Mostly Away

Just a brief update on my status for the summer.  I have been mostly away the last couple of weeks and likely will continue to be mostly away for some time to come.  Real life has taken some twists and turns making less free time available to dedicate to hobby projects etc.  Also intermittent ISP problems have created even more problems with getting on line.

I am still around and will do my best to dedicate as much time as I can.  It will be very sporadic for a while though, at least until I can stabalize my internet connection and get some symbalance of a schedule in place.  If I owe you an email response, bump me in a week or so.  I haven’t been ignoring you, just been busy and forgetful. 

Personal Statistics - June 2008

Here are some probably useless numbers regarding how my month panned out in June. It wasn’t an overtly productive month for me, but I was able to accomplish a few more things on my list.

Editor Accounts
I tried to focus on dealing with Editor issues such as new joins, reinstates, abuse, etc last month. For the month my numbers were:

• Reinstated 9 editor accounts, no denied reinstatements.
• Joined 2 new editors, rejected 6 new applications for editor accounts.
• Accepted 4 editor new permission requests, denied 0.
• Granted new category access to 2 editors based on their editing experience and interests.
• Wrote one Dashboard Feedback to an editor and unfortunately had to participate in removing one editor account. [Note updated to clarify that no single Meta can remove any editor's account]

Overall I accept about 15% of the new account applications I review and over 80% of the new permission requests I review. Those numbers really are meaningless though. New account applications I reject are almost always easy rejections, those applications with serious problems such as being incomplete or categories being far to large for a trainee. My new permissions requests are usually fairly straight forward and easy accepts are generally easily picked out of the list too. With new permission requests, there is also edit history available to make a decision much easier.

Actual Editing

Honestly didn’t have a lot of time to edit in June, between being sick, swamped at work, and family engagements my free time was pretty well tied up. I did manage to get in and do some work though.

• Only made a total of 97 edits for the month.
• 30 of my edits were additions to the directory.
• 23 edits resulted in deleting or unreviewing sites from the directory.
• The rest of the edits were quality control issues, either fixing titles, descriptions and URL’s or moving sites to better locations and new sub-categories.

July isn’t looking much better, as far as being very busy with real work and family engagements. I will be mostly away most of the first part of the month, and the second part will likely be very busy at work. Not sure if I will be more or less productive than June. Still working at it though, even if not getting a whole lot accomplished.

Sick As A Dog

Well I failed to avoid the nasty virus being spread around my house. Damn kids. High fever, sore throat, nasty cough, and congestion reigned last night. This morning is an Ibuprofen and decongestant morning. I am just trying to make it to Saturday without collapsing at my desk.

I wanted to clarify something from yesterday, as my post may be a bit confusing. I have had mostly positive feedback personally, from the management and upper level editors from both directories I contribute too. I think most of the uncomfortable feelings are created through whispers (third party comments, he said-she said) things as well as some mis-understood sarcasm or ribbing on both sides. I wouldn’t classify anything I have dealt with as hostility, rather just an uncomfortable situation. Its perhaps even possible that the passers on of the whispers have their own agendas, and I take it all with a grain of salt.

The bottom line is, no one should make a mountain out of an ant hill. This isn’t something thats really an issue, unless someone is breaking the rules/guidelines somewhere and neither side wants that to happen and both actively strive to prevent it. I have been asked privately several times over the last week, if I am leaving the ODP. The answer is an absolute, NO. It is my first love and my primary focus. The BOTW is great though and worth a share of my free time. Its so refreshing sometimes to just be able to edit without worrying about other things. Thats not saying I would trade the other things for anything. I am so proud to do what I can for both projects and look forward to working jointly with them to make everyone’s experience good on both sides.

DMOZ = Good
BOTW = Good
BOTW + DMOZ = Best of both worlds, IMO.

My new motto for the week: Chin up and try to enjoy the day!