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Are you new to the ODP? Perplexed by the buttons, bells, and whistles? Editing seems a little overwhelming at first, so to help new editors get acclimated, this article is designed to give tips and tricks for new editors. We hope to make this a regular feature in future issues. Tip #1: Adding a site which has not been submitted When you join the ODP, you will probably find that you don't get many sites submitted due to the size of your category. To add sites that you have found yourself, you can use option #1 on your editing screen. You enter the URL of the site you wish to add in the text box and then click the 'Add' button. You will be then be presented with the standard site editing screen. Tip #2: Moving a site to another category. If a site has been submitted to your category, but it doesn't quite fit, don't delete it. Try to find it a home. Submissions are key to the growth and development of the directory, so you should attempt to move the site to a more relevant category. Do a search to find where similar sites are classified, and make your best guess on where you think it should go. Don't worry if you are unsure about the right category. It is perfectly fine to guess. If you don't get it right, some other editor will come along to place the site in the right area. After you have found a category for the site, you should click on the blue 'EDIT' button next to the site in question. At the bottom of the edit screen for the site is a box entitled 'Move to another category'. In this you should enter the name of the target category. The form is case sensitive, so for instance 'Games/Video_games' is not the same as 'Games/Video_Games'. After you have entered the category name you can either click 'Update + Next' or 'Update + Back', this will complete the procedure. The site will be moved from your category to the unreviewed queue in the target category, where it will be reviewed by another editor. Please note that when the site is moved from your category, the system counts it as a delete, and as such your 'Total Deletes' will increment by one. Tip #3: Finding the number of unreviewed sites in a category you don't edit One method of finding how many sites are awaiting review in a particular category is to create an @link to that category in your bookmarks. To do this click on the link to your bookmarks category from your dashboard (http://dmoz.org/editors/), then click the 'Add an @link' option. You will be presented with a prompt, where you can enter the name of the category that you are interested in, and the name you want to give the link. The @link will appear in your bookmark category. If there are any unreviewed sites, the amount will be shown in green. An alternative method is to use the following Bookmarklet: http://dmoz.nurey.net/ViewUnrev.epl. This bookmarklet is useful to have if you wish to check the number of unreviewed in different categories regularly. What is a bookmarklet, you ask? Check out the following for some background and information: Tip #4: Including links to categories in forum threads When you post a message in the forums, you may wish to include a link to a specific category in your post. The easiest way to do this is to type in the name of the category with a space before and after the category name. Example: Typing in Arts/Music will create a link to http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/. Tip #5: Dealing with non-English sites You may have a site submitted to your category that seems to be relevant, except it is not written in English. If you know the language, move the site to the appropriate category in World, which is where all sites written in a language other than English are listed. If you don't know the site's language, try the language identifier at http://dmozed.org/editor/zumbo/identification.html For some general translation tools and language resources, see http://dmozed.org/editor/zumbo/index.html You may find that your category already contains a links to counterparts in World. On the edit URL screen, these categories should appear in the 'Move to another category' drop-down list box. Choose the World, category, and move the site there. If the correct category is not listed then you can use his list of corresponding World cats to try and find the correct category: http://odpworldinfo.cjb.net/ Alternatively, you could look at the category one level up to see if it contains a link to a corresponding World category. If in doubt just send it the closest possible match you can find. Tip #6: Bold and italic titles - What do they mean? When you are editing your category you may see some of the site's titles rendered in bold and/or italic text. This is not a formatting option, and will not show up as such on the public view of your category. An italic title indicates that the site is already listed elsewhere in the directory. This is not necessarily a reason to delete the site, as many sites are listed more than once. The italicized title is simply there to draw your attention to this fact. A bold title indicates that the site is listed in Test/See_Editor_Notes. This means that you should pay special attention to the editor notes associated with the site. This may be for a number of reasons, for more information see http://dmoz.org/Test/See_Editor_Notes/desc.html . Again this is not a signal to delete the site, merely to a signal to exercise due caution when reviewing. For further Bold/Italics details you may want to see http://dmoz.org/Bookmarks/R/rpfuller/ODP/Bold_and_Italic_Titles/ Additional new editor tips can be found in Nanozilla's newsletter columns. - T23 |
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