The problem with the "submission status" rule.

HI DMOZ,

I haven't posted here for sometime, yes I came to ask for submission status on a site I sent in about 2 years ago... and now I see I can't!

Whilst I can understand your reasons for the new rule, it does pose something of a problem... perhaps you can offer some advice?

I saw this response from a moderator to a recent status request (not from me):

hutcheson said:

It either hasn't been reviewed yet, or when it was reviewed, there wasn't enough unique information to warrant a listing. I don't know without checking (and we no longer provide that information.)

Click to expand...

A perfectly reasonable response of course, but - here's the biggest problem I can see:
I have - in the past - had sites accepted into the directory within 24 hours (thank you), but I have also waited for over 2 years for others.

One of the things I remember is that multiple submissions of the same site can get the site "banned" (or the submission rejected).

If I submit a site, wait 2 years / see no listing / cannot find out whether my site is still awaiting review or was deemed unsuitable / assume it was unsuitable and - knowing it has been improved substantially in recent weeks - try resubmitting...

How can I be sure it's not still awaiting review?

If the answer is simply "you can't", surely DMOZ will become a "black hole" (and possibly become swamped with duplicate submissions)!

If you had a policy of emailing submitters after review (with a standard mail sent from DMOZ central rather than a named editor) it would be a good solution, if you used script which checked outstanding submissions at the point when a new site submission was made (and redirected to a page saying that the site was still awaiting review) that would also be a good solution...

Since neither of these is in effect, can you offer a suggestion as to what else I can do please?

---edit--- sorry for my arrogance, the thread should be entitled "A problem with...." ----/edit---

Any time the content of a site goes through a significant change in content, an update would be required. Therefore having waited 2 years and significantly changed the content, resubmitting 1 time to the right category would not be viewed as a problem. Please note that if the site was deemed non-compliant to the guidelines, the chances that the changes would have an effect on listability would be slim. It does happen, but just not that often. If after resuggesting the site again, there is still no listing you can be pretty sure that either it hasn't been reviewed yet or it was rejected (again?) and then there wouldn't be a need to resubmit.

Hope that helps.

>I have - in the past - had sites accepted into the directory within 24 hours (thank you), but I have also waited for over 2 years for others.

Since suggestions don't have any kind of priority based on time (or even over non-suggestions), this does happen. (And that's OK -- remember, site suggestion date has no connection with site publication date, and THAT is all that could possibly matter.) It depends on what category the editor is trying to build up.

>One of the things I remember is that multiple submissions of the same site can get the site "banned" (or the submission rejected).

>If I submit a site, wait 2 years / see no listing / cannot find out whether my site is still awaiting review or was deemed unsuitable / assume it was unsuitable and - knowing it has been improved substantially in recent weeks - try resubmitting...

>How can I be sure it's not still awaiting review?

>If the answer is simply "you can't", surely DMOZ will become a "black hole" (and possibly become swamped with duplicate submissions)!

Trust me on this: one site resuggestion after two years won't get you into the whack-a-spammer radar screen! You need to show more of a PATTERN of spamming.

As a general rule, people who worry about being spammers don't spam. And anyone who DOESN'T worry about being a spammer, is one.

That makes sense, if your bad you know it!

Spammers usually have a back up plan. So that when they get whacked they can roll with punches. It is the riff raff that has ruined it for the legitimate authors and administrators.

Well, yes, spammers have the backup plan. It burns them no end that we won't tell them when to put the backup plan into operation.

But ... on the other hand, legitimate submitters don't have a backup plan (and don't need one.) So there's really nothing they can do with a status report.

"Still waiting? OK, then what I need to do is be busy about my business -- and in spare time, add to my website."

"Rejected? OK, I still need to be busy about my business. And if I have any spare time, add to my website. And if I add a lot of content to the website, then maybe resubmit."

Because spammers are so much more persistent than ethical humans, there won't be a problem with saying something like "OK, I added lots of content. I don't KNOW whether my site was reviewed before then (and rejected for inoperative reasons). I'll wait three or four months AFTER adding the content, so an editor won't delete my new suggestion as a duplicate of the pre-content-add rejection, then suggest once more."

That is not something a spammer would say. They say, "If a site suggestion isn't processed within three weeks, it's worthless to me [because I've already changed my name, abandoned my old URL, and undergone plastic surgery -- done whatever it takes to escape my old reputation. I'm busy with a new scam now, and if I don't get in quickly, I'll be one of the marks rather than one of the successful cons]."

Thanks a lot for your responses, I will resubmit it...

I can't imagine it wouldn't pass the quality guidelines, it's squeaky clean (not even an ad' in sight) and gives a full list of services offered by a company I own...

There was one slight concern I had with regard to my submission, perhaps I could trouble you to set me straight beforehand this time?

The category I am submitting to is huge and therefore is "broken down" alphabetically.
My company name starts with "THE" (next name starts with "C").
I submitted it to the "C" category because I figured you would probably ignore "THE" in this situation (and because there were sites starting with "THE" in the "A" category)... but after submitting I noticed that there are also sites in "T".
At the time I asked about it I had a fairly abrupt reply (and I'm being restrained here - lol)... I guess the guy was having a bad day.

Anyhow, please set me straight - should it be submitted to "C" or "T"?

Generally speaking, we would ignore "the" when categorizing sites. There are exceptions of course but those aren't too frequent.

Not a big deal. You'd be surprised how many people whose names DON'T start with T, and aren't real sure what letters they start with either. We just move them to the right letter category.

Thanks a lot for your help, I'll get it resubmitted then