Third rejection

I would really like to participate in this project, but I do not feel very welcome. I have just received my third rejection for a category that does not even have an editor. What am I missing?

Apps under td234.

Thom

I haven't seen your applications, and have no idea why you were rejected, but if you have had three rejection e-mails with feedback I would have to say that there's something that you're not doing correctly. It doesn't look very promising. Being an ODP editor isn't in the cards for everyone

Is it true that you have to know someone to be approved?

You're joking, right?

If you're still thinking that it matters whether or not there's already an editor, or that it matters whether you know someone, then you're a long way from understanding the editors' guidelines.

No, it's not true that you need to know an editor to be approved. I knew NO EDITOR when I got approved, and I know of many others in the same situation.

I knew no editors when I applied, and I even managed to apply for the wrong category. But the rest of the application I spent some time and thought putting together, and I managed to get approved on the first try, and someone figured which category I really wanted to appply for.

And I see other editors who have been accpeted who clearly do not have some kind of special deal going on.

It's just one of the many myths about ODP, usually spread by unhappy web designers who have not got their sites accepted.

Count me in on the not knowing anyone when I applied. Actually, count me in on not knowing anything about the ODP at all. I was just browsing a directory recommended to me by a friend, was slightly annoyed that the area I was looking in had so few sites (surely there are more than 49 zoos in the US!) and applied. Boom! A more addictive hobby than I had anticipated was born.

Very odd.

I am a subject matter expert in the field covered by the category I requested. I have 15 years experience in IT. I was a Sysop on GENIE and on many dialup BBS's. I am webmaster of over a dozen web pages.

Perhaps I should apply again, but there just seems to be something wrong about asking the same girl out twice.

Will

thom said:

I would really like to participate in this project, but I do not feel very welcome. I have just received my third rejection for a category that does not even have an editor. What am I missing?

Apps under td234.

Thom

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I think you are missing some thing, try again, all the best
rgds
esemji

Very odd.

I am a subject matter expert in the field covered by the category I requested. I have 15 years experience in IT. I was a Sysop on GENIE and on many dialup BBS's. I am webmaster of over a dozen web pages.

Perhaps I should apply again, but there just seems to be something wrong about asking the same girl out twice.

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Speaking generally here and not specifically about your application (which I haven't seen), being a subject matter expert in the field doesn't necessarily mean you'd make a good editor.

WillSpencer said:

Perhaps I should apply again, but there just seems to be something wrong about asking the same girl out twice.

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Without commenting on the metaphor - quite a lot of editors were rejected the first time(s) they applied - nothing wrong with that.

nea said:

Without commenting on the metaphor - quite a lot of editors were rejected the first time(s) they applied - nothing wrong with that.

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Well, nothing wrong with that except that the shortage of editors causes the site submission system to be backed up for two years...

Do you think it would be a good idea to lower the requirements on new editors? I don't agree (to understate how I feel about the idea). And I'm very certain that doing that would increase the time between submission and review in large parts of the directory - not a major concern for most editors, but not what you'd have in mind either, I think.

But what I meant by "nothing wrong with that" was that you seemed to think that it was first time or nothing, and there's a lot of good editors around who'll tell you that ain't true!

attention

WillSpencer said:

Well, nothing wrong with that except that the shortage of editors causes the site submission system to be backed up for two years...

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it need the attention of the seniors
rgds
esemji

esemji said:

it need the attention of the seniors

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Why do think it hasn't our attention?
Ofcourse we would like to see the time needed for all the reviews go down. It just takes a lot of time to wade through all the wrong submissions to reach a few good ones. Depening on the category I'm working in I might reject upto 60-70% of all submissions.

And as you could have read in several other threads. We don't look at suggested sites as our main source of new listings. It is just one of many ways we find sites worth a listing. And other ways we use are sometimes much more productive.

WillSpencer said:

Well, nothing wrong with that except that the shortage of editors causes the site submission system to be backed up for two years...

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Actualy, letting in editors who have no idea what they are doing is worse. I once went through a catagory where one girl had done everything wrong, and all of her work had to be changed and updated before I could start on any new sites. I'll tell you, its the most tedious thing in the world to go from site to site, fixing things, and the highly selective way editors are chosen is what prevents that.

...the highly selective way editors are chosen is what prevents that.

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Well reduces it anyway. We ain't perfect and we don't have 20:20 forsight .

Editors

Will,

My situation is the same as yours, i applied to be an editor in a technical section - despite 14 years working on this software, 10 years of which as a freelance consultant and hosting websites dedicated to the subject, and having worked all over the world in this area apparently my application is rejected.

There are many well meaning and genuine editors who contribute to this but i fear that individual editors in some sections more than likely run their own websites and the idea of allowing somebody from a similar website to become an editor in 'their' area is not going to happen.

Will i'm sure like me you would like to genuinely make a difference in area that you excel in, and i'm sure like me all you see in the directory is a series of highly comercial websites.

I suspect if you had put in your application that you had no knowledge of the internet and had no affiliations to any websites then you would be accepted.

Other people have replied in this section that in some way these applications are rejected because they do not want to 'lower the bar' as it were, i agree the bar should be raised - and the best way to do this is to have a rotating editor in each section, so no single person or group of self-serving people can keep control. Consider it bringing democracy to what is supposed to be an 'open' society.

Andrew

despite 14 years working on this software, 10 years of which as a freelance consultant and hosting websites dedicated to the subject, and having worked all over the world in this area apparently my application is rejected.

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Your skills and experience will probably be of great value to ODP if you ever become an editor, but you may be missing the point. What we're looking for when we evaluate an application are indications that you'll make a good editor and an absence of show stoppers.

You wouldn't expect to get a busdriver's job because you're a software expert - it requires a totally different skill set. So does being an editor .