Will I ever find out the status of my site?

Well, I'm just posting this because for the last year I have been trying to get my site (there's a link in my profile) listed in Dmoz. I consider my site very resourceful and user-friendly (especially compared to similar Dmoz listings) as do the thousands of other unique visitors that come monthly. I'm not just saying that "because it's mine" but I've seen sites with hardly any content and ugly plain WYSIWIG-generated layouts get in Dmoz and mine doesn't have a chance.

Anyways over a year ago I submitted my site to Dmoz and some guy (a staff member on here) kind of flamed me out over it saying how I wasn't being patient enough to get my site listed. Well, I've waited 12+ months, I never heard if it was denied and I never heard if it was accepted. I've actually submitted it about 3 times, with the first being in early 2004.
I just want to know right now if it's going to ever be listed or not. That's all I ask, a simple "yes" or "no". Because I hate it when I'm left hanging for an answer.
I know I probably do sound stern and I don't mean to be, believe me, I have had a lot of patience and I still don't know what the heck the status on it is - the staff member as I mentioned earlier said I would find out the status of my submission in a month and it never did happen. Let alone I was never contacted the 2 other times I submitted it throughout last year.

Anyways Dmoz,
Could you please let me know what is going on? I want to know what the status of my site is, if it even still has one. I assume it was rejected; and if it was I am clueless as why it would be - anybody could agree it doesn't lack anything. It has a nice design, it is content rich, it has good traffic. Maybe Dmoz doesn't list things based of that though?

Please help me out,
Thank you;
-Andy M

We have stopped giving status checks. That is the bottom line.

You can be patient, or impatient, it will not change anything.

I just want to know right now if it's going to ever be listed or not. That's all I ask, a simple "yes" or "no". Because I hate it when I'm left hanging for an answer.

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And you won't hear anything. We never have, and never plan to, send out any time of notice. It is not in our enlightened self interest to do so.

I've actually submitted it about 3 times, with the first being in early 2004.

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There is not reason to ever submit a third time.

I assume it was rejected

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Assume what you wish. If your site does not comply with out guidelines it might be a good guess. If your site complies with out guidelines, it might be a bad guess. In either case it is probably an uninformed guess. Guesses tend to be like that.

As an aside, Sunday morning at the breakfast table i saw my wife's lottery ticket.
"Did you win?"
"No."
"How many numbers did you get?"
"I don't know, I didn't check."

There was a level of logic in there I will never understand, the same might be true of people who, having set a self-expectation against reality that they will hear something from a system that does not provide feedback, decide the news must be bad, when in fact there is probably no news at all.

You might want to take a peek at the FAQ item that deals with how long it takes for a ste to be reviewed. It might help align your expectations with current reality.

We have stopped giving status checks. That is the bottom line.

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Why was I told I would receive a status update a month later at that time and never got one? I think it's rather unprofessional that you guys stopped giving status checks and you could have at least given them lastly to the people like me whom were expecting them. I understand you probably receive a lot of crap-site submissions, but I still don't get why it is an impossibility to get back to what the 3rd party considers the decent sites on the internet. If Microsoft wanted their site listed (assuming it wasn't) would you guys ignore them as well?

And you won't hear anything. We never have, and never plan to, send out any time of notice. It is not in our enlightened self interest to do so.

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Figures, I never have found Dmoz very liable for things. I mean, I've applied for categories months, even years ago that to this day haven't been touched. I would be glad to help edit and add to them but it appears you guys don't want any more editors, it's quite sad how some of the categories in Dmoz have stooped so low to the point where they haven't been updated for years - but believe me, in my browsing on Dmoz I have seen it many times. I guess when responcible people like me want to try and help add to places like Dmoz we get rejected because it's like we arn't good enough. If Dmoz doesn't want help, that's understandable in some ways; but contrastinl it makes no sense why Dmoz continues to keep the "Become an editor" links on categories. I have found out by myself and speaking with other people that it doesn't matter how many times you submit to help out with a category or who you are - Dmoz doesn't want you. And they've grown to be too bigot-minded thinking their directory is perfect. I fail to see why so many people love Dmoz so much, a simple Google search turns up way more and much better links to various websites than you could ever find in any one single Dmoz category alone. Oh well, hey, it ain't my problem!

There is not reason to ever submit a third time.

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Believe me, when you're dealing with Dmoz and their unability to maintain their own categories, there simply arn't enough times you can submit!

