Volunteer to edit this category -- or not?

I understand the reason for rejection given below, no problemo. What I don't understand is why the category invited me to "volunteer to edit this category." It seemed that 1. There was nobody doing it. 2. DMOZ was asking for a volunteer. 3. It wasn't too big a category.

Why ask for volunteers only to turn them away? The only reason I went through the whole process was because of the open invitation on that category page. Now I'm not sure what category to try. Many are lacking an editor, are asking for volunteers, and are small in size, like this one was.

Any thoughts? Thank you.

"Thank you for your interest in becoming an Open Directory Project editor!
Although we would like you to join us as a volunteer editor, you have
chosen a category that is already well represented, or is broader than
we typically assign to a new editor. We would encourage you to re-apply
for a category that has fewer editors or is smaller in scope, in order
to increase your chances of being accepted.

Feel free to reapply by submitting an application in another area.
If you wish to re-apply, you must fill out another application.
Please do not reply to this email.

Regards,
The Open Directory Project"

It used to say "this category needs an editor." We thought that the volunteer wording was better, so we changed it. Perhaps it's time to put "apply to be an editor" so there can be no doubt that you can sometimes be turned away.

I think the whole wording at the bottom is a no win. If there is no editor it keeps getting assumed that the category is not being edited.

Maybe it should say "You can apply to be another editor for this category" - even if there is no "named editor" since there are always hundreds of editors that can edit any category.

Then change the bottom to say "Primary editor:" instead of just "Editor:"

Thank you, I see what you mean

Thank you for your thoughtful posts. I understand the challenge you have there, trying to make the editor situation clearly understood to all. It must be a little bit frustrating. Anyway, thanks again for the info. I'll look for a very small, quiet niche to try out for and see how that goes.

Yes, it's difficult to get it right, also sometimes a category may show only 10 sites, which seems small, but if there are 100 sites waiting to be reviewed, then it's not a good place for a new editor. But since we don't display the number of unreviewed, you end up applying.

If you haven't seen this http://dmoz.org/help/become.html it's worth reading.

and this http://dmoz.org/guidelines/

and all the stuff in http://resource-zone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1289