Oct 9th 2009 5:00PM
Another Year: Two Years in ODP
We first met editor laigh nearly two years ago when he blogged about his first month as a DMOZ editor. A year later, we checked in to see how he was doing. Believe it or not, another year has gone by, and laigh is back to give us an update on his second year as an editor - it's been eventful!
- - - - - - - - - - -
Yes it is that time of year again, the time for me, laigh, to pop in and say hello and let you know how I am getting on and what I have been up to.
I have now been an editor for just over two years and have completed just over 75000 edits in that time but the number of edits is just a part of the story.
Late last year I decided to take a rest. I had been spending quite a lot of my spare time editing, and although enjoying it, I decided to have a break for a while. I took some time off and returned with increased vigour about two months later. To my surprise, within a month or so of my return, I was given further permission in the directory. I was entrusted with the position of editall and catmv. This allowed me to work in most parts of the directory and to be able to change category names. Within a few weeks of that "promotion" I was then given permissions to work in all of the Kids and Teens. I now can edit anywhere in the directory.
Obviously the senior editors (admins and metas) consider very carefully if an editor can handle permissions such as editall, and I am very happy that they thought I could. The first time I opened up my editor interface I was amazed at the amount of scope ODP actually has. I had worked in large parts of the directory before these permissions but the utter size of the directory actually dawned on me that morning. What I was taught that day was not how much I knew about ODP but how much I didn't know. Being an editall doesn't automatically qualify you to edit anywhere, all it does is open up a huge learning curve so that you can start to educate yourself to edit in places that you have not been before.
What do I concentrate my time on now that I can "go anywhere". Basically I spend a lot of my time in QC (Quality Control) work. I go around the directory looking for sites that may have gone bad, changed, or even disappeared all together. I see this as a very important part of maintaining the projects standards and keeping the user experience to the highest possible degree. I have also being doing a bit of work within the Kids and Teens <http://www.dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/> area. I have been working on expanding the category that deals with The Boy Scouts of America at http://www.dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/People_and_Society/Organizations/Pe rsonal_Development/Scouting/Boy_Scouts_of_America/. I have added quite a few sites to these categories and tidied up quite a few too. Still a long way to go but anything good is worth taking your time over.
I do tend to do a few other jobs around the project, but don't worry I will not bore you with them, suffice to say it all keeps me busy.
Anyway, time to go now. I hope I will be able to talk to you again next year. I would like to say thanks to all my fellow editors for all their help, support and friendship over the last year and I would like to thank all members of the public and webmasters for continuing to support us by suggesting relevant quality sites and using the directory for their own projects.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Yes it is that time of year again, the time for me, laigh, to pop in and say hello and let you know how I am getting on and what I have been up to.
I have now been an editor for just over two years and have completed just over 75000 edits in that time but the number of edits is just a part of the story.
Late last year I decided to take a rest. I had been spending quite a lot of my spare time editing, and although enjoying it, I decided to have a break for a while. I took some time off and returned with increased vigour about two months later. To my surprise, within a month or so of my return, I was given further permission in the directory. I was entrusted with the position of editall and catmv. This allowed me to work in most parts of the directory and to be able to change category names. Within a few weeks of that "promotion" I was then given permissions to work in all of the Kids and Teens. I now can edit anywhere in the directory.
Obviously the senior editors (admins and metas) consider very carefully if an editor can handle permissions such as editall, and I am very happy that they thought I could. The first time I opened up my editor interface I was amazed at the amount of scope ODP actually has. I had worked in large parts of the directory before these permissions but the utter size of the directory actually dawned on me that morning. What I was taught that day was not how much I knew about ODP but how much I didn't know. Being an editall doesn't automatically qualify you to edit anywhere, all it does is open up a huge learning curve so that you can start to educate yourself to edit in places that you have not been before.
