Submission Issue

I first submitted our site in 2007 and was never listed. The category editor was not able to find our site in her pending list and suggested I submit the site again to the category, which I did. Once again, the site was not viewable to her and I submitted the site yet another time with the same issue. The editor has emailed me and advise that I seek dmoz support and to submit the site once again to her category in hopes that it is finally visable in her queue. Obviously, I have checked that the site is in fact being submitted to the correct category that is in question.

Please help.

http://www.dmoz.org/Business/Investing/Commodities_and_Futures/Forex/Resources/

We don't discuss individual websites here.

Also, we encourage editors not to respond to messages from website owners/promoters because the ensuing conversations have a habit of ending badly. Please don't try to contact the editor again.

You say that you've suggested your website several times already so there's no need to do so again. If its listing is going to happen, it'll happen when it happens.

I've heard this kind of story before, and ... well, it's like it came from some other universe.

You see, an editor would NEVER have to do what you describe. If an editor wants to review a site, he ... reviews the site. No matter whether it's in the unreviewed pool or not, no matter whether he's ever exchanged a wink, let alone an e-mail, with the webmaster.

An editor just reviews the site. Or just adds it to any category's suggestion pool. Or goes looking for other sites to review. No need to communicate with anyone--editor or surfer or site owner or local dogcatcher. I guess that's just too simple for some people to believe.

So I say, with perfect confidence, that someone is engaged in a bit of, well, unimaginative deceit here. It could, of course, be someone claiming to be an ODP editor lying to you. They might even be an ODP editor--but in that case the mind boggles as to why they'd bother to tell this particular lie. As Jim says, there's no practical point in communicating anything about particular sites with site submitters--either truth or deceit. So I'm assuming the person isn't an ODP editor at all, or obtained editing rights out of deceit for some other mysterious ulterior motive. In that case, the motive is hard to imagine--but pure insanity is always a possibility.

I should perhaps have mentioned two other points also:

(1) An editor is a surfer with access privileges -- more than an ordinary surfer, but not less. The point is, an editor can suggest a site just like anyone else. The notion that an editor would actually write e-mail to someone else to suggest a site, when he could do it himself, is just insane.

(2) An editor has access to the editors' forums. So any editor who thinks there's a problem with the site suggestion system, can report it directly to the website developers (after of course testing it himself as in point #1.) The notion that he'd report it to ... the only people in the world who could do LESS about it than he could himself ... is, again, just insane.

But there is an important lesson in all this: don't believe everything you see on the net. Find someone who knows something about the subject. Ask him, in the presence of other people who know something about the subject (not in private e-mail!). That way, even if his own integrity won't force him to tell the truth, at least the presence of his peers may shame him into the truth.

I would like to thank both Jim and Hutcheson for replying to my thread. Your comments are greatly appreciated and your selfless work with the ODP is to be admired. For anyone reading this, take a moment and look at the incredible number of R-Z posts notched by both Jim Noble and Hutcheson.

"......but pure insanity is always a possibility."

With this thought in mind, I think the best thing that I can do is reapply to be a category editor for a similar category that I am familiar with. I had an application pending for the past several weeks and just got notification a few minutes back that I was not accepted to join the ODP team. Alas, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

God bless and thank you both once again for your time.

My last post was written prior to reading Hutcheson's latest comments and I would like to say that the ODP editor has been made aware of your latest two points (quoted below). Ironically, it was the editor herself that suggested I seek ODP support:

hutcheson said:

(1) An editor is a surfer with access privileges -- more than an ordinary surfer, but not less. The point is, an editor can suggest a site just like anyone else. The notion that an editor would actually write e-mail to someone else to suggest a site, when he could do it himself, is just insane.

(2) An editor has access to the editors' forums. So any editor who thinks there's a problem with the site suggestion system, can report it directly to the website developers (after of course testing it himself as in point #1.) The notion that he'd report it to ... the only people in the world who could do LESS about it than he could himself ... is, again, just insane.

Click to expand...

Update: The editor in response to Hutcheson's comments wrote that she tried submitting the site as a surfer and still can't find the site in her queue and will be submitting a 'bug report' shortly on the matter.