are not too many sites in the category, and i know there are a lot sites that could be listed under that category,

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there can be many reasons why not so much sites are listed in a category
most common
- there are not much websites around that fit the subject of the category
- most websites that fit the subject do not meet the DMOZ guidelines
- no editor is interested in looking at the category and the websites that are suggested to it

At the moment the editor lists a website it is available for anyone to see.

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This is USUALLY but not ALWAYS true. (There is a process called "greenbusting".)

A couple of comments specifically relevant to any category that contains lots of affiliate/content-copying sites.

(1) Quite often, there are several distinct modes of dealing with suggested sites.

Mode 1 (triage/cleanup) look at the suggestions that seem most likely to be OBVIOUSLY INAPPROPRIATE, and quickly delete them (or send them to a better category). The editor is not expecting to list ANY sites, if he goes to a site that looks like it MIGHT be listable, he'll back out and go elsewhere.
Mode 2: (triage/listing) look at suggestions that seem likely to be OBVIOUSLY APPROPRIATE, and quickly list them. The editor is not expecting to spend a lot of time on any site, if it's not OBVIOUSLY listable he'll back out and go elsewhere.
Mode 3: look at the site, expecting to make a decision one way or the other.

The editor picks whichever mode that seems appropriate, depending on the category, the circumstances, the time available, and, of course, what he feels like doing at the moment. But, in a high-redundant-content category, Mode 1 is often a very efficient use of editor time.

(2) If the stickers are your own design, make sure that a visitor knows that up-front. "20 Anti-Feline Stickers Designed by John Doe" is an easier site to review than "10,000 Stickers-4-U--some original--for All Causes." The first could get listed in a Mode-2 review, while the second probably wouldn't.

And if you claim your stickers are your own design, make sure any stickers that AREN'T your own design, are clearly labelled as such. Because the reviewer isn't going to check every sticker, but he may well spot-check to see if content is really as unique as it's claimed to be.

The funny thing is even if you want to be an editor you cannot. Not in any website related category. I get the message not accepting editors on this category try another one. I do have a feeling that many of the moderators in the web related category is serving their own agenda. More than 2 years I have tried to get in here none of them went through. My website have good and unique content and did submit in the right category. Most web designers, developers and marketing people would want to an editor in this category to get their own site's thru and block most new competitors.

I hope who ever manages DMOZ other than volunteers come up with a way to stop this kind of behavior. DMOZ is the most resected and important directory. May be a site needs to approved by at least three volunteers from three different category. It will increase the work load but will make DMOZ a better place.

Most web designers, developers and marketing people would want to an editor in this category to get their own site's thru and block most new competitors.

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That may well be true. Fortunately, we're pretty good at weeding them out when they apply to be editors :greengrin.

May be a site needs to approved by at least three volunteers from three different category

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That would at least triple the workload and thus exacerbate throughput by the same factor. I don't see how that would speed things up.

Hi jimnoble,
I am glad to hear you guys are able to root out those people. My suggestion is not to speed up but to give a fair chance to everyone to get in even if it is more late. My frustration is for not able to get in. I do not see any reason why I am not able to. I had several people look my site they do not see any problem either. I choose a category by searching a company who does the same thing and submitted in that category so the categor has to be right as well unless the others are in the wrong category as well.

I apologize if I offended any volunteers. My comments are pointed to some bad apples and not majority of the good people working at DMOZ.

My suggestion is not to speed up but to give a fair chance to everyone to get in even if it is more late.

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A lottery may give a "fair chance to win" to a million people, but an actual prize to only one. If that's what you want from the ODP, there's no reason to suppose you don't already have it.

The current system is designed to not discard your suggestion until someone has had what they consider a fair chance to review it. And it's designed to give priority to what surfers are interested in, because it's run by surfers. It doesn't work perfectly, but it works better than anything else yet implemented.

But I'm FAR more concerned about giving fair chances of review to good websites that AREN'T suggested. There's no system to give those websites a "fair chance". There's only us.

By fair chance I do not mean lottery. The thing is that some high quality sites are not getting in DMOZ. I mean't fair chance for the sites with good content. A site containing duplicates or malware should not be included in DMOZ. I am not allowed to post any urls here but I will be happy to provide my url off forum so I do not break any rules here for any moderator to see and tell me that the sites I submitted does not have any good content and quality that is why it did not get in.

some high quality sites are not getting in DMOZ.

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There are certainly a great many excellent sites that are not yet listed, but we are constantly working on that.
In fact it is a priority for editors to look for worthwhile sites to build the directory, but it is not a priority for volunteers to review site suggestions, because the ODP is not a listing service, and we know from experience that we are far more likely to find useful sites in other ways.