DMOZ - no editors on particular categories!

Usually when you're browsing the directory you can see that such and such manages this category etc etc but then you see some that just say Volunteer to manage this category (or something like that)...

The reason I say this is because I have submitted what I know are PERFECT sites for the categories submitted (no ads on pages or anything) and two years down the track, no listings.

Anyone got any good suggestions or know if what I'm saying is right or wrong? I'd appreciate the help.

 

I'll give you guys an example..

dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Christianity/Bible/Bible_Study/By_Topic/Sabbath/

google.com/search?q=sabbath+day&rls=com.microsoft:en-au:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBF or
google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-au%3AIE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADBF&q=sabbath+truth

All of these listings starting off with the first one were submitted by different peopl: (over time not all at once)

sabbath-day.net -> 6th position on a search of sabbath day (up to 1500 unique visitors a month - which is high)
sabbathseventhday.com
sabbathseventhday.net
godssabbathtruth.com
sabbath-truth.org

And only one site appears in this category, I'm glad they give such variety, this is one of heaps of categories I have seen this with.

 

I'm hoping someone would correct me if I'm wrong but I heard that if a category doesn't have an editor that means that the editor of the higher category should be editing it.

 

Exactly. And if there are not editors listed in higher categories, there are 200+ editors who can edit everywhere.

 

Well then that's 200+ editors not doing a good job... or maybe it's the fact that they don't allow as many applicants to help them as they should

 

... Or there is just so many categories that those 200+ editors can edit in that they can't get around to all of them.

 

For some reason I don't think that doing a good job there includes volunteering to do the tasks others seem to think are improtant - like processing site suggestions.

 

Sorry I don't think I made my statement clear... When I said about not allowing applicants, I was trying to imply that they need more editors so that they can cover everything if they are struggling So yes, you are very right!

 

They do allow new editors, you just have to work your way up untill you could edit in any category.

 

All of the answers you've received are good ones and correct. If the metas didn't vet new editors and restrict them, a religion hater could go in and delete all of those sites and replace them with porn. That's a little extreme, but you get my drift I think.

New editors are very restricted until they prove themselves. You don't just start out at the top with access to hundreds of categories, you have to earn your way to those higher positions.

I'm retired now, but I started by editing my small home town, and 6 years later I was editing every category within the US. There are 50 states. New York State, alone, at one time had something like 20,000 site suggestions waiting and a very high 30 editors in the state, most of whom were restricted to a single small town (category). At the time, I believe there were only 5 state level editors who had access to all 20,000 site suggestions, if that gives you an idea of the work load.

Some states have only one editor, or none at all.

As a country level editor, I had 49 other states to also deal with. Florida, California, and probably Texas, were in the same situation as New York, massive amounts of submissions to deal with.

Added to that workload, are all of the reds that needed to be resolved (problem urls), update requests, and category structure work (editors with higher permissions have many, many other tasks they need to do), and you can perhaps see why we're a little stretched on workload.

 

Well, when one takes into account that there are thousands of categories without editors and only 200 or so metas to edit in them, then they are in fact doing a bad job. Why? Because it's clear there is a need for more editors with permissions to access all those editorless categories.

Yes, someone can edit in categories listed below them, but Satanism is under the religion category, and if the editor in charge of that happens to be a Christian, how much do you think they will be working in Satanism? Druidism? Muslim? Etc, etc, etc...

Of the Meta Team, many, if not most, have narrow interests (when compared to the broadness of the ODP in general) so there are likely heaps of categories that never ever get touched.

It's those categories that need to be found and looked at by those with the power to make changes and to try to put a call out to existing editors to transfer over into them to help out... sadly, I'm not sure that is something the meta team actually cares to do. *shrug*

So yeah, while technically there is no category without an editor, there are MANY that never ever get edited.

 

Actually there are. Metas have Directory wide permissions, but there are many editors, like myself, who edit in wide areas of the directory and many thousands of categories, but who aren't metas.

Editor permissions are like a pyramid of blocks, the higher you are in the pyramid, the more blocks you have beneath you to edit in. At the bottom of the pyramid, the blocks become more numerous and spread out.

Editors who edit in higher categories are able to access every category beneath that category. I had wide editing permissions within Regional, so you don't need to be a meta to have wide permissions, they are just not as wide as what a meta has, .

Those kind of projects happen all the time, sometimes led by metas, and sometimes by lower level editors with the help of a meta (who usually just gives a group of regular editors the temporary editing permissions to do the job).

Yes, but that's true of all editors, we edit in areas that we find interesting or fun to do.

 

Your reply really has nothing to do with my post other then to say that there are more editors out there that have categories under them that they don't really care for...

So again, those little cats need to be looked that that have not been touched in ages and a call out needs to be made to get people in there to take a look.

Your post was in present tense, are you an editor again? Get bored with WOW?

 

Nope, still a retired editor, it's just easier to speak in the present tense, and yep, still playin my WoW, just got my game glasses today, so I can see my comp better, and still read the fine print in the game guide books I bought.

Next step is a gaming computer, .

 

You are very right, that would not be good at all... I submitted an application a while back with the examples of what I would put in as what I thought were three very good and useful websites exactly on topic (even noted in the domain names) and what they were about and well, I was rejected.

But that happens, who knows why.. but I think rather than just rejecting applications, can't they setup something to be an editor in training or something. It almost sounds lame but they need more editors to do their job and why not have it so that these "200+ good/experienced" editors watch over what the "in training" ones are doing, that way they could get more done and more experienced editors in the end. What do you guys think?

 

The application, itself, is just the first step in a process that will show whether you are capable of understanding and following the guidelines that all editors follow. It sometimes takes two or three tries to become an editor.

After you are accepted as an editor, you are a trainee, that's why you are limited to one small category, to mitigate any damage you could do the directory and make it easy to clean up or undo.

To get further/wider editing permissions, each editor has to go through the same application process for each category he requests to edit in, using his current category as an example of whether he's ready for more categories.

It's not unusual for every editor to have been turned down multiple times when requesting new categories, it's very common. It isn't personal, it's business, until you can demonstrate your knowledge and ability, you won't be trusted with further editing permissions.

Some editors are happy with the one category they have, and that's perfectly fine, and other editors want to take on more, which is even better, but the editor has to be proactive in learning the ropes and requesting those permissions.

We might encourage the editor and give him all the help he wants, but we wouldn't force him to do anything. After all, it's his free time he's donating, and only he can decide how much of it he's willing to give.

If he adds one site a month, then fine, the Directory has grown by that one good site. There are no quotas to fullfil, and growing the Directory by one site is better than not growing the Directory at all.

If we were a listing service, which we are not, then it might be a much different story. Usually though, people get really interested and involved in what they're doing and work like dogs at it, .