Status of http://www.actforchildren.org

I am requested the status for Action for Children's web site http://www.actforchildren.org

which was submitted/updated on 9/21/2004 (and as well, unsuccessfuly submitted an update to Google on 8/24/04) to

Regional: North America: United States: Illinois: Society and Culture: Youth: Organizations <http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Illinois/Society_and_Culture/Youth/Organizations/>

Action for Children changed its name and web site from Day Care Action Council of Illinois (http://www.daycareaction.org) and should be updated accordingly.

Thank you!

Making the link clickable:

http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...nois/Society_and_Culture/Youth/Organizations/

Daycareaction.org is listed in http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...inois/Society_and_Culture/Youth/Organizations . The other URL is not listed.

Yes, change was requested 9/21

Daycareaction.org has been listed for a long time. I updated the link through dmoz.org on 9/2104 and no change has gone through. I am checking on the status of this request.

I don't see any outstanding requests. You may resubmit.

Update resubmitted

Thank you, I resubmitted the update, but I don't have any paper trail...I submitted an update on 9/21/04 -- and that disappeared into the ether...

Is all I can do check back in another month?

Is this why the URL is not getting updated in Google too, even though I submitted that in August?

Yes, check back (using this thread) in one month.

We cannot speak for Google. Google does use much of our data, but the scheule they keep is their own and we hav no more insight into it than you do.

I'm not sure what you did at google. Submittals to the Google Directory actually come to us (and, as the gunner says, our changes eventually go to them.) Whatever you're about to do, just do at dmoz.org and not at google.

URL and name still not changed to actforchildren.org, Action for Children

I requested the status below over 2 months ago. I had previously submitted the change a month prior to asking (August). Please help me understand what the barrier to change is and what I can do for my organization. Thank you!
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I am requested the status for Action for Children's web site http://www.actforchildren.org

which was submitted/updated on 9/21/2004 (and as well, unsuccessfuly submitted an update to Google on 8/24/04) to

Regional: North America: United States: Illinois: Society and Culture: Youth: Organizations <http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Illinois/Society_and_Culture/Youth/Organizations/>

Action for Children changed its name and web site from Day Care Action Council of Illinois (http://www.daycareaction.org) and should be updated accordingly.

Thank you!

[r]recd[/r]

Is there a timeframe for review period?

Thank you for responding. The original submission was on 9/21 (and a submission to Google was made on 8/24 with no results, either). How many months is currently standard for review? I was under the impression that it took 6-8 weeks to process...

Thanks again,
Jill Wohl

[faq=odp#faq_how_long]How long until my site will be reviewed?[/faq]

Why 1 of the 10 largest npos in Illinois can't get listed on dmoz?

I have read the FAQ about it taking anywhere from 2 minutes to 2 years for Action for Children's (formerly the Day Care Action Council of Illinois) web site to be properly indexed by a dmoz volunteer editor.

What I don't understand is how one of Illinois' ten largest social service non-profit agencies can't seem to qualify -- either by my submissions or the work of the designated editors to go out and review players in the field -- to be reviewed and indexed accurately.

I have been told that there are enough editors in this content area. We have been submitting updates beginning sometime in August 2004.

If I sound impatient, it is because among many other things, our agency serves over 200,000 low-income families and child care providers per year. The resources they need to locate, choose and/or provide quality child care cannot wait.

In the words of esteemed poet Gabriela Mistral,
"Many things can wait; Children cannot.
Today their bones are being formed,
their blood is being made, and their senses developed.
To them we cannot say tomorrow. Their name is today."

I implore you to review our agency -- and help us ensure that the audiences we serve can find us on the internet.

Respectfully,
Jill Wohl
Asst. Director of Communications

You misunderstand, nobody said you did not qualify - it's just the site has not been reviewed. Making a post like this is not a great idea, since we go out of way not to review sites where special pleas for listing are made - since if anyone ever notices that pleas like this work, we would be swamped with them.

If your site is that important to your community, your are not serving the community well by concentrating on getting listed in ODP, it's not that important in the total view of people finding your site. You have a responsibility to market and publicize your site in many other ways, since you have no control of when and if you get listed in ODP.

You need to get listed in as many directories you can find, you need to get linked from as many related sites as possible, you need to be featured in newspaper articles, publicity releases, etc. -- there is no end to what you can do.

Google has only 199 refs to you - you have to get that number up - and it will not happen by getting listed in ODP.

I hear you, but all we've got is people-power...

Thank you for your comments. I hear what you are saying about your protocol and other ways to build a web site's profile.

Please be aware that a non-profit organization such as Action for Children simply does not have the same opportunities for promotion that companies in the private sector may have. Especially since our agency works heavily in social service, which relies on government funding. That the child care budget has not been cut the last few years is a huge coup to us -- nevermind the funding it would take to adequately serve everyone in need.

I appreciate your advice about getting our Google number up...I will try to research what this is and how...when I google "action for children" we are the 3rd web site listed, not the 199th, so I am confused.

It's been challenging to effect a name change in this, our 35th year of operation, so any free advice is gladly taken.

Again, please do not be offended. Know that as a non-profit, each year we are charged to do more with less. If dmoz listing relies on orgs to utilize paid advertising and promotion -- I would challenge that by saying that a non-profit such as ourselves have limited resources -- we can't buy billboards...we can't pay per click...we can't do mass mailings. We're trying to build capacity using people-power.

We value the open directory project highly and aspire to be listed in it.

No offence taken. But in a similar way, ODP is a totally volunteer organization, and is limited by the resources provides by editors reviewing sites in their spare time. In essence, each editor chooses which categories he would like to review, and how much time he would like to spend. Thererfore the value of what is important to list in the directory boils down to the interest that someone has in editing that area.

We don't make value judgements as to whether it's more important to list a charitable organization or a commerical one, a personal web site of a couple of pages versus an exhaustive index of information. So if someone decides that listing sites devoted to collecting phone cards is more important thatn working on charities for childre, then we let that heppen.

It may sound crass and without feeling, but it's good from one point of view since it becomes a more even playing field, the site with very little monetary resources behind it stands as much chance of getting listed as the one with a million dollar advertising budget.

NOTE WELL

Having just had this long and intersting discussion with you, I realized I had not checked something - your site has been listed in Regional/North_America/United_States/Illinois/Localities/C/Chicago/Society_and_Culture/Youth/Organizations since Feb 20.

[If you used search to find it, search does not work very well]

http://www.actforchildren.org/ and http://daycareaction.org/ are both listed - and that's an error