Editall & Catmv Guidelines
- General Information
- The Editall Dashboard
- Moving and Renaming Categories
- Moving and Renaming @Links
- Deleting Categories
- Naming Editors to New Categories
- Changing Category Search Strings
- Power Reviewed Edit
- Adding Notes to URLs
- Editall Projects
General Information
Editalls play a vital role in DMOZ as leaders and managers of content quality and champions of editorial integrity. Editall privileges are granted to experienced editors who have exhibited a solid grasp of the DMOZ Guidelines and excellent editorial skills in diverse areas of the directory. Editalls lead the community by:
- Keeping "the big picture" in mind when making editing decisions.
- Productively participating in the community decision-making process.
- Creating user-friendly taxonomies that have sound, logical structure.
- Adding content that is current and relevant to users.
- Maintaining a consistent edit history that reflects an overall understanding of general and category-specific editorial guidelines.
Types of Editall Permissions
Standard Editall - Editalls are able to perform the following functions:
- Edit anywhere in the directory, except in restricted areas.
- Read and post in the p-editall private editor forum
- Delete any category which contains no listed or unreviewed sites.
- Create a new category and request up to 1 person as editor.
Editall/Catmv - In addition to all standard editall functions, an Editall with Catmv can rename or move any category, except in restricted access areas.
CatEditall - This type of editor can perform Editall/Catmv functions within a specific category or directory node. This permission is limited to editors listed under one of the main, top level categories. In the World branch, Cateditall may be granted to editors listed under World/<language> or World/<language>/<topic>. In exceptional cases, Cateditall may be granted to an editor leading a category reorganization below one of these levels.
You are not required to have top level permissions prior to being granted Cateditall permissions. You may be granted cateditall and top level permissions simultaneously. However, cateditall is only granted to those who have broad editing experience in a main category.
Stuff Editalls Do
There is no specific time commitment required of editalls, although editall privileges are generally given to active editors interested in assuming lead roles in building and maintaining the directory. Depending on personal tastes and skills and the directory's needs, editalls can make notable contributions by working in one or more of these areas:
- Edit in very broad areas of their choice, driven by personal interest and/or a knowledge of where help is needed most.
- Coordinate reorganizations of sites and categories across or within the various top level directory nodes.
- Coordinate and participate in directory wide editorial initiatives aimed at growing the directory's content (e.g. team evaluation of unreviewed) and improving its quality.
- Act as authorities on matters of standard editing, taxonomy and ontology policies and procedures, resolving questions about editing practice and application/interpretation of editing guidelines.
- Mentor less experienced editors on community standards and guidelines.
- Investigate abuse and questionable editing practices, bringing them to the attention of metas, catmods and admins.
- Perform change/move/delete requests, and general data quality assurance and maintenance.
Editalls have information organization skills that transcend specific subject knowledge, qualifying them to edit in broad areas of the directory. However, as the directory grows and becomes more diverse, it is not possible for one person to remain completely informed about all community standards that govern more granular levels of the directory's structure. Therefore, editalls are not expected to edit everywhere. When editing in an unfamiliar area, editalls must take time to learn local editing practices such as deeplinking and cross listing policies, standardized templates, site title and description practices, regional variations in standard English, and the like. Although editalls can edit in any part of the directory without being listed as editor, they should always be listed as editor of at least one category in the public directory. As with any other editor, resigning all categories is assumed to be a resignation from DMOZ.
The Editall Interface
Editalls have access to a number of powerful editing tools. In addition to the standard system tools, a variety of editor developed bookmarklets, tools, and documents are available at Test: Tools for Editors: Tools for Editalls to facilitate using editall permissions responsibly and effectively.
The Editall Dashboard
The editall/catmv dashboard contains the following additions to the standard editor dashboard:
- Links to all top level categories at the bottom of the dashboard.
- A link to these guidelines.
The Editall Category Edit Screen
The editall/catmv category edit screen contains the following additions to the regular edit screen:
- "Move/rename this Category" option in the list at the top.
- "Change search string" option in the list at the top.
- Catmv and Delete links next to @links.
- The "Power Reviewed Edit" option, which brings up a different edit screen for the same category.
The Editall URL Edit Screen
Editalls can add colored notes to domains. See Adding Notes to URLs for information and procedures.
Moving and Renaming Categories
Major category moves and renames should not be arbitrary, but should reflect a clear community consensus, standard template, or general editing guideline.
