Status on http://www.hardtechreviews.com

I just would like to know the status. I originally submitted July 20th 2003 (found personal note on an old calendar). And have been submitting every 3 months since. I’ve gotten no word or anything. As far as I know I am not violating anything.

Where im submitting
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Hardware/Technical_Evaluations_and_Product_Reviews/

I tried to email you guys about 3 weeks ago and got nothing. So here I am wondering what was wrong, and if nothing what took so long. I’m starting to get yelled at and its making me look bad. I’m not sure why my site keeps getting skipped; I know they don’t have a set order. But a year?! Seems a little long for me.

Thanks in advance.

Most editors don't answer email, because things often get nasty if the answer is other than the one desired--so not answering isn't personal. The last time I gave someone bad news they didn't like via email they informed me they were going to sue me and my personal view is that since we work for free life is far too short . Sometimes editors do answer, but it is up to them and is not required.

originally submitted July 20th 2003 (found personal note on an old calendar). And have been submitting every 3 months since.

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That is a really BAD idea. Everytime you resubmit you overwrite the old submission which means the submission date in addition to everything else. If an editor sorts by date, you essentially send you site to the bottom of the list each time. While there is no required order to review in, many do review by submission date. It may or may not have made a difference, but in a category like this which gets a large amount of submissions it absolutely can't help you since your submission waits there until someone reviews it. Because this category does get a large number of submissions resubmitting in this case is much more likely to affect how long it may take for a site to be reviewed. Because editors are volunteer, there is never any way to know how much time it may take. The FAQ may answer more of your questions.

Our policy is to ask the submittor to follow the guidelines for this forum, which is to wait a month after the most recent submission to check on a status. Since I've said this much, I am going to go ahead and let you know that your suggestion from July 17 has been received and is pending review in that category. If you don't see it listed by January 29 then you are welcome to return here and request a new status.

Wow, it takes a year and 7 months.

Well first of all I have no clue what my submission was. So I had no clue if it went in. I didn’t know if there was a problem. The only reason why I came here now is I figured after a years worth of trying something clearly had to be wrong with my end.

I know you guys do dedicate your own time, but dang nab.

If the fact this list wasn’t so important I wouldn’t be angered, I knew I should have not of done this my self and went with a paid submission service. A good friend did and got his site listed within a month. I know you guys say nothing is up, but 1 month vs over a year. I’m not sure why, but that’s not my end.

I have honestly waited my fair share of time. No where does it say that submitting your site will take you off any list you may be on. Secondly you don’t even know your on a list. You could submit your site every hour and never get a notice about it. I submit and I don’t even know it goes through, I don’t even know the info is right. It doesn’t even email me a copy of it being sent and awaiting submission. And all I found here was wait 6 months, seeing how that has been the standard.

I trying to be calm about this, but these are very valid concerns. I think a new approach needs to be offered in the forums or with the page its self to help people. Because up until basically being told I would be fired, I decided to stay away from the forums knowing I would be told 6 months.

Now I hope this didn’t anger you, or any other mod. I would love to hear the other side of this. If a paid service is a way to go, then ill guess ill do it so I don’t lose my job. I’m sure you can see it from my bosses standpoint that I am a webmaster but I have not gotten the site on a very important list, and have provided no answers to why... and I still haven’t provided it. I can tell you "wait 6 months" didn’t go well.

Now with this expressed and concerned I would love to hear any comments you may have, and maybe hear something else then a copied message.

Thanks in advance.

Tell your bosses that ODP is not a free service for Webmasters. It's a place where you can make suggestions for sites that may or may not be included.

Editors spend their time reviewing and adding sites, those sites may come from browsing around the web, seeing references from other web sites, news items, searching Googles, etc. along with the pool of suggestsion to which you added your site. Sites may be added in any order, from any source.

For an example, in the last day, within a fifteen minute period, I added a sites that had been suggested in 2000, s site that had been sugessted that day, and several sites that had never been submiited to ODP by anyone.

Comments like I have honestly waited my fair share of time indicates an major misunderstanding of what ODP is, and what it's policies are. The bottom line, is that you should not depend on ODP as a a marketing tool.

Your suggestions about changes to ODP are not new, most people who misunderstand the goals of ODP make the same suggestions; threads on the same subject may be found repeatedly in these forums.