What do I concentrate my time on now that I can "go anywhere". Basically I spend a lot of my time in QC (Quality Control) work. I go around the directory looking for sites that may have gone bad, changed, or even disappeared all together. I see this as a very important part of maintaining the projects standards and keeping the user experience to the highest possible degree. I have also being doing a bit of work within the Kids and Teens <http://www.dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/> area. I have been working on expanding the category that deals with The Boy Scouts of America at http://www.dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/People_and_Society/Organizations/Pe rsonal_Development/Scouting/Boy_Scouts_of_America/. I have added quite a few sites to these categories and tidied up quite a few too. Still a long way to go but anything good is worth taking your time over.
I do tend to do a few other jobs around the project, but don't worry I will not bore you with them, suffice to say it all keeps me busy.
Anyway, time to go now. I hope I will be able to talk to you again next year. I would like to say thanks to all my fellow editors for all their help, support and friendship over the last year and I would like to thank all members of the public and webmasters for continuing to support us by suggesting relevant quality sites and using the directory for their own projects.
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1. Another year: Seven years as the largest online Catholic store and still not able to get in the directory.
Posted at 9:21PM on Oct 9th 2009 by Ian
2. I have tried to get my site listed in DMOZ for three years. We have submitted and resubmitted our site a dozen times. From what I can see, there hasn't been an editor for my category in that entire time, since the listings are exactly the same as they were three years ago. It's pretty mindboggling, since there are dozens of new sites in the arena, and of course DMOZ gives unfair SEO advantage to older sites. We hired a SEO expert who said DMOZ was the worst joke in the SEO industry. What do you, Emily, suggest that we do? It's incredibly frustrating. Shame on Google for using DMOZ as its directory.
Posted at 8:39PM on Oct 11th 2009 by Kathy
3. Laigh,
Maybe you could drift over to shopping->toys->stuffed animals and check out the scene. This group has been stuck at 173 entries for a looong time even though we supposedly have an editor assigned. Our site has been attempting for 2 1/2 yrs.
75,000 edits is pretty impressive. Keep up the good work!
- CuddleWorks
Posted at 4:02PM on Oct 13th 2009 by JR
4. I have tried many sites and many times to get listed in DMOZ but no luck, I have tried different sites I mean different topics
it should send us a error or reason why our site is not good for DMOZ.
thank you
Irfan ahmed
Posted at 8:53PM on Oct 14th 2009 by irfan ahmed
5. Laigh,
Thanks for updating the shopping->toys->stuffed animals. That was fast. Maybe we can now replace some of those dead sites.
- CuddleWorks.com
Posted at 3:15PM on Oct 16th 2009 by JR
6. I apologize if my comment appeared self-serving, but I really would like to get some response from dmoz staff as to the status of my submission. If it's wrong, I would like to submit a new one. Otherwise, I want to know that my company will be given a fair chance for publication.
Thank you.
Posted at 6:05PM on Oct 16th 2009 by Jason H. Smith
7. As a former contributor to the Open Directory Project, I am simply amazing that this project is still even around. Seriously.
I could go into a lengthy explanation about why I no longer participate in the ODP, and I should say that the #1 reason I'm not currently editing and engaged in cleaning up the red links, green links, and other problems in the categories I used to maintain is mostly benign neglect on the part of the top hierarchy of this project and silly policies that have kept me out of the loop.
More to the point, I had to go on hiatus due to personal time constraint issues, and I've never bothered to "re-apply" for the third time to get back in.
If the ODP is dying, it is due to this benign neglect and kicking out those who would help the project out. On times I wouldn't mind doing a little bit of directory editing, I keep getting reminded that I can't edit.
It is dying, even if slowly. The problems are legendary, and I'm glad in a number of ways that I'm no longer a part of this effort. I felt that I made a few meaningful contributions and did make a bit of a difference, but now it is no longer relevant to my life. I hope that the ODP community figures out their problems and can get it fixed for future generations of editors, but I unfortunately won't be counted among that number.
