My DMOZ Strategy

^ Warning! Stock DMOZ answer (aka no useful information within)! ~

 

Non-stock answer. People submit their sites all over the directory hoping that a splattergun effect will find an editor willing to list vitimin supplements in the category for panda bears. The panda bear editor can move it to the vitimin supplements category but is not sure which one and frankly has better things to do with his/her time so instead moves it to an area for misplaced sites. You can imagine how many people might spam us and how high the mountain of crap in the misplaced area can become. So deliberately missubmit to the wrong category and your site might just end up there.

Sounds like it is at a whim. It isn't, editors must follow guidelines. Just to be clear.

 

OK, let's see now... the "mountains of crud" (and by that I just mean that there is a lot that needs sorting through) that come to mind are in the general areas:

Any category that involves web designers and SEOs
Software development companies
Computer Consultants
Marketing and Advertising
Sites selling domain names
Sites selling skincare products, herbal supplements and online pharmacies

There are others, of course, but those are the biggies that I come across regularly.

Also, a large proportion of the complaints I see about slow listing times come from those categories of site owners. There is a definite correlation, I believe.

As for expecting submitters to be intimately familiar with our submittal procedures befor ethey submit, I don't think that is a realistic expectation, given the nature of the human race. Dealing with the consequences of that, while extremely frustrating, is one of the chores that you take on when you become an ODP editor. Some choose to spend their volunteering doing only things that they enjoy that enhance the directory. Others will get stuck in, but there will never be enough of those types.

 

i was just commenting. you can either take my advice or not -- i could careless anyways.

if you actually read which sites do actually pre-qualify and should be submitted for consideration then you would know how things work and when not to waste anybody's time including yours with sites that obviously do NOT qualify for a listing.

 

My point was that if the category you are submitting to does not have an editor assigned to it (look at the very bottom of the page) then you will not have a great chance at being reviewed.

As for a super editor or an editall, an editor can edit or override another editor for anything below them in the dmoz tree. You can't edit above your category on the tree. I edit a small category, Business --> USA --> Widgets --> Dealers --> Virginia. There may not be an editor for all 50 states. Someone else is the editor for Business ---> USA --> Widgets and is responsible for everything below him on the tree. So not just Dealers, but manufactures, general widget advice sites, and what ever else might be applicable. That editor may have hundreds of sites waiting for review. Since my category is so specific I only have a few a year. If you submit to Business --> USA --> Widgets --> Dealers --> Florida and there is no one specifically for that category then you need to wait until the "super editor" of Business ---> USA --> Widgets gets to you and that might be a while.

I hope this was helpful, I know it's pretty convoluted.

 

My point was that if the category you are submitting to does not have an editor assigned to it (look at the very bottom of the page) then you will not have a great chance at being reviewed. Check up 1 level in the tree, if there is no editor there then your really in trouble.

As for a super editor or an editall, an editor can edit or override another editor for anything below them in the dmoz tree. You can't edit above your category on the tree. I edit a small category, Business --> USA --> Widgets --> Dealers --> Virginia. There may not be an editor for all 50 states. Someone else is the editor for Business ---> USA --> Widgets and is responsible for everything below him on the tree. So not just Dealers, but manufactures, general widget advice sites, and what ever else might be applicable. That editor may have hundreds of sites waiting for review. Since my category is so specific I only have a few a year. If you submit to Business --> USA --> Widgets --> Dealers --> Florida and there is no one specifically for that category then you need to wait until the "super editor" of Business ---> USA --> Widgets gets to you and that might be a while.

I hope this was helpful, I know it's pretty convoluted.

 

I wish we would just get rid of those editor names it's obviously leads to continual misunderstandings.

The majority of reviews I do are in categories that have no editor name, so for places where I edit you stand a significantly higher chance of getting reviewed if you submit to a categroy without an editor.

The presence of an editor name should be totally ignored - it has no meaning as to the chances of getting reviewed unless you also have access to the private editor logs and can undertand what actually happens within ODP. Even then it's still pretty meaningless.

Read http://www.dummies-guide-to-dmoz.org/categories_with_no_editors.htm and keep reading again and again.

 

I guess it all depends on the catagory. I've greenbusted a few catagories related to my main cat that had no editor and had over 50 sites sitting unreviewed for months, some for a year.

Macdesign, are you must have more editor privledges that I do, because I can't edit out of my cat at all.

 

The point is that when you become more experienced you get assigned to categories higher up the tree, and have editing privs in all subcats, without getting named there.

So you can have no real idea about how much a category gets edited based on named editors.