I do fully realize what and how this place works. But the tool for what’s going on seems to be missing. I fully realize if all your editors decided not to even look at this site for a year that would be completely acceptable.

I also realize that this isn’t meant to be used as a marketing tool, sadly it is. Zeal is built the same way, editors that donate there time to list sites that have been submitted. Now I will grant you that they are not a totally free service, but if you don’t pay for the listing it just takes longer. But that was easy to wait out, because i knew my site was waiting for submission thus no need to resubmit it. I think if the end user had the tools just to see if a site was pending or not may make a lot of this mess go away. That’s where I express concern.

So because I did not have the tools nor the access to them I wasted 1 year of my life. I mean I figured with submitting the email you would get something as to what was going on.

Now I don’t know the person that owns the site, nor do I even think these suggestions would ever make it to them. I just think with a few user tools (login with the email and see the site status of all the sites submitted under that email) and a little better worded how to and this place would be less crazed.

Now I hope I didn’t tick anyone off, or send my self further down a list. I’m going to now look for other methods. Ill resurrect this thread in a month to see what’s going on. I feel that I should at least be able to check in by the month.

Thanks again in advance.

Now I hope I didn’t tick anyone off, or send my self further down a list.

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No, we like to think we are better than that, and you've done nothing that would make any editor feel vindictive enough to risk getting kicked out of the project for treating you unfairly.

Every time you submitted your site, you did receive an on-screen acknowledgement, just not an e-mail.

As for your suggestions, we appreciate the thought, however these same things have been discussed time and time again, and we do not see our operations model changing in the future.

Finally, while you are welcome to come back (reusing this thread) and check on your status again, the wait period between follow-ups is not one month, but rather six months, so we will see you sometime on or after January 29, as editor kokopelli said. Of course, you are free to browse the category at any time, or do Google searches (Google's search is better than our search) to see if it is listed.

Now I hope I didn’t tick anyone off, or send my self further down a list.

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There isn't a list, what there is--more or less--is a pile of suggested sites submitted by individuals who liked the site and hope to see it listed or webmasters who would like to see it listed. An editor then adds the site not with the thought of it being indexed for any purpose other than because it is a quality site that would benefit the end user. Posting here isn't going to get a site reviewed faster or slower--it just lets the submittor know what is going on.

Wow, it takes a year and 7 months.

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There is no time period, it could take years or it could take minutes. It depends on a huge number of variables including the time an editor has to give and who is interested in that area. Continually resubmitting may have made a difference, but it may not have. There is no order that editors must review in. Listings in the OPD are free, but because it is human edited it means that someone must view them before adding them to assess if it is of quality. Submissions are just suggestions, there are no guarantees. If there is a time limit, then it might be worth paying a search engine to list your site so that it does not require a wait. Unfortunately there are a huge number of sites submitted regularily--especially in commercial areas like Shopping or Business and a limited number of editors to review them.

As mentioned above, you are welcome to bookmark this thread and return after January 29 to request an update. The truth is that the category you've submitted to gets a lot of submissions, it is very unlikely that if you returned in a month you would get a different answer.

Well its basicly been a month. I would like to know the status of the site.

Google seems to index its sites from here, and last week I almost fell off the google search because it wasnt list.

So I would like to know my status.

thx in Advance

What part of

kokopeli said:

If you don't see it listed by January 29 then you are welcome to return here and request a new status.

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did you not understand?

heh, I need to give something to my boss. So yes I do understand...

Secondly I was told that I could come back in a month, may not have changed though.

So again I am asking for the status of the site.

Ill be back next month to ask again. To be honest its only going to total 4 more posts after this.

In post #2 you were given a status, and a date when you could come back.

I am going to go ahead and let you know that your suggestion from July 17 has been received and is pending review in that category. If you don't see it listed by January 29 then you are welcome to return here and request a new status.

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We are pretty inflexible about the timing.

As far as your boss goes.....print this out:

The person identified as hardtech has done all that can be done without jeopardizing a future listing. While waiting on a volunteer editor to review the site (a process that could easily take more than two years) focus your energies on two things:

1. Making sure that the website has an overabundance of unique content.
2. Finding other means of promoting your website. The web abounds with opportunities -- pursue them all -- we don't mind.

Hardtech will get spanked if he/she comes back here before January 29 for another status check.