Posted at 11:46AM on Oct 17th 2009 by Robert Horning
8. I have tried a number of submissions, but there was no success. The worst
thing is that i was never told why the submission was not acceptable, and how to
make it acceptable. And there is no procedure by which you can know about the
progress of submission (no time-frame). In my opinion DMOZ should improve and
make it more clear procedure. :)
SEO Pakistan
Posted at 3:10PM on Oct 30th 2009 by SEO Pakistan
9. Can't get my site listed in the "Publishing and Printing: Publishing: Services: Design" category for 6 month. Site conforms dmoz policies completely and has biggest portfolio among other sites in the category.
Moreover, I can't contact the editor of this category.
After submitting the feedback form I get this error:
The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server.
The proxy server could not handle the request POST /cgi-bin/send2.cgi.
I've tried different browsers with no result.
It's very frustrating.
Posted at 10:47AM on Oct 20th 2009 by Anton
10. I'm trying to contact the editor for my category but the email form doesn't seem to work. The only way to getting the attention of anyone at Dmoz is post a message on the blog!
Can someone look and see if it can be fixed please?
Posted at 9:23AM on Oct 23rd 2009 by Gregor
11. Very..very.. nice Article... i like this.. a learn more from here.. thanks brother...
Posted at 12:12AM on Oct 25th 2009 by Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa
12. This is the biggest scam in the world. DMOZ is nothing more than a snobby elitist club of the privileged few that has the power to make or break your site. Just get friendly with an editor or brown-nose your way in to becoming an editor, and you have it made in the world of lucrative websites. The quality of this directory is an absolute joke. Take a look around at some of the websites that are included in here and you will see for yourself that quality has nothing to do with it. The front that they have portrayed for years has worn off.
Posted at 4:28AM on Oct 29th 2009 by Jake
13. This is all very confusing. I'm trying to submit my site and I never seem to see it listed. Is there any way to change the arrangement of how you outline instructions.
Posted at 11:19AM on Nov 5th 2009 by Elaine Roberts
14. Hi to dmoz.org about 3 years trying, each 3 month and we have decease because never the editors have to add our url .
and is a page with a power security sistem.
One quetions, we want to add
Why do that the editors ?
Why delay so much to add one editor one url to dmoz ?
We do not know why because we have seen several url like
Somebody know why ?
Regards
Posted at 5:10AM on Nov 12th 2009 by eurotiendaonlien.es
15. @eurotiendaonlien.es
There are not enough editors. There are 1,000,000+ suggestions, 600,000 sections and perhaps 5000 editors. Some editors can work every day, some only once a week, some once a month.
regards
Posted at 6:02PM on Nov 12th 2009 by Eric-the-Bun
16. Hi
Well !
Then , When suppose it, our url most be added ?
We have 3 years or more tryaing to add this url.
Then 3 years is too little ?
Regards
Posted at 7:36AM on Nov 13th 2009 by eurotiendaonlien.es
17. @Team of Eurotiendaonline
It helps if you only suggest it to one category.
If you suggest it to eight categories many times, then an editor must delete all of your many suggestions.
They use their time on your site deleting your suggestions.
They then go to list the sites of people who have only suggested once. Your site must then wait.
Be patient - do not submit the site again.
regards
Posted at 8:12AM on Nov 13th 2009 by Eric-the-Bun
18. HELP: apply@dmoz.org
does not work.
Please let us know when apply@dmoz.org is active.
Robert
The line beginning with " DATA
Posted at 4:54PM on Nov 18th 2009 by robert
19. @robert
Unfortunately over the last week we have had some server problems which resulted in various parts of the system being unavailable at different times.
If you try again be sure to save a copy of your application.
If you have problems, go to http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/ and look/post in the Becoming an Editor thread.
regards
Posted at 6:30PM on Nov 19th 2009 by Eric-the-Bun
20. We have suggested one time by year eurotiendaonline.es but several time because we did not knew how many time delay the suggetions.
Well now that we know, we will wait, maybe i will see suggeted whith 80th year old man, but we have patiences...
Thank you for your info.
Team eurotiendaonline
Posted at 11:21AM on Nov 21st 2009 by eurotiendaonlien.es