Sunday morning at the breakfast table i saw my wife's lottery ticket

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If there is any similarity between a lottery ticket and Dmoz, it has to be the fact that your likeliness of "winning" either one of them is virtually impossible.
Contrastingly, buying lottery tickets is a waste of money - while trying to get listed in Dmoz is just a waste of time.

having set a self-expectation against reality that they will hear something from a system that does not provide feedback, decide the news must be bad, when in fact there is probably no news at all.

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Bah, I really hate it when people blindly try telling me that I am an idiot.
Here's my take on things: If someone is willing to take their time to help build your directory bigger only for the sole fact that it will help provide people whom browse the directory to find out more information about something certain, I think you could at least get back to them about their submission. Even if it means that you guys are so downright lazy you'd have to have a custom script made so you could waste 1/8th of a calory extending their index finger to click a simple "Yes" or "No" to let the submitter know if his or her site was accepted or rejected. If somebody is willing to take their time to fill out a long form in order to help the world by making Dmoz the supposed "largest human edited directory on the web", I think it's at least worth your time to get back to them. But Dmoz is almost like one of the real corporate businesses today (well, it does carry the "Netscape" name on it, ROFL) it's big, it's greedy, it thinks highly of itself, and it loves feeding off of the suckups in the universe (the people that go "Oh LOL, Dmoz is like so cool - they're so big!"). While Dmoz may be big, remember bigger isn't always better. Dmoz is simply too big to even operate efficiently, which is why I am wasting my life typing this all out. Like I said, a simple MSN or Google search will provide you with a hell of a lot more info than Dmoz could. Dmoz is basically just a scrapbook of random sites that all gum up into a category (despite the fact that most of them lack rich content and a good user-friendly design). Believe me, I know my sites. I have submitted some of the best god damned sites of their category on the internet to Dmoz itself and they never end up going in there. Not only is it me submitting them but I know everyone else must be as well. Well Dmoz, don't die out too fast now. I mean, you honestly wouldn't want to put quality sites over the types listed on places like WPTS in your directory; would you?

Why was I told I would receive a status update a month later at that time and never got one?

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I am sure you were told you may ask for a status check after one month. Perhaps you did not ask. This discontinued service was offered to catch any submission that received a false positive during the submittal process.

I would be glad to help edit and add to them but it appears you guys don't want any more editors

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A quick look at the frequent posts in the Member to Editor thread shows just how wide of the mark you are here. New editors, who demonstrate the ability to find informative websites, and describe them within the guidelines, are added to the Project almost daily.

a simple Google search turns up way more and much better links to various websites than you could ever find in any one single Dmoz category alone

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And indeed it should. Google returns occurrences of a SEARCH word or phrase. Any and every word or phrase MUST return SEARCH results that cross category boundaries. Our aim is to maximise the amount of useful INFORMATION in a category.

Believe me, when you're dealing with Dmoz and their unability to maintain their own categories, there simply arn't enough times you can submit!

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But there is. We even tell you in our FAQ what the limit is - ONCE, though in very unusual circumstances we accept TWICE.

If someone is willing to take their time to help build your directory bigger ...I think you could at least get back to them about their submission.

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When a site is submitted, the final page is indeed an automated 'Thank You'. And we do, just once per submission.

If somebody is willing to take their time to fill out a long form in order to help the world by making Dmoz the supposed "largest human edited directory on the web", I think it's at least worth your time to get back to them.

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And we do. Many people are initially turned down, and receive a rejection email. Those who learn from the rejection and reapply are usually successful (though some take several efforts). Those who refuse to learn are not successful.

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This is an expression of a personal opinion, I am not a spokesman for the ODP. I do not represent them, and they do not represent me.

"Oh LOL, Dmoz is like so cool - they're so big!").

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Wow, never saw anyone say that.

Most comments I see about DMOZ are rants from people desperately trying to get their sites listed in a directory they point out to be obsolete and useless and full of junk. Personally if I see a directory full of junk [and there are many], I would not want my sites listed there - bad neighbourhoods rub off on your site. I'd immediately remove that directroy from my bookmarks and try to forget it ever existed, and waste no more of my time with it.

If there is any similarity between a lottery ticket and Dmoz, it has to be the fact that your likeliness of "winning" either one of them is virtually impossible.

