Dilemmas of a Malaysian Scouting Editor in DMOZ

I have been an editor in DMOZ for many years and I never faced dilemmas like this being taunted and harassed by a pesky editor. Out of no where I was told again for the third time to change the format of categorizing. I was disappointed and I go as far as to challenge this editor, and she reported my ‘misdemeanor’ to the guys above.

The guys above sided her and dismissed me from the editorial team for no reason. I did not realise editorial teams like these can be so autocratic.

I resulted in asking Ted’s reply, a resident editor in the same top level category as I am.

Hi Ted,

I am cywong the editor in http://editors.dmoz.org/Recreation/Scouting/Organizations/Scouts_Association_of_Malaysia/ and I understand that I have been in communication with you before when I applied to be an editor in the Malaysian scouting category. I am a Malaysian scouter and I am very fond of this movement hence I applied for this category to help building the most comprehensive directory for Malaysian scouting and my whole point of being an editor here is because of my scouting enthusiasm and not for the decorations or awards.

Recent months has been tiring for me as I have been constantly ‘harassed’ by few editors whom I assume have no scouting background like us whatsoever. I am not naming names here and what’s shocking that my once ‘handsome’ directory of nearly 100 listing was downsized to a puny few. I agree I am not perfect and I am not a pro editor thus I did not mind if some sites that I have added was being edited. The issue was, there were some relevant sites that was deleted and moved to unrelated categories, and also the editors who have no scouting background acted like they knew everything about scouting. For us in scouting, scouting is about hierarchy and order. Even troop naming have their order and hierarchy.

Let me give you an example. In Malaysia, troop naming is based on this – [troop, group, pack, crew number] [district name] [division, i.e air, sea, land] [unit, i.e troop, pack, crew, guild]. Those editors messed the names up by using the meta description of the website which I did not agree hence the argument. Is there a form of conformity when coming down to this i.e. a proper formatting of scout group naming? I believe each country is different and what angered me most is the attitude of those non-scout editors who ‘messed’ up the naming and category as if they knew everything. That is sheer arrogance and ignorance.

For your information, the Malaysian scouting category that I am currently editing is English. Since English is also an official language in Malaysia besides Malay, most scouting sites comes in either English or Malay or both. I admit that I made mistakes by putting some Malay scouting sites under the English category, and I have weed them out by moving them to the Malay scouting category in http://www.dmoz.org/World/Bahasa_Melayu/Rekreasi/Pengakap/. I have moved ALOT of Malay scouting sites to that directory from my English one over the YEARS but to my disappointment they were not listed AT ALL! Not even one! How can that happen as all of them are thematically relevant!

The current listing (only 2 there) in
http://www.dmoz.org/World/Bahasa_Melayu/Rekreasi/Pengakap/ are the same listings that I have seen many many years ago! My question is why the sites that I have moved there not listed?? I understand that perhaps the editors does not understand Malay, but hey, I am here to help because I am Malaysian, and I am proficient in my language and by applying to that category I am offering my HELP, correct? But why did they turn me down?

If you could understand my pain, I have spent hours surfing the net to find Malaysian scouting sites both in English and Malay languages. To have them not listed is such a nerve-wrecking thing. I tried to apply for the Malay scouting category few times now over the years but my application was never entertained.

My question is, how can I;
a) Apply to be in the Malay scouting category in
http://www.dmoz.org/World/Bahasa_Melayu/Rekreasi/Pengakap/

and

b) Make sure that my submitted sites in the Malay scouting category are being entertained by the editors in charge?

Thanks for your time.

Of course, Ted replied and adviced me to be nice. Something I knew logically, but the war is lost and I am shifting my attention to my own MSGP Wiki hosted in a sub-directory. At last, I had a playground of my own. Screw you DMOZ.