The chainsaw

J

Jkdt0077

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
24
Hi there

My site http://www.inspiracode.com was listed in http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/Uni...ters_and_Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/ up until a few weeks ago. Then on 2nd August we had a visit from:

http://editors.dmoz.org:80/editors/...nternet/Web_Design_and_Development&chainsaw=1

and our site was gone. The site still shows up in the search results if you search for the company name but not in the listing. I understand this may be because the search results are behind the listing results. Can you confirm this and if possible shed some light on why the site was removed.

Thanks,
Dan
 
spectregunner

spectregunner

Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2003
Messages
8,768
We will not get into the specifics of any given site, however if you were to spend some quality time reviewing the guidelines with regards to what is required in terms of content for a regional listing, and compare that with your site, you'll determine what you are missing and what will need to be added before you can resubmit.
 
windharp

windharp

Meta/kMeta
Curlie Meta
Joined
Apr 30, 2002
Messages
9,204
Basically yes, those guidelines.

If you should have a trainee, put him in front of a computer, open your web site and have him answer a simple question: "Where is the company located that advertises on this website?".

(And just because I just looked at your site: Nice that you have a FAQ, but ususally this goes along with some FGA (Frequently Given Answers). Without them, a FAQ isn't very usefull, IMHO ;-) )
 
J

Jkdt0077

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
24
I admit we have overlooked the frequently given answers :p but its very high on our list of tasks. The first line of the about us page does however clearly state:

Inspiracode is a small professional website design company based in Leeds, Uk
 
jimnoble

jimnoble

DMOZ Meta
Joined
Mar 26, 2002
Messages
18,915
Location
Southern England
Inspiracode is a small professional website design company based in Leeds, Uk
Click to expand...
... which has chosen not to reveal its address. That's OK. It's your business and you must promote it as you see fit. Meanwhile, we'll continue to not list websites without addresses in locality categories.
 
J

Jkdt0077

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
24
So if we add a street address in, complete the fqas and resubmit would there be a better chance of us being listed then?

Thanks,
Dan
 
J

Jkdt0077

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
24
Ok fair enough thanks for the help.

We'll work on a few things and retry again soon.

Thanks,
Dan
 
H

hutcheson

Curlie Meta
Joined
Mar 23, 2002
Messages
19,136
The "chainsaw" parameter is an editor's review mode. It doesn't necessarily signify what an editor is planning to do, let alone what he actually ends up doing. Don't read anything into that. I like "chainsaw=1" mode, and so use it for basically everything. There is also a "chainsaw=2".
 
G

giz

Member
Joined
May 26, 2002
Messages
3,112
Re-review the whole site from the perspective of someone who is looking for someone who does whatever it is that you do, has a fistful of cash, stumbles across your site, and needs to be convinced that you are the people for the job, have what it takes, costs what he can afford, and appears to be a genuine company, with a real office, and real staff, and a real product, or service offering. Far too many websites fill their pages with buzzwords, and keyword stuffed content, and forget that the human that arrives ain't looking for any of that.
 
J

Jkdt0077

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
24
Ok I see what you are getting at. Just one other thing though.. Why did it first get entered at all (and was listed for a couple of weeks) before being removed, if there are so many things wrong with it?

Cheers
Dan
 
H

hutcheson

Curlie Meta
Joined
Mar 23, 2002
Messages
19,136
As someone who does a great deal of work involving at least some degree of rudimentory thinking, the answer here seems painfully obvious to me. I write a program, it has bugs and I have to come back and debug it. I proofread a poem, it has typos and I have to come back and spellcheck it. I write an essay, it has grammatical errors and I have to come back and edit it. I answer a technical question, and ... the questioner does some research before coming back to me suggesting my answer is not fully operative. I build a website, and people write to me about broken links. I spend a few months building parts of a web directory, and from the editing community spontaneously arise several groups of editors coordinating to "improve" all the categories I had been building. That's MY experience of life as a human being, and I had come to think there were aspects of universiality in it.
 
B

brmehlman

Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2002
Messages
3,080
Is that an answer to my question or just a general musing?
Click to expand...
For those who understand the role of analogy in discourse, it was an answer and a very clear one. For those who don't ...

Why did it first get entered at all
Click to expand...
Oops, sorry about that. We made a mistake. Fixed now though, so all is well.
 
H

hutcheson

Curlie Meta
Joined
Mar 23, 2002
Messages
19,136
I'm guilty of analogy occasionally, but I didn't mean that as such a case. My point was: mistakes are so common in everything that anyone does, why should anyone be surprised to find one in the ODP? Why would anyone not think of that as the first, most obvious, most likely explanation for something that seems less than ideal?

But the difference between people who care about getting things right, and other people is NOT that we don't make mistakes, it is that we try to find and fix the mistakes we know we must have made even without realizing it.

Here you see the ODP editors being human (making mistakes AND being willing to fix the mistakes.)

It's not unusual. If you find more mistakes, tell us about them. There's a thread in the "quality feedback" just for that.
 
Y

yktan

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2005
Messages
50
I think hutcheson's point is editors are just human beings and they make mistakes too.
 
J

Jkdt0077

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2005
Messages
24
I understand that. If that is the case though are you absolutely sure the mistake was adding the site in the first place or removing the site in the second instance?

Anyway, it seems clear its not going to be readded without significant changes so thanks for the advice guys, even if some of the responses were a little unhelpful.

Dan
 
This site has been archived and is no longer accepting new content.
Top