I applied for another category! And, now, I wait....

Today is the day that I finally decided to apply for another Dmoz category. My mood about which category to apply for editing privileges in is always changing. Last night, or was it early this morning(?), I decided that I wanted to apply for another category. At first I wanted to apply for a category I have experience in, but after spending an hour or so looking for some good sites to put on my application, I decided to forget it and began looking for sites for another category I wanted to apply to. Plus, those sites I looked at in the beginning were so boring that it made me realize that I currently have no interest in the topic. But, when I began looking for sites for my second choice category I actually had fun looking for them and reviewing them to put on my application.

I spent several hours last night and this morning looking for 3 sites; two of them I found last night, and the other...I didn't find. Yep, that's right, I only put two sample sites on my editor application, but I can honestly say that sites for that category are hard to find. But, to make finding sites for those types of categories easier I always look in a tried and true place over the World Wide Web. Well, if you can't figure out where I find my sample sites then I'm sure not going to tell ya. Oh, gosh, I'm getting off topic again.

After I found the sites I made sure to thoroughly review them about 3, 4, and even 5 times before I decided that I was going to use them as my sample sites. I did have my reservations about it at first; Are the sites good enough? Will I be rejected because the sites are a better fit for another, more closely related, category? All those thoughts went through my mind as I was filling out the application. Finally, after more self-doubt, I finally submitted my application for permissions in a different category. And, now, I wait.

I don't have any feelings either way about the sites I put on my application. I've only been rejected for a category once since I've been an editor and when I was filling out my application for that category I had my doubts about one of the sites. Well, it just so happened that my doubts about that site were right and that's why my application got rejected. I promptly re-applied for that same category, and now I'm it's listed editor. Okay, enough about the past. With the two sites I suggested today I don't have no good or bad feelings about them. The only way I'll know for sure if they're a good fit for the category is if I get approved for it with no reviewing editor comments; sometimes reviewing editors will send helpful comments while approving you for a category.

If I get rejected, then I'll improve upon my site selections via the rejection comments and send in another application. What I am worried about, besides wondering if I picked the right sites for the category, is if I applied for a category that's too big for an editor with no experience in that part of the directory. I can see how many sites are waiting in review and it's about 5x the number of listed sites. Also, there are a number of closely related categories, so I was careful to review the listing criteria for each of the related categories to make sure the sites I chose shouldn't be listed in them instead. Reviewing sample sites and making a decision on if they're listable in the category is truly a time-consuming task, and hopefully it'll pay off in the end if I'm accepted as listed editor.

On to my current stats at the time of this entry.

1426 / 382 unique adds / 355 deletes / 222 unreviewed

Key:

1426 is my total number of edits.

382 unique adds is the total number of sites I've added to the directory.

355 deletes is the total number of sites I've deleted from the directory (including those from unreviewed).

222 unreviewed is the number of sites I've taken a look at but decided not to list them nor delete them; they still wait in unreviewed.

Summary:

I did try to add some sites to the directory, but mostly I've come across sites that should be either deleted or removed from the public view, which I promptly did. Some of the sites I did add to the directory belong in another category, so it was just easier to review it then publish it in the correct category. I've stopped focusing on deleting dead links from unreviewed - for now, and today was focusing on listed sites that have changed content or went dead. If the site changed content, then I only unreviewed it instead of sending it to the correct category. My total edits did go up by about 41. I keep a watchful eye on my total edits, because, according to some editors, once you reach the 5,000 edit mark you are then considered an experienced editor.