Application Rejected - Next Step?

[Guest]

My editor application was rejected last night. The following information was provided at the bottom of the rejection email:

 

Reviewer Comments:

See http://dmoz.org/guidelines/describing.html

 

I am assuming that the application was rejected because I did not follow the proper guidelines while writing the titles and descriptions.

 

I submitted again after completely re-writing the whole application from scratch. Did I do the right thing?

 

Thanks

 

PS: editor name used "kcsurf"

[apeuro]

Yup - That's exactly what you should have done. Good job taking the initiative. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

[Guest]

Can you guys please check the status of my application? Editor name used in application was "kcsurf". Thanks a bunch.

[apeuro]

Your app is still waiting. There's been some discussion about disbanding the category you're applying to, so until that decision is made, no decision will be made about your application.

[Guest]

apeuro:

 

Thanks for your quick reply. Here is my guess. Most (if not all) sites listed under this category are affiliates of some sorts. In my view, that is the nature of business of these sites who provide rebates. The logic is very simple. They get the commissions from the merchants and give it back as rebates to the shoppers. They cannot do that without being affiliates/partners. Do they provide unique content? Certainly not all of them, but some do. If you take all the links off the site, is there any thing else left? Not much, probably nothing for most sites. That is true for all the directories listed in ODP (including ODP itself). If affiliate sites are "no, no", then all freebies, coupons sites and categories should go. There are quite a few categories in ODP like that. How about shopping search engines? They are all full of links to some products and/or sites. Without the links, these sites are blank pages. Do these coupons, rebates and shopping search sites provide any value to users/shoppers? Yes, they do (well may not be all of them).

 

I am not arguing whether this category should go or stay. When I first looked at this category knowing affiliate sites are not welcome in ODP, these were questions I asked myself.

 

Thanks

[hutcheson]

Your guess is good, and your questions are good, and if we had a good answer for them, we wouldn't be still trying to figure out what to do with such categories (as you say, there are many of them.)