Arts | Computers
| Games | Health | Home
| Kids and Teens | Recreation
ArtsOne of the biggest improvements in the Arts category has been the development of the Classical Composers category. Editors have worked hard to add categories, descriptions, and sites, resulting in a much improved and appreciated category. Other news includes a new category for your favorite Degrassi TV shows, a reorganization in Online Writing, and a cleaned up Fashion Models category. - JschwartComputersLast time fearless editors visited this column, the great merge in Computers/Internet was in its infancy. Now we are happy to report successes from this grand adventure in reorgs. For example there is now one comprehensive centralized category covering Domain Names at Computers/Internet/Domain_Names.Computers has a wealth of categories with plenty of unreviewed. Want to help out? Check out Help Wanted and apply for a category. - Shara GamesFirst of all, congratulations to Krazor, Games first CatMod! We hope Krazor will make this already strong category even better. Also, congratulations to games leader Enarra, who was married on May 12. Recent developments in Games include a general reorg of Video Games/Genres, improvements in both the Board Games and Card Games categories, and a discussion of how best to list Video Games/Titles. - JschwartHealthHealth has undergone some exciting changes over the past few months. The most significant of which is achieving the 50,000 sites mark. Congratulations are in order to the entire health team for their hard work and dilligence in achieving this goal.In mid-April, senior level editors began an experiment in tree-centric mentorship. The idea is to have top and second-level editors write introductory letters to new editors, above and beyond the standard e-mails that are sent by the metas when editors are accepted. The letters are supposed to introduce new editors to the forums, in particular the Health and New Editor's forums. It also gives them an introduction to a senior level editor who they can start a dialogue with in regards to their concerns. However, this isn't a one-way street, senior editors are forced to check the new editors log and as a result get to know which categories to keep an eye on in order to assist the new editors get the guidelines down quickly and correctly. - Brownsmurf and SharaHomeEditors have been clearing up confusion resulting from other parts of the ODP having categories similar to Home categories. The beverage folks in Recreation and Home have been discussing the best way to organize cocktail and other drink recipes. A little reorg in the Baby Food categories broadened into a discussion about kids and cooking, with K&T editors joined in the discussion about where to place sites that teach children to cook. A new Home/Cooking/For_Children category has been created. Other Recipe categories continue to grow with new additions for Salads, African American, and new sites added to Safety. Unstable or disappearing URLs presented problems for Home editors. The huge recipe database out of the University of California at Berkeley, SOAR, went through some unstable URL days, and Themestream.com closed down altogether. Nannies in the valuable Childcare category have been better organized into Regional categories for ease of browsing. - DmozmarchKids and TeensEditors happily reported that there are now over 12,000 sites in K&T, double the number in November when the directory first came up. The number of unrevieweds is also at an exceptionally low level as editors work hard to deal with inappropriate submissions and spam. Editor vacancies in categories remain an area of concern, however, and experienced editors are encouraged to read the K&T guidelines and consider lending a helping hand in one of the many small K&T categories that need editors. Quality control is a particular area of activity in K&T, with guidelines that are stricter than in other areas of the ODP. Editors have been activists in keeping out inappropriate material, from just plain porn, to misspellings and poor grammer in descriptions. Finally, the original three K-metas, holidayzone, quiltermom, and sready, welcomed two new K-metas, toocynical and bldarter, into their ranks. This is a welcome expansion indeed! - DmozmarchReferenceThe quiet but productive world of Reference has welcomed a number of new editors, all busy working in their new categories. The Preferred Terms list has been applied in Reference categories as needed, and editors have also standardized the spelling of Saint vs. St. in college names. Editors have also worked on clearing up the distinctions between Knowledge and Information Management and are working on category descriptions so the rest of us will understand it too! - DmozmarchRecreationNew reorganizations and clean ups in Recreation include a new Pet Sitter category, improvements to the Scooter category, and ongoing discussions in Scouting. Newwave has started a general discussion in Autos that has sparked quite a bit of conversation and will no doubt add much to an already valuable category.ScienceCh-ch-changes are happening slowly but surely in Science. Editors participated in one of the first ODP polls to determine the fate of Biology/Flora_and_Fauna. Meta orlady set up the polls and rallied the troops to action. As a result the animal and plant categories across Science are being centralized in the Flora and Fauna category.Over in archaeology, jeanmanco, hiera and others are working to clean up the bits, streamline the categories and improve navigation with additional @links. - Shara - Shara SocietyThe dynamic world of Society has kept editors busy as they respond to new areas of interest and new sites available. Several groups moved out of Society/Subcultures and into Society/People. Follow the discussion in the thread, Placement of People Who Think they are a Fantasy Creature , for an interesting take on where Vampires prefer to keep company. Horoscope editors initiated a little reorganization, putting in helpful subcategories such as Daily and Weekly. Horoscopes is a top search term among our users.Discussions about Gender continue as editors try to figure out how best to deal with gender issues and the evolving definitions of the word. Several long term reorganizations continue productively, including multiple threads on History, Native American categories, and the Masons. We have all learned some new words, as editors either discussed or created categories for Otherkin, Valborg, Karabakh, and Mapuche. Check these out and then take that Millionaire phone test! - DmozmarchSportsSports editors continue to find new and interesting categories to add to the directory. Recently, editors created categories for Jai Alai, Socci, and a variety of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual sports. Reorganizations are ongoing in Skateboarding, Skiing, Paintball, and Equestrian. Editors are also discussing a three level sort priority that should be an interesting model for the rest of the directory when it is implemented. - Jschwart |
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