status of http://herbal-nutrition.net

Hello,

I've enjoyed looking this forum over. Fascinating look at the way DMOZ works. Thanks to the editors for taking time to look these submissions over for us.

I've submitted my site http://herbal-nutrition.net/ several times over the past couple of years. My initial post was to the:

Top: Business: Opportunities: Networking-MLM: H: Herbalife

...category. After learning a little more about the dmoz, I figured out it's pretty pointless to submit to a category that needs an editor.

Since then, I've submitted to a couple of different categories (I read somewhere that you should resubmit every couple of months... judging from the posts here, I take it that that's not a good idea). I think my last submission was possibly to:

Top: Shopping: Health: Weight Loss: Supplements

.. but I'm not sure. <img src="/images/icons/confused.gif" alt="" />

Our website is a directory of Independent Herbalife distributors in the USA, Canada, and the UK (and soon Australia and New Zealand).

Is it impossible for my site to get approved for the Herbalife category since there is no editor? Any help or status report would be greatly appreciated.

God Bless,

Mark

Please provide a clickable link to the category it was submitted to, as described in the thread at the top of this forum entitled "READ BEFORE POSTING".

Here's the last category I think I submitted to... but not sure... <img src="/images/icons/confused.gif" alt="" />
http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Health/Weight_Loss/Programs/

Here's the first category I submitted to, and my real first choice (however, there's not an editor)
http://dmoz.org/Business/Opportunities/Networking-MLM/H/Herbalife/

Thanks!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems I must. That site isn't listed and isn't going to be listed. We generally don't list MLM distributors. The main Herbalife site is already listed.

Sorry 'bout that.

You mean my listing isn't in the queue anywhere? Thanks for looking into this for me.

I did notice that a company similar to ours which provides websites for Amway distibutors got approved in the:

http://dmoz.org/Business/Opportunities/Networking-MLM/A/Amway_and_Quixtar/

Category. The one I'm talking about is this one:

Bock&amp;Wall Internet Marketing - Provides an online website creation wizard for Amway IBOs.

Our website http://herbal-nutrition.net/ provides customizable retail websites to Herbalife distributors.

BTW, the above listed amway site is one page with only an email address and absolutely NO content. <img src="/images/icons/ooo.gif" alt="" />

Please don't misunderstand me, I'd just like some advice or information on if I should resubmit to the Herbalife category again... and if there's every any way more sites would be approved for that category. We're the largest provider of retail websites for Herbalife distributors on the Internet, serving over 1,000 premium (paid) members and over 2,000 free site users. We've been in business since 1999. Should the fact that there's no active editor in that category encourage me to submit to an additional category?

Thanks Again <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" alt="" />

--Mark

This is not the place for telling us about sites you think shouldn't be listed. This is the place for asking about the status of a submission.

The status of your submission is that it has not been and will not be listed.

Please don't misunderstand me, I'm just trying to get a clarification. I'm not suggesting that this other site be removed. I'm just pointing out that other sites have been added to the main "Amway" category... who could I talk to about the http://dmoz.org/Business/Opportunities/Networking-MLM/H/Herbalife/

category?

The short answer is: no-one.

The decision was made that your site is not listable in the ODP.

From the forum guidelines:
"If your site has been rejected, please keep in mind that arguing about the editorial decision will not be tolerated."

&gt;&gt;it's pretty pointless to submit to a category that needs an editor. &lt;&lt;

It's more pointless to submit to the wrong category, even if someone's listed there. Submit to the wrong category(s) over and over and you risk being called a spammer, even if there is a listed editor. It's better to send your site to the correct category and be glad that you didn't automatically delay its listing by fishing around where you thought someone would look at your site sooner rather than later. Example: Every top-level category has a listed editor, but submit a site there and it may _never_ make it to the best category. Same goes for lots of other areas of ODP.

As for arguing not being tolerated, well it's tolerated a bit but it's mostly pointless.

I think understanding how the ODP works is critical here.

You're thinking like a spammer -- send out enough e-mails, and you'll find _someone who's insecure enough about their secondary sexual characteristics, um, I mean careless enough to list your site without reviewing it. That approach will not have any positive consequences! Because that's not how editing works.

Editors are not sitting there, just waiting to read your mass e-mails, um, submittals. They are sitting there building up some category. If a submittal doesn't really belong in that category, it's not going to get "priority" treatment! it gets a treatment you'd probably think of as "slowdown strike" (but which, note well, is better than the treatment Yahoo will charge you $300 for!)

That is, the volunteer whose time you wasted by submitting to the wrong category doesn't (and shouldn't) feel any obligation to respond by giving your site EXTRA attention. But, unlike Yahoo, your spam won't get rejected out of hand. It may get sent to the "toxic spam waste dump" (the "badly mis-submitted catch-all" category). There what happens? It waits...for some volunteer to feel like helping out there. (Eventually, who knows how long, someone will. But -- you've now contrived to get your spam far away from anyone who will have specific interest in it, and into the hands of editors for whom it's just another shovelful of muck to throw out of the stables!) Well, that volunteer will still make a generous attempt to get the site closer to where it belongs, and into q queue that is closer to an editor who knows exactly where it should go. After several rounds of that -- at an average of several months apiece -- your submittal will get back to ... the category which didn't have an editor. Now it's ready to _begin_ that wait for an editor (that you have just spent a year or so trying to avoid.)

Look, we're not telling you not to do this because we want to keep your site in unreviewed half of forever: we're telling you this so you won't spend half of forever putting off the beginning of the inevitable wait for the other half of forever. It's not just rude and stupid. It doesn't work.