In a comment left in my previous post “On The Receiving End” I had an interesting series of questions posed to me by Tristan. Rather than have one long responding comment I have decided to make a post response.
Tristan Wrote:
August 28th, 2007 at 6:36 pm e
I have a question to you. Do you do this just for fun?
How many hours do you spend reviewing sites?
Is it worthed?
Tristan.
Thats actually three questions. 
Assuming by “this” you mean volunteer time to be an editor. Yes I am a volunteer editor mainly because I have found it very enjoyable. I also continue to do it because I have the opportunity to work with a lot of great and interesting people daily. I believe in the project and find it gratifying to build little categories and keep others categories current and in good shape.
How many hours do I spend reviewing sites? Hmm, that is a good question. I don’t have an answer though, or even a good guess. The best answer I can give is I am online the better part of 9 hours a day during the business week (M-F) and I am on and off of the ODP all day long (when ever time permits or something needs dealt with. That doesn’t mean I am always reviewing sites. Much of work currently has been done in the realm of quality control and mentoring (two of more enjoyable ODP tasks. Yesterday I spent the better part of 6 hours just reviewing listed sites and correcting listings.
Is it worthed? I interpreted that question to be Is it worthwhile? If that is the question, I would have to say that overall it is to me. There are days I wonder why in the world to do I do this to my self :), but overall I am proud to help where and who I can, whenever I can. If even one person finds something I have done to be helpful, then I am happy that I put time into it. I certainly don’t do it for the money .
The two strongest reasons that I continue to log in daily are really one in the same-The people. Firstly, there are those people that have helped me understand what it takes to be a good editor. Those are the few people that I call friends and mentors, and the ones that are most responsible for my development in the directory. I strive everyday to honor the faith, support, encouragement, and friendship that they have (and continue) given me. Quitting or giving up is not an option because I would never want to let them down.
Secondly, there are those people who I currently communicate with on a regular basis. These include many of the editors I have joined to the directory and/or directly mentored as they started out in the ODP. They are the reason that I continue to try and improve myself, in order to provide them similar support, encouragement, faith and friendship to that which I received in their positions.
When all else fails me and the motivation levels drop, all I usually have to do is chat with these friends and I find the real reason I continue.
A little background:
I am one of the rare cases (maybe not so rare, but none the less) because when I started out 3 years ago, I had very little inside website knowledge. I had a crappy personal website for my family (which AFAIK was already listed or suggested) that was one of those cookie cutter fill in the blanks ( ) templates free with my ISP’s email accounts and zero commercial interest in websites. I stumbled into Resource-Zone one day and saw a whole new world of volunteers. I hung around a day or two and saw things that sounded interesting, so I started applying. I say started because it took me a couple of attempts to get it right. Someone took a chance on me and here I am three years later still trying to justify their faith in me.
That maybe more information than you wanted , but hopefully it helps to answer your questions Tristan. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate it.