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I wish that were true, I'm down a couple of hundred $ in lottery tickets, If I got the minimum $5 lotter winning for each site I listed, I think I'd have around $50,000.

bobrat said:

If there is any similarity between a lottery ticket and Dmoz, it has to be the fact that your likeliness of "winning" either one of them is virtually impossible.

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I wish that were true, I'm down a couple of hundred $ in lottery tickets, If I got the minimum $5 lotter winning for each site I listed, I think I'd have around $50,000.

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That proves that DMOZ and the Lottery give you the same change of becoming rich. None Although I guess your changes with the lottery are a little higher.

Follow the 3 Ps

Andy - you go from a desperate, though futile plea, to ranting ... bad form. First of all, trying to "guilt" someone into giving you a status and feel sorry for you is not going to work - the flood gates would be wide open then. Second, once you're told no, even though you already knew that ... well, you know where you took if from there ...

I've had mixed success getting listed in DMOZ, but one thing is for sure, this is doing you no good; all the time you've wasted here, you could've been better spent making your site better, links more plentiful, and so on.

Might I suggest a simple plan, I like to call the 3 Ps:

P rofessionalism
P ersistence
P atience

Good luck in your endeavor - use your time and resources wisely.

That proves that DMOZ and the Lottery give you the same change of becoming rich.

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On second thought, maybe ODP is better. On the lottery I lost money - on ODP, at least I didn't lose money (unless you count the hundreds of hours I spent editing)

I definitely understand the frustration here. But I have read several threads in which people refer to DMOZ as unprofessional, and I can't help thinking - yes, that's exactly right. They're not a business, and they're not paid to provide you a service. It's a volunteer effort, and as such, there's a limit to how quickly they can accomplish every task they have to accomplish.

From what I've been reading, they quit offering status checks because it took too much time from their real purpose - getting sites reviewed and added. It's a catch-22... the more status checking we ask for, or the more we come in here and talk about it... the less time they have for reviews.

It seems to me the more productive answer for anyone who feels DMOZ is behind on things would be to find out what you can do to help, if anything.

BetaCandy said:

From what I've been reading, they quit offering status checks because it took too much time from their real purpose - getting sites reviewed and added.

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... and existing listings checked for hijacks and bait-and-switch type schemes, and making sure that sites are listed in the best category, and processing update requests.

But in essence you are most definitely correct - the value-added to the directory of spending hours a day checking on submission requests isn't high at all, and that's what most of us signed up for.

Good Points - Great Honesty

BetaCandy said:

I definitely understand the frustration here. But I have read several threads in which people refer to DMOZ as unprofessional, and I can't help thinking - yes, that's exactly right. They're not a business, and they're not paid to provide you a service. It's a volunteer effort, and as such, there's a limit to how quickly they can accomplish every task they have to accomplish.

From what I've been reading, they quit offering status checks because it took too much time from their real purpose - getting sites reviewed and added. It's a catch-22... the more status checking we ask for, or the more we come in here and talk about it... the less time they have for reviews.

It seems to me the more productive answer for anyone who feels DMOZ is behind on things would be to find out what you can do to help, if anything.

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Very good points! Also, very "big" of you to admit your own frustrations, but bigger yet, to look past them and come to the gregarious points of view that you stated - well put!

I'm not big on cliches, but yes, one person can make a difference! You tell 'em BC!

Same frustration here!

Submitted the website to DMOZ 4 months back, no email no response.

I am told to be patient when I ask for status. But there is no deadline or time frame. Dont even know whether it is in still in queue to be processed or is rejected?

Thinking that there are no editors for that listing applied to become an editor. Applied and it was rejected on the basis that I could add the website into the directory.

So here is the delima, editors will not add the site to the listing, nor will it (DMOZ) allow us to add our website.

I understand that DMOZ gets lot of submission but is not possible to find a bunch of spammers by targetting IP address. Spoofing and proxy are though possible, very less people employ these techniques.

In my category (USMLE), my website is currently has largest number of visitors among all the listed. My website (usmleweb.com) is designed professionally and fully maintained without any bad links.

Applied and it was rejected on the basis that I could add the website into the directory.

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I am sure that was not the reason your application was denied and I don't review editor applications.

Well, if an applicant gives only one example URL, and that is their own site, I think many metas respond on the lines of "If you were trying to suggest your site for listing in the directory, you should have done this-and-so instead; if you were actually trying to apply to become an editor, be adviced that, etc". This because quite a lot of people either think they have to be editors to suggest a site for inclusion, or don't realise that they are actually filling out the editor application form. It's impossible to know which, when only their own site is provided as an example URL.

