Wrong Category Placement

Hello DMOZ Editors!

Over the weekend, I noticed that our wedding website was listed under the wrong category. I have just requested that our website 'Decidio' be changed from
http://dmoz.org/Reference/Directori...ers/Yellow_Pages/North_America/United_States/
to:
http://dmoz.org/Society/Relationships/Weddings/Directories_and_Guides/

by using the 'update' link. My questions are: 1)If this was the correct procedure to follow; 2) If yes, how long will it take to be routed to the appropriate editor?

Thank you for your assistance, and keep up the good work!

Updates are usually processed pretty fast, but I doubt your request will be accepted. IMO - you are not a wedding directory.

Our Site got Deleted?

Hello DMOZ Team,

In checking the status of our request to move our site from one category to another, I can see that our site www.decidio.com got removed from DMOZ listings entirely!?!

I also noticed that one of our competitors is in multiple categories...what is going on?

I would greatly appreciate it if an editor can tell me what is happening. If our site did not need to be moved, at least keep the link in the original category (instead of deleting us)? Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

We don't give status reports on site submittals (or, by extention, update requests) any more (anywhere).

And the forum may not be used for requests for editor action -- that is what the site suggestions and updates are for.

As for the site in multiple categories, perhaps the editors reviewing it overlooked the fact that it was competing with you, and focused on some other aspect of it. (It does sometimes happen, and it's even sometimes a legitimate way to look at a site.)

Thank you for your reply, but I am not sure my question was answered. We were not/ are not submitting anything to DMOZ as we were listed in our present category for quite some time. Our original message was a friendly suggestion to transfer our category from our present one to another that we felt was more appropriate.

When I rechecked our initial inquiry, I see that an admin had responded saying he/she did not think the category would be changed, but now I find that we are not anywhere to be found in one category or the other.

I do not know if the original admin had anything to do with it, but I would respectfully like for a new admin to look into why we were arbitrarily removed from our category without being moved to another, especially since my colleagues tell me it took well over a year to get the original listing. Thank you again for your time.

Let me help.

If you submitted an update request (I didn't check) and it was a significant change in category, then the editor who reviewed it, in all likelihood, thought the request had merit, and removed it from the category where it sat and put it in the unreviewed pool for the category that you requested.

There, an editor will review it as if it were a new submission and list it/decline it on its merits.

Hope this helps.

For making a request like that, the appropriate method is to file an abuse report.

In that, as in all communications both online and off, you always do well to not make claims for which the reader will know perfectly well that you cannot possibly have any evidence (such as, for instance, that the reason was "arbitrary", when you can not possibly have had access to that reasoning). Focus instead on what you know and what you can demonstrate to an impartial observer.

This will get you a much much less unfavorable initial impression (an emotional reaction, but editors are human); it might even be taken as evidence that you know and care about the truth (and that's how credibility starts: with a demonstrated concern for accuracy.)

Spectregunner, thank you for your concise response. It seems like a likely scenario.

As far as the other admin (hutcheson), you *still* have not answered anything, and could learn some lessons in common courtesy. If it wasn't for Spectregunner, we would still be wondering what could have happened.

Remember, though that the scenario I outlined is strictly supposition on my part, based on how updates often work. The facts could be different in your case.

I took a quick look at the site itself. It seems to be classified ads for local businesses, masquerading as a "directory."

In that context, I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone. The ODP lists sites with unique content, and it is hard to build unique content in directory format. AND GETTING HARDER! Between the phone directories (admirably served up as Google Local directories) and the well-known general web directories (Yahoo and ODP, etc.), it has for years been getting increasingly difficult to find a niche that isn't already well developed by some organization with a highly effective data collection capability.

What does that mean in practice?

It means that a directory, to continue to rate a listing by current standards, must improve "much faster than the average directory."

It means that some sites that were reviewed and listed two years ago might not be listed today.

It means that some sites reviewed and listed three years ago wouldn't be listed today, and might be removed if they were re-reviewed.

It means that sites listed four years ago wouldn't be listed today, and editors might even drop everything to re-review them as a quality control problem, assuming that they probably would need to be removed immediately.

It means that it is less and less productive use of editors' time to review "directory" sites, because the chances of their actually contributing to the available information are small and shrinking -- so suggested directory sites will often wait longer before review than other kinds of sites, or even than directory sites waited three years ago.

And obviously, an "update listing" request will entail a site review by current standards.

All this is general, widely applicable information, without regard to the specifics of the site (which, as spectregunner and I both told you, we won't tell you.)

But you know the competition -- and that doesn't mean the other people who are chasing the same advertising dollars you are -- that means the people who are offering other ways of finding the same information you have. Don't look at the worst competition -- you know how skimpy some of those so-called "directories" are. Don't even look at the worst competition listed in the ODP, with a view towards achieving the coveted slot of "next-to-worst site listed in the ODP." Remember, the lower quartile of directory sites would probably ALL be removed if they were re-reviewed by current standards.

Instead, look at the ODP and Yahoo (for web directories), Google Local (for phone directories), and the BEST of the niche directories. If a site doesn't have some significant advantage over EACH of those, then ... it probably wouldn't be listed today.

A typical editor trick is to pick one category (that ought to be "fairly large" based on the ODP listings) and one large city, and compare the number of listings there. If a putatively large category in a large city is empty (or has only one listing), you can bet your bottom dollar you know what'll happen next.

I tried this technique on that site -- no need to tell you what happened, you know your database.