Looking for user input for Painter links at ODP

[DigArts]

I'd like to have Painter users look at the Painter links at ODP and provide honest input as to whether or not they serve a useful purpose as they currently are.

4. Would you like to see more links highlighted if they represent very good resources for Painter? The current rule at ODP is that only a single (and with rare exception a second) link can be highlighted the way Painter X is at the top of the first page.
I seem to recall having this discussion before, some years ago.

First, I appreciate being linked on the ODP site and the current link placement under graphics/image editing is thoroughly relevant. I wonder though if it advances the effort in the context you mention.

Most of the tutorials on my site are Painter oriented and have been since Painter 4. While those tutorials later expanded to include Paint Shop Pro and most recently Photoshop, which now equals Painter, the fact that so many of the tutorials involve Painter makes ommission in the Painter section seem odd. But then I don't see Jin's site listed there or many others. So, it appears the whole section needs reconsideration in a broader context.

Just my two cents worth.

[rgagnon]

I resigned my editorial position in disgust with the policies ODP has. For the last year, I was barely maintaining the category because most of the links I'd added were subject to being moved out of the category. I don't need to volunteer my time to an organization that is obsessively following rules that make the directory less useful to the people using it.

DigArts and Jinny's site belong in the Painter category and used to be there. In fact, both were there before I signed on as an editor. Senior editors, in an effort to teach me how to properly construct a human index of Painter links moved both out because more than one program was being used. It didn't matter to them that they were amongst the better Painter resources on the net. They also moved out a link to a RapArtz page that had over a dozen Painter tutorials on one page and didn't even leave the word "Painter" in the description so that it was no longer searchable in the directory (my complaints eventually got the keyword put back in, but didn't result in the link being restored). Even including the keyword isn't of much value because a search for "Painter" results in over 2000 hits which makes it a waste of time trying to find Corel Painter links that aren't listed in the category.

The editors, that stay at the Open Directory Project, are so wrapped up in the rules that they've lost sight of what the purpose of the directory is for--and even lost site in how the rules apply. It's supposed to make it easier for people to find information. Directories accomplish that by pushing information down the directory structure to the lowest practical level. They're wasting too much time pushing info up the directory. If they're going to do that, they might as well get rid of the directory structure and just use the site to list useful links to increase their rankings in search engines. They're bastardizing their own rules for including links within websites. For practical purposes, not every editor can break up a website to all the lower links where that site's information is useful (it would take forever to subcategorize a history website to all the specific history topics it covers). The problem is that, once a lower level link has been entered into the directory, there is no compelling reason to move it to a generic category. It's useful at the lower level. The editors have lost sight of the fact that the rule is a guide to help them figure out how to best manage their time. Applying that rule, with the sledgehammer they use is senseless and would result in probably every link in the Painter category being deleted. The only reason they aren't all removed is because ODP hasn't got time to do it.

After getting into a major argument in the ODP forums about their policies, more editors started moving Painter links out the category to generic categories. Between being delivered an ultimatum to fix the category so that "inappropriate" links are removed (links that aren't solely about Painter without mentioning any other programs), and fixing descriptions, and finally realizing that they'd leave the category alone if I'm no longer editing it, it became clear that resigning was the simplest solution. I started this post in hopes that Painter users would express their frustrations so that I could provide that information to ODP. I didn't think it would make a difference, but figured it was worth a shot. Since nobody replied in a week, I resigned without being able to provide them real user feedback.

It's a shame I had to resign. I believe in the value of having a human index of the web. ODP is doing such a lousy job of it that it's a useless exercise. The graphics category only has editors working 2% of the categories. Most of the categories have stale information (when I picked up the Painter category, the category only had Painter 7 and not what was then the currrent version of Painter 9) and a quick Google search can find better information than what is in most of the categories. Even though the place is severely understaffed, the senior editors don't have the sense to take what help they can get and not mess with the categories unless the new editor is doing something malicious. Unfortunately the kind of people that become senior editors are the kind of people that like the solitary activity of creating indexes--and have to be fairly obsessive compulsive to move up the ranks. Those usually aren't the best individuals to deal with other people. They tend to be myopic and miss out on the big picture. The end result is a directory that is more their personal playground than a truly useful web resource.

[tomt]

About being listed in the ODP index

Message deleted by poster, It had some incorrect info

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