The below is the email I received. DMOZ being bureaucratic talks and works like the government. Almost all points stated below doesnot pose problems to my application except "Self-Promotion" point - since the reason for joining DMOZ was to add the site to DMOZ listing.

That is exactly what I was saying neither would DMOZ editors review the site nor will they let us clear the backlog.

Email Recieved from DMOZ:
===============================

Thank you for your interest in becoming an Open Directory Project
editor. After careful review, we have decided not to approve your application
at this time. The most common reasons a reviewer will deny a new
application include, but are not limited to,

* Incomplete application. Insufficient information has been provided in
some fields including reason, affiliation and/or Sample URLs.
* Improper spelling and grammar.
* Sample URLs are inappropriate for the category which one has applied
to edit. They may be too broad, too narrow, completely out of scope, poor
quality, or in a language inappropriate for the category. All non-English
sites are listed in the World category. Applications for World categories
that include sites only in English will be denied. Likewise, applications
for World categories that include sample URLs in languages other than
the one appropriate for the applied category will be denied.
* Not properly disclosing affiliations with websites that are, or have
the potential of being, listed in the category.
* Titles and descriptions of sample URLs (and other information
provided) were subjective and promotional rather than unbiased and objective. ODP editors do not rank or write website reviews. ODP editors provide objective and unbiased descriptions of websites and their content.
* Self-Promotion. Application which leads us to believe that the
candidate is interested primarily in promoting his/her own sites or those with which the applicant is affiliated. The ODP is not a marketing tool, and should
not be used to circumvent the site submission process. If this is an
applicant's motivation for joining, then we ask him/her not to apply. Editors found to be inappropriately promoting their own site will be promptly removed.

Due to the large number of applications we get every day, we are unable
to provide personal responses to every application or to respond to
inquiries about why you were rejected. If a reviewer chose to provide additional comments to you, they will be given in the "Reviewer Comments" section below.

Your willingness to volunteer is greatly appreciated and perhaps we
will be able to utilize your talent in the future.

Regards,
The Open Directory Project

Reviewer Comments:

=============================

nea said:

Well, if an applicant gives only one example URL, and that is their own site, I think many metas respond on the lines of "If you were trying to suggest your site for listing in the directory, you should have done this-and-so instead; if you were actually trying to apply to become an editor, be adviced that, etc". This because quite a lot of people either think they have to be editors to suggest a site for inclusion, or don't realise that they are actually filling out the editor application form. It's impossible to know which, when only their own site is provided as an example URL.

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I suggested two other websites - both being official websites that were not listed in the category. (nbme.org) and (ecfmg.org). Besides that I had suggested my website as the third choice.

If you were applying to be an editor just to list your own site, being rejected on the grounds of self-promotion isn't entirely unreasonable is it? Of course you odn't know for sure that that was the reason (or the only reason) for the rejection.

If you want to be an editor, the easy way to avoid suspisions of self-promotion is to apply for a category which is unrelated to any websites you're affiliated with...

If you're dead set on a category where you do have a site that could be listed, you'd probably do better to suggest three other sites, and just include your's in the 'affiliations' section of the application.

We could always use more editors, but only if they can follow the guidelines, edit impartially, and work as part of the team.

The below is the email I received. DMOZ being bureaucratic talks and works like the government. Almost all points stated below doesnot pose problems to my application except "Self-Promotion" point - since the reason for joining DMOZ was to add the site to DMOZ listing.

That is exactly what I was saying neither would DMOZ editors review the site nor will they let us clear the backlog.

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You read that whole email and picked "self promotion" as the only thing that could apply to your application?

motsa said:

You read that whole email and picked "self promotion" as the only thing that could apply to your application?

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I guess picking it as the reason he proves that this was the only reason he applied.

I am not trying to sound mean, but you're sounding a bit dense with your own words.

"... since the reason for joining DMOZ was to add the site to DMOZ listing."

Secondly, you claim that self-promotion was the only reason for your rejection - isn't that enough; and, you're convinced the descriptions and grammer you provided were up to par?

Finally, if you're complaining about the length of time a submission takes to get accepted, how long do you think it would take with each Editor appl. getting an individualized letter of the thousands received?

You can't have it both ways. Remember too, that it's not what you ask for, but how you ask for it.

Good Luck!