Volunteer link

I've noticed that some editor-less categories have the text:

Volunteer to edit this category

while others have

This category needs an editor

Does this have any "hidden" meaning? I read the second version as a more urgent call - on the other hand the first has a link to the application page, while the 2nd doesn't.

Is this significant at all?

The text was changed sometime around February (I think) to "volunteer to edit this category" but it only changes from the old to the new text when an edit is made in that category. So the old text is just a marker to show that that category hasn't been edited in some time. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" alt="" /> Hopefully there aren't too many categories with the old text, but if you compare the number of categories under one category tree (at a guess probably around 10,000?) with the number of listed editors at the top (around 10 on average?), you'll see that it's difficult for the editors with the broadest scope to review every single subcategory within a three month period.

Does this have any "hidden" meaning? I read the second version as a more urgent call - on the other hand the first has a link to the application page, while the 2nd doesn't.

Click to expand...

John Caius is absolutely correct. One could add that editors wanted to change the text to avoid implying that the fact that no editor was listed meant that nobody was taking care of it, which is what submitters are always afraid of.

No ODP category is ever editorless (all editors listed in a category higher in its tree can edit there, as well as editors with special privileges), but applications are always welcome <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />