Updated url = site removal - Moderator Advice Please

So,
I owned a domain that has been in dmoz for several years.
I decided to change my brand and image...bought a new domain name...
The site is the same niche target...therefore my new updated site was even BETTER for the dmoz category that I was listed in.

My site is not a spam site and it is clearly a very professionally constructed site.

I set up all my 301 redirects and then after a few days of testing went and updated my listing in dmoz. I just changed my url.

Within two weeks of my changes the editor removed my OLD site and never replaced it with my new site...Therefore I have NO existance on dmoz.

WHY???

So, I write the editor a very nice letter asking why.
4 weeks later STILL NO RESPONSE!

Please, advise me in what I should do next.
I am very disappointed...I still hope that it was an honest mistake.

Thanks for listening.

Editors are encouraged not to respond to site owners because of past harrassment of editors, including threats against their families. The last parts of your post, with unfounded accusations, serve to verify that advice as accurate.

Submit your site suggestion once more (in case it was a mistake). If your site suggestion isn't accepted, then it wasn't a mistake, we don't want it.

No site has a right to be listed, we don't want all sites, and site suggestions are listed at our sole discretion.

Any number of things could have occurred.

1. The editor may have determined that the new site did not qualify for a listing.
2. The editor may have determined that the site belonged in a different category (one which the editor may have be able to edit it) and moved it, where it awaits action by another editor.
3. The new site may have been down when the editor went to review it

So, I write the editor a very nice letter asking why.

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Editors are under no obligation to read e-mails for site owners, and if they do read the e-mail they are generally encouraged not to respond.

There is nothing to suggest that the editor you wrote to is even the editor who took the action. Just becasue there is an eidtor name on a category in no way suggest that that named editor has ownership or control of hte category. there are several hundred editors who can edit in any given category.

How can I not feel that the editor is a competitor.

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Please do not project your ethics, or lack of same, on the editor community.

I still hope that it was an honest mistake.

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See the bullet list; it may not have been an error.

crowbar said:

Editors are encouraged not to respond to site owners because of past harrassment of editors, including threats against their families. The last parts of your post, with unfounded accusations, serve to verify that advice as accurate.

Submit your site suggestion once more (in case it was a mistake). If your site suggestion isn't accepted, then it wasn't a mistake, we don't want it.

No site has a right to be listed, we don't want all sites, and site suggestions are listed at our sole discretion.

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I WAS ALREADY LISTED...FOR YEARS!
My replacement site is much better than the old one and probably better than 99% of the site in the category.

I know my site is worthy. I have been a developer for the architecture of many fortune 500 companies. I am not talking about a just okay site I am talking about a worthy site. No errors, 404 error pages in place, all links work, all browser / os friendly and more importantly loyal to the category(2 full time professional content writers). Please, take all this into consideration + the fact that I was already in the directory.

I already submitted and waited. I feel that I should not have to do this again. I feel that I should be given a reason for why it was bumped...Only, because I was already in the directory and because I was the one to notify them of the change.

Also, I never harrassed anyone.
I think I made it very clear what my problem is and I think anyone who takes their internet site serious(professional) would feel the same way.
I am disappointed

Thank you for the note.
As for my assuming the editor is being unethical...I revoke the statement for the time...It is just frustrating on my end. As developers we try to be very careful to follow all the rules and keep things simple. So, when stuff like this happens you can't help but to get disappointed.

May I ask you this.
If everything you said is wrong(2 months from now)
What should I do?

It is not as if I can go and update my listing...it is gone.
Thanks.

spectregunner said:

Any number of things could have occurred.

1. The editor may have determined that the new site did not qualify for a listing.
2. The editor may have determined that the site belonged in a different category (one which the editor may have be able to edit it) and moved it, where it awaits action by another editor.
3. The new site may have been down when the editor went to review it

Editors are under no obligation to read e-mails for site owners, and if they do read the e-mail they are generally encouraged not to respond.

There is nothing to suggest that the editor you wrote to is even the editor who took the action. Just becasue there is an eidtor name on a category in no way suggest that that named editor has ownership or control of hte category. there are several hundred editors who can edit in any given category.



Please do not project your ethics, or lack of same, on the editor community.



See the bullet list; it may not have been an error.

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I WAS ALREADY LISTED...FOR YEARS!

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Shouting is another example of why editors don't respond to site owners, it indicates you're out of control. What made your site suggestion listable years ago, may not be what makes it listable now, especially since you've made changes to it.

I know my site is worthy. I have been a developer for the architecture of many fortune 500 companies. I am not talking about a just okay site I am talking about a worthy site. No errors, 404 error pages in place, all links work, all browser / os friendly and more importantly loyal to the category(2 full time professional content writers).

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Every site suggestion is worthy and of great value to the site owner. We don't judge sites by the worthiness of the company, how sophisticated the site design is, or how large or professional looking it is.

I set up all my 301 redirects and then after a few days of testing went and updated my listing in dmoz. I just changed my url.

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That indicates more than one site, as one site would only need one redirect to the new url. Multiple versions of the same site would be cause to reject them permanently.

Our normal procedure would be to list the new URL that the 301 directs to (if it's the same site), but, it is very possible that one of our automated quality control tools found that 301 redirect, and automatically placed it in our unreviewed for investigation, and no editor has gotten around to investigating it yet.

As we are all volunteers who edit in our free time, and as we decide when, where, and how much editing work we want to do, it may sit there for a long time or a short time.

