www.tubeculture.com

Over a month ago I updated the listing for my website http://www.tubeculture.com (changed the title and description), which was in the http://dmoz.org/Arts/Television/Programs/ directory. After updating the listing it disappeared from the category page. If I search for "tube culture" it still comes up and says it's in the Arts/Television/Programs category (with the old title and description), but it's not. I e-mailed both editors for the category and the general contact address and have not received any responses yet.

Any assisstance you can provide would be appreciated.

(1) Advice to editors: do not ever ever ever EVER respond to email from webmasters about "why was my site rejected/REMOVED?" If only 5% of them turn vicious, and only 1% of them violent (and that's not a bad estimate), then ... that's too much risk to run. (That's why we have the forum here: far fewer frustrated spammers want to make threats in public, and editors' personal e-mail addresses can be kept safer.)

(2) Advice to submitters: Assume editors follow good advice.

The site was removed, the editors thinking the "new" version was a bit light on content. I can see how they could get that impression.

?

I don't understand why you would post this sort of reponse to my inquiry? My e-mail to the editor was in no way vicious, it was actually a very polite post like the one above. At the time I e-mailed the editor I did not know that this forum existed and since there was a link on the bottom of the page saying they were the editor and it had a form to contact them it was my logical assumption that this was the proper thing to do.

As for whether or not the site it light on content, I would have to disagree. The site is updated with several new articles daily, which is much more than many sites listed. Also, the site is not a new listing and content has never been as issue, I was merely updating the description since the site now covers more television shows.

If you can let me know what it is exactly that I need to do to have it relisted I would greatly appreciate it.

When you submitted it, it was under construction.

I notice you have a Welcome to Tube Culture Posted Mon, Feb 28, 2005 - but the site was reviewed before that date. In fact it was reviewed and rejected more than once.

So it appears you made the grievous error of submitting a site under construction [breaking one of our rules of submission], hoping to fill it with content before it was reviewed. And also made the error of suggesting it multiple times.

As such, these acts have been logged against your site, so you will have to work really hard to overcome the stigma. Since the site has been working less than a month, I suggest you wait until it has significant content; another rejection at this point will not look good on your record

Think, man!

OK, so you're one of the majority (the vast majority, actually) of posters who wouldn't turn vicious when you heard the reason.

But how would the editor know ahead of time?

He can't. So the only safe course is NOT to reply to e-mail of that sort.

And so, knowing the editor cannot safely reply to ANY e-mail, not knowing which one is you and which is the stalker (and no, I am absolutely NOT making this up!) -- why would you expect a reply? Do you just think all editors are either stupid or suicidal?

It's a nasty world we live in. We have to adapt. You have to expect people to adapt. And that means -- not expecting an answer to your e-mail.

It's perfectly simple, perfectly logical. And it does not anywhere rely on the assumption that you are the axe murderer -- simply on the fact that we cannot tell you from an axe murderer BASED ON ONE E-MAIL MESSAGE. And so we have to be safe.

This is serious. You're telling us you're expecting editors to give up their own personal safety rules, simply because it might inconvenience you. I'm telling you that is highly unlikely to happen. That's reality: we have to live with it. You can take the universe as it is as a personal affront to you -- or you can adapt.

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As for whether the site contains content of worth to you: we assumed it did, or you wouldn't have posted it. But I certainly wouldn't recommend it to a surfer looking for information on any of those shows. And that's the judgment the editor is making.

The first step towards getting an ODP listing is to stop trying to get an ODP listing. Imagine you've been shunned for the next millenium for unforgivable solecism: and develop and promote your site as if it had no chance whatsoever to get an ODP listing. (If that means abandoning it because you have no alternative promotional plan, then do it now, before you waste more time on it.)

Then, when the site is established, and has more content on each of its shows than the best other site listed, ... and the gestank of previous submittals has had a chance to fade ... and you really understand why the prior submittals OUGHT to have been rejected -- and you've changed your goals to something distinctly different than they are now -- then resubmit.

Or ... not. The ODP isn't a promotional website promotion tool, and you may find what you're really looking for somewhere else. Many somewhere elses...