Real Life 1, DMOZ 0

Wow, its been almost a month since I last had time to sit at this keyboard and pour any thoughts out. Not that any of my latest thoughts would have made much sense to anyone. I have been busy with fighting real life to gain some ground and get settled in to a better routine that will allow me enough time to get back fully into the swing of DMOZ and also BOTW. Thus far its been sporadic at best, frankly by the time I get home every night and get the kids fed and in bed, I am to burned out to sit long at my computer screen. Combine that with the fact Comcast Broadband sucks and is usually out at my home when I am in the mood for some serious editing, and I am just barely hanging on. Its certainly not a lack of desire, I have a great deal of projects I want to get completed ASAP in both places. I also owe a lot of ‘ear’ time to a few good friends whom I dearly miss chatting with regularly.

I did find a few hours last week to plug away at BOTW. I am working to get through my break in period with them so I can start contributing more positively. I managed a couple of dozen additions and some good organization in my little area of Regional over there. With DMOZ I have always tried to be at the forefront in areas of interest, specifically I try to be both visible and vocal as much as I possibly can/could. With BOTW, I admit to being more of a lurker. I follow discussions and projects from the sidelines, but am pretty much plugging away silently on my own.

I have a reorg that has been set to begin for over a month now waiting on me. That I think will be tonights goal. Get parked projects completed first and foremost, then work on new ones. Hopefully I will have more to come later on current and future personal projects. At the moment I need to get myself back up to speed on what is going on with the primary one, so I can get it rolling ASAP. Thanks cherel for continuing to remind me about it. Without you I might loose my mind sometimes. Glad you are around to nudge me when I need it.

More to come later……

Dmoz: Personal Projects and Editor Initiatives

Well not much personally to report this past week. I managed to work through a lot more of my Indiana cleanup project. Guessing it was minimal, perhaps around 100-150 total edits but it was as much as I could squeeze in during an otherwise hectic real life week. I also managed a few quality control edits this week. To honor a good friend during their absence (which is about time to be over damn it!), I logged quite a few Kids and Teens quality control edits as well.

There are several good editor initiatives going on at the moment. One of the best ones, is trying to highlight a very important and well developed category. The category is for U.S. Presidential Candidates and was highlighted the other day at Resource-Zone in the “Inside the ODP” thread. Anyone interested in finding information on the candidates for this years Presidential Election, should check out the excellent work that has been done there.

Another thing that I noticed, was that the Official DMOZ Blog is still a mess. It’s a shame really.  There could be so much more accomplished with it.  If only there was some consistent, experienced input going into it. I know there are discussions going on to improve it, I hope someone figures out the best way to utilize that as a positive resource. Having it function up to its potential would be a big plus for the project. At the very least post something to remove that ugly strike through post, that is nearly impossible to follow.

I am sure I am forgetting some important ones. If any other editors have comments or projects that they think should be mentioned, by all means let me know. For now, I am off to work on the huge pile of real work I have pushed aside all morning.

DMOZ - Happenings

Well kind of a misleading post title.  I have been mostly away for the better part of a week.  Real life is kicking me in the [edited] backside right now.  Between family and real work, not much time to accomplish much of anything else, including posting to this blog.  I have manged a little over 400 total edits in May, but most of those came on one day.

The last 10 days I have only managed time for around a dozen, and most of those were in a mentoring capacity of editors needing assistance/training.  There is a lot of this and that going around, but my lack of activity is not due to lack of motivation.  Low motivation and morale is a constant lately, but while it sometimes makes the deciding factor of whether to edit today, it hasn’t been the biggest issue with my limited activity this month.

To do list:

1. Finish my Indiana Localities cleanup operation.  - This is my biggest priority, when time permits.  As it stands I am still sitting somewhere in the I’s I think.
2. Work on any straggling new applications in areas that I am most interested in.  We need more new editors always.  I have been trying to watch out for good applications, but more needs to be done.
3. Planning a strategy for a localized recruiting effort.  I have been brainstorming the best ways to motivate potential local Indiana editors into applying to edit.  Haven’t figured out what would be best yet, but thats a goal I have to work on.
4. Continue to work with new editors and even some of the more seasoned ones that I have joined, so that they can continue to grow as editors and improve.

Hopefully some more time permits me to work on some of these soon.