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……

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.

DMOZ, BOTW, and Beyond

Lately I feel like the spit-bucket boy, accidentally caught in the middle of the ring between to prize fighters. Its not a place thats very comfortable to be in, for sure. Most of the problems IMO are based on mis-conceptions and confusion between the two directories. Some of it is real, but a lot of it is imagined. Here I sit (along with several others) straddling the fence of both worlds and not necessarily feeling at home on either side anymore.

Some (not all) DMOZ editors have a problem with BOTW editors participating on both sides. They have some legitimate concerns, but concerns are not facts and I have seen nothing that justifies the concerns thus far. Contrary to popular belief, its not the highest levels that have the most heated opinions on the subject. Often times its below the Meta level and sometimes it Meta+. There is absolutely nothing wrong IMO with anyone, at any level of DMOZ wanting to contribute at BOTW so long as you are maintaining the ODP Guidelines with regards to actions and communications. This is something that has been stressed at BOTW the entire time, don’t conflict yourself with DMOZ or any other resource you are using to build that directory. As DMOZ editors we need to just let it go, its not threatening our existence and its not stealing our best editors away. In fact, our animosity in a lot of cases is driving the good ones away.

On the flip-side, not all fault lies within DMOZ. Many of us joining BOTW are doing so out of both curiosity and also because of diminished personal satisfaction from editing in DMOZ. Whether its frustration with the direction (or lack there of) of the project, hurt feelings for believing we have been taken for granted, or whatever. I have seen some references to DMOZ being evil or the true bad guys in this. Sometimes I feel like I am viewed as just being a fly on the wall and even though the staff and management have all been extremely sincere at making me feel welcomed, I sometimes feel like the third wheel. Someone who is not really welcome on the playground. I hold no ill will towards anyone on either side, I know that its human nature in a lot of cases like this and perhaps naively believe its not as it seems. I just wish we could all just drop it and move on. Those of us who want and are invited to play in both sandboxes, shouldn’t be getting grief from either side. Nor should we be pressing buttons and taking pot shots back and forth because of it either.

I think we can both co-exist and we should be able to do so and get along at the same time. I have stated this elsewhere, but if someone doesn’t feel I personally still belong on one side or the other by all means let me know and let the management know. If I can’t be trusted to do whats right and whats good, then I don’t deserve to be associated with either side. I hope that I have continued to prove that is not the case and that I won’t stand by idly and allow the integrity of either (any) project suffer because of my actions or inactions.

• I have contributed to DMOZ now for almost 4 years (next month will be my 4th birthday).
• I have over the last couple of years and to my knowledge still can, contribute to JoeAnt.
• I have contributed information and opinions to Resource-Zone and Digital Point (also opposite ends of the spectrum)
• I have contributed to various other forums related to DMOZ and sites.
• I have edited a few minor problems at Wikipedia (although, not enough to remember which ones or where)
• And now I am choosing to give a little time to BOTW.

All of these things are similar in topic and all of them give me a certain amount of personal satisfaction and enjoyment in their own ways. There is no reason to think less of anyone for choosing to participate in one or more of these or any other projects. If you don’t like one, thats fine its your choice and opinion. Feel free to keep it to yourself though, unless its really a concern supported with evidence (such as abuse) and then by all means scream it from the highest mountain. Then send me a message about it, so I can scream it as well. No one wants that and as far as I know, both (all) sides are working hard to combat and remove the results of such actions.

Please be kind and respectful of everyone.