Refused as Open Directory Editor

[accelerator]

Anyone else been refused as an Open Directory Editor?

They say in their application that they will accept you even if you run affiliate sites, so I was honest about my site affiliations, yet I think this is what got me refused. Even though I would have been careful about which of my sites I added, it appears you're not given the benefit of the doubt. Anyone had similar experiences?

Rgds

accelerator

[drivetowin]

Having been an ODP editor for a while several years ago, unless things have changed, which I doubt, I don't really know why anyone would want to be one.

Until you have been part of ODP it is hard to imagine that such a group of introspective obsessives could exist - any organisation that will spend hours debating the order of words in a site description and even which words to allow/disallow in a description (I'm not talking about the description entered by the person submitting the site - I'm talking about the descriptions as amended by the ODP editors) has gone sadly wrong somewhere.

Couple that with 'hot potato' domains which get passed from one editor to another to another to another and it is small wonder that any new sites ever appear in ODP at all.

If you want to be an editor, join Winki, much more relaxed and actually makes being an editor 'fun'

[Kandevil]

The only reason for being a DMOZ editor is to approve your own sites.

Join with a female name, seems to help.

[Elaine]

group of introspective obsessives

couldn't have put it better, Keith - made the rules and regulations at the Halifax seem like an 18-30 holiday. It's an impossible task.

[OLBG]

lol, so true Keith, Im another former Ed

In their defence the amount of spam submissions they get is beyond belief and some of it is quite clever so that you cant just spot it and delete it immediately.

[Dynamoo]

The most likely reason for rejections are:

1) It looks like you want to be an ODP editor purely to list your own sites, or
2) You've applied for a category that's too large or difficult for a newbie editor to start with.

You won't get rejected if you run an affiliate site - you will have to declare all your sites (no matter what they are) as an "affiliation" though.

However, pure affiliate marketing sites aren't eligible for a listing, so if you applied to edit a category where you have an affiliate site that could be listed then that would probably be grounds for rejection. Also, shopping and B2B categories are really for experienced editors only because of the issues of spotting affiliates, dropshippers, mirrors and just plain spam.

If you really *are* interested in becoming an ODP editor, then you should pick a smaller category that you have an interest in, either a topical area or perhaps your locality. Locality editing is quite fun and easy to do, and it's often a stepping stone to other things.

However.. if you just want to get an affiliate site listed, don't bother. Every editor can see what every other editor is doing and misuse of editing priveleges usally gets found out quite quickly.

[accelerator]

It seems as far as the ODP is concerned I have committed crimes against humanity. After initial rejection, I reapplied to edit the local restaurants category where I live (because I'm a local web developer too). However, according to them, because of the mistake of making a handful of deep link submissions for my affiliate site, it seems I've blacklisted myself for life. I did read their submission guidelines carefully and I didn't see anything about multiple deep link submissions.

Anyway, it does seem that it's extremely easily to upset these guys and I don't think they do forgiveness. I'll just let them calm down a little. Or perhaps as Kandevil suggested, have a sex change :eek: ...

If there are any current ODP editors here that want to take up my cause, drop me a PM.

[jasonflk]

It was suggested, by their own forums, that I should apply to become an editor, after asking when my site should be listed (note the category I applied for had no current editor). So went through all the guidelines wanting to be an editor in an area I was encouraged to join, only to be rejected with no helpful information.

SO have given up and will try to get my site listed by just waiting a few years.

Jason

[Sammy aff]

I got approved ages ago and I must admit my intentions were not entirely motiveless.
But my intentions were honourable at the time, stop the redirects to porn gambling etc. I got lost in the mountain, in general the OD do a good job, in fact they do a better job even now than google's algos. But corporate google don't trust anything bar their precious ranking algos

[Sammy aff]

PS, as comfort zone: a listing is no where near as important as it once was

[chrish]

I heard some horrible stories from a very trusted friend a while ago, mostly about DMOZ editors owning sites in their moderated category, kicking the competition out and taking bungs//backhanders.

It's a real shame as it could be so much better. What annoys me most is the whole attitude 'we do this for free in our own time, we aren't paid etc' - have they bothered to look at how many hours people put into open source projects without moaning?

I actually came across this today via threadwatch -> http://www.corruptdmozeditor.com - Good reading (and very true imo

[Brendon]

There used to be a beautiful phentermine cat... I knew every person involved there (including the editor), and although there was no outright bribery involved, it was such an "old boys network" kind of deal