We're not here to serve you, the site owner, we're here to build a Directory of sites with unique content...for the web surfers benefit. We allow the public to suggest sites for consideration as a help to us in doing that, but, we are under no obligation whatsoever to use those suggestions, or to keep previously listed sites, if they no longer provide unique content (in our eyes, not yours)

Crowbar,
I shout because I don't know if you read what I said correctly.

I wrote in my first post that it was an "update"...then you write to me saying "Submit your site suggestion once more". Your response did not make sense to me.

As for the multiple 301s...I have to let every site that is linking to me know where the new content relevant page is. This is the right way to do it...not just one 301 redirect.

You said:
"Every site suggestion is worthy and of great value to the site owner."

I said:
"and more importantly loyal to the category(2 full time professional content writers)."

I came here to learn...I should not feel as if I need to be defensive. Stop taking my posts out of context and stick to the point. If not for me for all the other readers who will come across this thread. Your post's read as if you are on a power-trip. Instead of sticking to the point you are taking blows at me.

What is the point?:
What happened to my listing that was updated?

What should I do next...if several months from now I am still no where to be found?

michael_tzez said:

I know my site is worthy. I have been a developer for the architecture of many fortune 500 companies. I am not talking about a just okay site I am talking about a worthy site. No errors, 404 error pages in place, all links work, all browser / os friendly and more importantly loyal to the category(2 full time professional content writers). Please, take all this into consideration + the fact that I was already in the directory.

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It is required that when a redirect is found or an update is submitted that indicates a new URL, that an editor perform a re-review of the new site to insure it is still listable. If the reviewing editor (or one of our automated link tools) detected a redirect or was acting on an update request but didn't have time to perform the review at the moment, they would remove the old site from the public directory (as we don't list redirects) and move the new URL to unreviewed until time permitted for rechecking it for listability.

michael_tzez said:

I already submitted and waited. I feel that I should not have to do this again. I feel that I should be given a reason for why it was bumped...Only, because I was already in the directory and because I was the one to notify them of the change.

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Its understandable for you to feel that you are entitled to this, but its not something that the ODP or the editors offer. Since the directory is not a listing service, every site we consider is treated equally and just because a site was listed before in an older version doesn't mean the new version is still listable now. Therefore it must go through the same checks as every other site we consider. We appreciate your notifying us of the change, and update requests are generally processed quicker then other suggestions so if listable there is still hope it will show back up quickly. It may have taken longer, however eventually one of our automated tools, an editor manually checking links, or another attentive public viewer would have caught and notified us of the change.

michael_tzez said:

What should I do next...if several months from now I am still no where to be found?

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The answer is the same thing you would have done had your site shown up immediately after the update request was submitted: Continue doing what every is necessary to satisfy your customers/visitors.

There is really nothing you can or should do besides continue to add quality, unique content to your site that fits what your target audience is looking for. Beyond that, there is no way to further speed up a re-review of the site. I know that isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but its the only advice left to give.

shadow575 said:

The answer is the same thing you would have done had your site shown up immediately after the update request was submitted: Continue doing what every is necessary to satisfy your customers/visitors.

There is really nothing you can or should do besides continue to add quality, unique content to your site that fits what your target audience is looking for. Beyond that, there is no way to further speed up a re-review of the site. I know that isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but its the only advice left to give.

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Thank you Shadow.
Greatly appreciated.
Yes, I was hoping to hear something different but you did give me some hope. I hope that the site shows up in the near future.

One last question.
If I submit again in a month or two.
Will the editor see that I had been in dmoz before? Or any site history?

There is no reason to submit again unless the content of the site significantly changes. Resubmitting once won't be a major problem for DMOZ, but it may slow down the review as it would overwrite the older submission (your original update request). If the editor comes back and reviews suggestions, and chooses to do so by submission date, your re-suggestion will overwrite the original and it will sink to the bottom of the pile. Some editors do reviews this way, others don't but in the end a re-suggestion once won't help but could in fact slow down the review time.

Hope that helps.

That does help.
Thank you.

I wrote in my first post that it was an "update"...then you write to me saying "Submit your site suggestion once more". Your response did not make sense to me.

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No, I said,

Submit your site suggestion once more (in case it was a mistake). If your site suggestion isn't accepted, then it wasn't a mistake, we don't want it.

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Meaning that if an editor did make a mistake with your update request and deleted it, or it was somehow lost in our recent crash, it would do no harm to submit your site suggestion once more. If it still doesn't get accepted, then no, it wasn't a mistake, it was rejected for other reasons.

Site update requests stand out very prominently and seperatly by themselves, are usually easy to deal with, so most editors usually see those and try to take care of them first.

We, of course, appreciate update requests, but, we don't just automatically grant them, unless there is good reason to, we've taken another look at the site, and the request complies with our editing Guidelines.

An update request to change a URL to a new url is a common request that is easily granted, once we've checked both URLs to make sure the request is legitimate, and not your competitor or some other scoundrel trying to steal your listing by giving us his own url.

If your already listed site was spotted as a 301 redirect by a quality control tool, and placed into the unreviewed, it may have been lost in the crash, and the only thing you can do is to resubmit your site suggestion for consideration. If it still qualifies, it will be listed, if it doesn't it won't, regardless of whether it was listed a long time ago.

You asked why and what you can do, I've answered both of those questions.

Power trip? Yes, I suppose that in my attempts to explain certain common misinformations held by outsiders, and my gut reaction to insinuations about editor misconduct, I could very well sound like I'm lecturing and on a power trip.

Information is power, I suppose, but as a business owner myself, I really don't need to go on any power trips as an editor, and if I ever do, there are plenty of meta editors in this forum who can adjust my attitude quite rapidly, .