Must be my lucky day - I got three really annoying reviews in a row. They were all in a category that is subdivided by country and then by state. Most sites have to be listed at the state level, and a site can only be listed in one state.

1. This site has been listed in ODP for several months in the correct state. Earlier this month it was submitted to the USA level and denied. Today a page within the site was submitted to the world wide level. Deleted again. This is just plain annnoying - and could be avoided by reading the category description.

2. Site has been listed for a while. Earlier this month, got an update request to change the URL and confirm that state it was listed in. No problem. But today, he wants to be listed in a different state. Please, guys, one state per customer. Deleted.

3. New site submitted to a state. Now in fact, it ’s the wrong category, but I can understand the confusion, and normally I would move it the the right place for another editor to review. But then I see in big red letters - This site is under construction some of the information may be incorrect. Then why do you submit the site? You want us to put in the directory this confusing and incorrect information about your organization, you want this glaring example of sloppy web site to be shown to the world? Deleted - and the next time it’s submitted - it will be looked at very carefully before it’s allowed in. (You really should thank us)

I look at a shopping category I edit, which has seven sub-categories. It currently has four sites awaiting review. Why would I not just review them in order, and possibly publish them all today?

1. Site submitted in mid-April
2. Submitted a week ago
3. Submitted two days ago to the wrong category, but another editor already sent it here

The first one bothers me, something about it is suspicious, it feels like a branch of another company, and needs more work to check it out, I’ve looked at it before, and just don’t have the energy to deal with it today, so I skip it.

The third one is in the top category so I get to it before I see the second one. It has two problems, it is inconsistent in how it displays prices, and it’s unclear whether it’s retail or wholesale, so it may be the wrong category. I’ve also seen a lot of site of the same kind, and often they have mirrors, so skip it for now.

The second one is in a sub-cat. One of the pages does not display correctly, but it’s a minor problem. The supplied description is not bad, if I remove one sentence of hype and promo, and edit the rest a little bit. The title is wrong, fix that and publish it. The whole thing took less than five minutes. If all reviews were like this, then I could get most new sites published in a week. But as with the other two, sometimes sites take much more work.

Open Directory Project Bans Objection to New Policy

This is a response in Resource-Zone - now what is the problem here? (Quoted below since like any moderated forum - off topic post get deleted)

I am going to submit a press release to all the major news sources, regarding the events that have taken place here this morning.

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For those of you who do not know. I have been kicked off and my postings have been erased because I wanted to start a protest to the DMOZ.org’s new policy of not allowing their users to submit site status requests.

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I feel that a truly responsible and “open” organization would ALLOW dissent from their members if they considered one of their policies irresponsible or controversial. I feel that a responsible organization would listen to feedback of the people who submit quality websites, people who make their Directory so important and prominent in the world.

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Lastly, I feel strongly that is irresponsible to shut people out about the status of their site listing requests. Especially, when it is those people who have made the site so strong from the beginning.

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Protest the Policy, start your own thread.

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Regards,
Mike

He just plain does not understand - it’s a forum run by volunteers, and like any forum, the people who run it can decide what is allowed and what is not allowed. Try going to other moderated forums, and decide to post against the TOS, and see how far you get.

Resource-Zone was set up a couple of years ago to try and help those trying to submit sites to ODP and those wanting to become editors. One of the features was the ability to ask about sites suggested to ODP for review. However, over time this feature has become more of a hassle than a help. It seems that most of the people asking question are unable to follow simple guidelines.

It really should have been very simple. Provide the site URL, the clickable category and the date suggested, making sure to wait a month before asking. Then get an answer - yes or no the site had been submitted - sometimes be told, resubmit. Simple - one question - one answer. Didn’t seem to be that way most of the time.

Instead there were insanely long threads like this:

Tell me why my site has not been reviewed, why did you reject it?

What site, you didn’t give the URL.

The one in my profile.

You don’t have one in your profile

Oh, my url is this ……

That URL does not work.

Sorry I mispelled it - its …..

But you forgot to give a category

It’s Society Religion

We need a clickable category - please read the guidelines

It’s http://directory.google.com/Top/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/

We are not Google - we need an ODP category

Top: Society: Religion and Spirituality

That category is not clickable

Sorry it’s http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/

That category does not accept submissions

Ok, it must have been http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Shamanism/

The site is not waiting in that category

Maybe I submitted it to Top: Society: Religion and Spirituality: Shamanism: Psychoactive Substances- anyway I just resubmitted it.

Why did you do that, we haven’t told you to?

Ok, give me the status then.

Now we can’t, since you just resubmitted, you have to wait 30 days.

Why are you refusing to list my site - it must be my competition, trying to stop me getting listed.

But the site has not been reviewed, no-one has refused to list it.

You are an idiot and I’m going to sue you.

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It’s too bad, it really should have worked, but it just go totally our of hand, too much frustration on both sides, too many arguments, too many accusations.

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Anyway, as of 21 May, the Site Submission Status forum will be closed - see Discontinuation of site status checks

The other forums will remain open. Expect confusion for the next few weeks as old posters come back for their six-month status and post their requests in the wrong forum.

ODP Search - which has for the last few weeks failed to search most of the time - is now working again. However the results are still outdated. Allow about another week for the results to catch up to the RDF data.

Remember, even when it works, ODP search is not sophisticated in it’s search function and is typically about a week behind the real data. So a site just added that displays correctly in a category will not show up in search. Conversely, a site deleted or moved, will still show the old category in the search.