What Do You Mean, You're Hungry?Sometimes we ODP editors notice that the subject area we're editing in affects us in subtle ways. Adding sites to Recreation/Travel makes you wish you were on a tropical beach, clearing Robozilla errors in Games makes you reach for that joystick, and checking descriptions in Shopping/Vehicles makes you want to take something for a test drive.Well, things are no different at ChefMoz. Whether you're adding an Italian restaurant you saw reviewed in last week's newspaper or checking a submitted review for a downtown cafe, sooner or later you'll be asking yourself where that growling noise is coming from. That's ok, unless it affects your judgment and causes your restaurant descriptions to be less than objective or the drool shorts out your keyboard. My advice: if you're a bit overwhelmed by rich food, you can always look for a few more listings with an Organic/Healthy cuisine. More seriously, staff programmer Autumn Looijen was able to arrange a bit of a ChefMoz feeding with a bulk import of restaurant data from Digital Cities in April. This meant that virtually overnight the listing numbers on the front page jumped tenfold, from around 2,000 to over 20,000. ChefMoz was heard to give a belch or two, but seems to have digested it reasonably well with the help of its editors. Early in May a second helping of listings arrived from Citysearch and editors are once again busy making sure it all fits in properly. So far all of the bulk added listings have been in the US, but other countries will follow suit as soon as suitable data sources can be found. Check out some of our statistics. A Domain by any Other Name ...Since the listings in the US portion of ChefMoz are now comparable in number to other restaurant guides, making it a credible resource, the chefmoz.org domain has been activated. http://chefmoz.dmoz.org/ and http://restaurants.dmoz.org/ still work, but the official address is nowhttp://chefmoz.org/ Forum ActivityIn the General forum there are ongoing threads about dealing with the bulk listing additions. In addition, editors are discussing the possibility of creating reviewer accounts for members of the public who would like to submit reviews and perhaps as a training ground for new editors. Another hot topic is whether or not to use pictures from restaurant web sites in the listings.ChefMoz Culture has been much quieter, now that Guidelines and the restaurant feature list discussions have come to an end. Bugs and Features continues to be active with discussions about how to further refine the user interface and functionality of the new directory. The Meta-editors forum is currently the spot to find discussions around new category approval guidelines, while New Editors is a good place to find basic editing tips and useful tools. It's also the right place for any editor, seasoned or new, to ask questions that might have a very obvious answer. Lastly, for those looking for a bit of comic relief or just some easygoing banter, The Social Club is the place to be. Humor, be it food related or not, is encouraged here as well as a bit of editor roasting -- as long as the temperature doesn't get too high. How Can I Join Up?Care to help out with listing and reviewing some of your favorite -- and not so favorite -- eateries? ChefMoz would love to have you. An application to edit in your hometown is most welcome. First, you need to log on to http://chefmoz.org/editors/. If you've changed your password since November1999 or have signed up at DMoz since then, you will have to e-mail Autumn to get a password. Write her a few lines about why you would like to edit at ChefMoz. After you log on, check out the Forum activity, the Unofficial FAQ and the Guidelines in the Tools for Editors section and then request editing privileges in your hometown. Please note:
Let's eat!
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