Why not listed under Regional: Asia: Travel and Tourism: Lodging

Hi, our website gathers all hotels in China. The content includes hotel information, photos, maps, such like that. We have submitted to ODP under Regional: Asia: Travel and Tourism: Lodging, the first time in January of 2008.
But the website hasnot been received yet till today, we are extremely worry about this issue. Could any editor advise me why it doesnot be received? <URL removed>
Thanks in advance.

You might have misunderstood our objectives and how we operate here. ODP is a volunteer organisation building a directory as a hobby. Editors edit where they wish, when they wish and as much as they wish within the constraints of their permissions. We have no schedules or systems to force people to do work that they don't volunteer to do. ODP is not primarily a free listing service for website owners and it does not attempt to process their listing suggestions within the time scales desired by them.

Some volunteer will process your listing suggestion in time but we can't predict who or when that might be. Elapsed times can range from a few days to a few years. There is no need to re-suggest your website and doing so could be counter-productive because a later suggestion overwrites any earlier one.

Travel affiliate spam is surely one of the top five evils on the internet. And so a website in the 'travel' category has a tough challenge. It must have unique information -- not the same recycled garbage available from a million scraper sites. Before it's listed, the editor must examine it carefully for evidence of originality, authority, etc.

On the other hand, there are a million scraper or affiliate sites out there, all crying out for the same attention. And we do not have the time or inclination to give all of them that careful attention -- in truth, they do not deserve it.

The first result is, a travel site has to pass TWO tests. (1) It has to stand out from the scummy, scammy crowd QUICKLY -- within 30 seconds to a minute. Otherwise, the chances of it not BEING one of the scum is so low, it's not worth the visitor's trouble.

If it passes the quick-sniff test, then the editor may look at it more carefully--VERY carefully, because some of the affiliate programs early realized they had to conceal themselves from surfers in order to get any business at all. And if it passes that careful examination, the editor may list it.

The SECOND result is, reviewing travel sites isn't either fun or productive. And the volunteers tend to focus their work in areas where (1) they enjoy it, (2) they can see their work add value. In other words, sites OTHER than travel sites.

That's reality. You won't change it. I won't change it. You can work with it: make sure your site passes the first test easily and quickly. And make sure that the truly original and authoritative portions of the site are prominently displayed, (and the easily-replicated portions downplayed.)

It's also valuable not to forget the real world off the net. Someone who's not a personal authority on a subject can't create a website that IS an authority, no, not for all the SEO effort in the universe. Your personal contacts, the people who seek you out for your publicly-known relevant experience and expertise, are the most likely sources of reliable recommendations (yes, even the online ones.) Your own reputation spreads on the net just like it does offline. And a reliable recommendation from someone is much more important than any number of self-suggestions to the ODP.

Just for the record, a site about hotels in China would not be listed in the category you mention, which lists sites about different types of lodging in more than one country in Asia. The reviewing editor will have to move the site to Regional/Asia/China/Travel_and_Tourism/Lodging/Hotels where it may have to wait for another editor to review it. In other words, sites are not rejected only because they have been suggested for review in an inappropriate category, but it will add to the time until review - so the best thing for all concerned is to try and find the most specific category for the site and suggest it there (and only there).