My 3rd year as a Dmoz editor....

I officially reached my third year as a Dmoz editor a few months ago. What can I say about this. I'm still a category editor - boo! I'm overwhelmed with my university work and, well, not working, hahah, so I don't have much time to edit. Okay, truth is, I do have a lot of free time, but I don't spend as much time editing as I used to mainly because I'm reaching burn out again. Plus, many of the sites that get suggested are boring to look at and read, or too time-consuming to review. Sometimes I'll click on a website and look through it for a few seconds and change my mind about reviewing it because I just don't feel like taking the time, or, because it looks like it's going to take too much time to review.


Sorry, but if you have one of those ugly sites (subjective, I know) then I will not be reviewing those anytime soon, lol. Those sites tend to turn me off and make me less likely to finish the review. I don't like reviewing boring sites, either. Sites that have a very good design and are entertaining to read will catch my attention and make me want to look further. Yes, yes, I know, editors should not base a listing on site design or aesthetics. Well, the keyword is "listing." I don't base site listings on those things, only content, but I do base whether or not I will take the time to review a site based on how it looks and reads. This, I am completely free to do because, according to Dmoz guidelines, I do not have to review a site that I don't feel comfortable with reviewing, and ugly sites I don't like reviewing.

Well, not only have I reached my third year of editing, but tomorrow is also my birthday, yey(!)...another year of getting older, but I can always lie about my age - and get away with it. So, for my birthday month I will resolve to add 50 websites in my favorite category. Heheh, that's more than I usually do per month and this is a spammy category, so it's also time-consuming. Well, anyway, I'll see how that goes, and I'm already off to a good start.



Some mistakes I've made in the past:



I'm sure I've made many editing mistakes in the past. Lets see...I've accidentally deleted sites; I've accidentally added sites that shouldn't have been added; I've added sites that I now know weren't listable to begin with; I've given horrible descriptions to sites because I didn't feel like taking the time to write a good one that would have made the site stand out; I've misspelled words; I've forgotten to use spell-check; and I've misspelled people's names, and, even worse, described them as the wrong sex....as you can see, those are a lot of things I've done wrong, but overall, I've not made too many crucial mistakes. These are all small compared to what can really be harmful.



What I've learned since becoming an editor:



I've learned a lot since becoming an editor. I've learned how to properly describe and title sites; I've learned how to spot affiliates, mirrors, and fraternal mirrors; I've learned how to give a quick and easy description to a site without much effort; I've learned a way of finding better categories for misplaced sites; and I've learned reasonably good site placement skills. Of course, these aren't the only things I've learned over three years of editing, and all of these things combined has made me a more efficient editor.



EDITOR STATS:


5940 [total edits]/ 1856 unique adds / 1560 deletes / 1126 unreviewed