Generally, moves are agreed on in forum discussion and then posted to a central Rename/Move/Change thread for action, with references to the thread where changes were discussed. In some topical areas, there are established procedures for minor changes, such as posting intended changes to a central "Category Create/Delete Billboard" forum thread to solicit comments.
While you are expected to use your judgment in performing minor changes, such as bringing a category into conformity with an established template or correcting spelling or capitalization errors, if there is any doubt about a change it should always be discussed and agreed upon in the forum.
How to Move/Rename a Category
To move a category:
- Go to the category edit page of the category you wish to move.
- Select "Move/rename this category".
- Enter a destination, and select Apply.
- Check the details on the next screen, if they are correct, choose Confirm, else go back in your browser, and correct the destination path.
- The request is then executed, though it's always wise to check that the results are as intended.
Renaming a category is exactly the same as moving a category, you simply change only the last part of the destination category.
Things to Watch Out For
- The destination path should be entered using "/" and "_", not ":" and " ". It is especially important to watch out for spaces when carrying out requests in a forum rename/move request thread. It is very easy to end up with an incorrectly named category.
- Occasionally, a glitch in the catmv system can lead to editor names being lost when a category is moved. A meta can easily restore editing privileges lost in a catmv.
- Sort priority is not automatically updated after a category move, so you may need to check this after renaming or moving a category.
- If an error page is displayed, first try refreshing the page - If that doesn't work, please post in the Bugs & Features forum.
How to Move/Rename @Links
To move an @link:
- Go to the category edit page containing the @link you want to move.
- Select the "[catmv link]" link next to the @link.
- Enter a destination, and select "Apply".
- Check the details on the next screen, if they are correct, choose Confirm, else go back in your browser, and correct the destination path.
- The @link is moved immediately.
Renaming an @link is exactly the same as moving an @link, you simply change only the last part of the destination category.
Deleting Categories
Editalls are able to delete categories with resident editors, as long as there are no subcategories, @links or sites listed in the category. However, this action should be taken only with extreme caution; it is almost never appropriate, except as part of an agreed upon category merge, or when deleting wildly inappropriate subcategories.
Like all editors, editalls should be careful about deleting categories that may be linked to from other parts of the directory, or which may represent a substantial amount of work in creating category charters, FAQs, or collections of @links, related category links, or language groups. The editall tools category contains advice on how to preserve as much work as possible when merging or reorganizing categories.
Except for more obvious cases, it's strongly recommended to discuss category deletions in the forums beforehand, and gain consensus before acting, like with category creation.
Naming Editors to New Categories
Note: In the original software, an Editall could directly grant a category to an editor as part of the category creation process. For technical reasons, this feature did not get carried into the 2.0 (and later).
The ability of editalls to name editors to newly created categories should be used very selectively. It is not intended to give editalls meta-like abilities to decide on the promotion and expansion of the responsibilities of editors, but merely to complement the natural role of editalls in facilitating category reorganizations and growth.
Carefully review an editor's edit history before taking this step. If there is any doubt, decisions should be left to meta editors or catmods.
Some of the things that editalls should consider in naming editors to new categories:
- Is the editor doing a good job in their current categories?
- Has the editor been recently rejected for, or removed from, any categories by meta-editors or catmods?
- Is the new category the subject of any larger controversy?
- Are reorganizations ongoing that would take away the ability of a parent editor to work on subcats they are currently maintaining?
- Does the editor have the level of experience necessary for the expected size of the new category?
- Do the editor's forum postings in the discussion leading to the creation of this category show an ability to cooperatively work for the better of the directory?
- If the category is in Test, is it intended to allow one or more editors to work on a category reorganization or other temporary project, or is it intended to be moved into the main directory?
- Is the editor expecting to be named to this category? (Don't give an editor an unexpected surprise on their dashboard.)
Again, if there is any doubt or controversy, or if you are not comfortable naming editors to categories, the decision should be left to a meta editor or catmod.
How to Name an Editor to a Category
Create a new subcategory as usual, then place a request in the dedicated forum thread.
Changing Category Search Strings
To change a category search string:
- Go to the category edit page of the category.
- Select "Change search string".
- Enter the search string in the "Search String" box. This is the string that will be used for the external search engine links.
- Enter the public string in the "Public String" box. This will appear as the caption on the public page, in the form "Public String" search on:, and also next to the "Change search string" option on the edit page.
- Click Apply
- It's always a good idea to test the modified search string in one or more search engines.
Power Reviewed Edit
Power reviewed edit, also known as the chainsaw, can be accessed by selecting the 'Power Reviewed Edit' link on a category edit page. This feature works much like power unreviewed edit.
- You can go from power reviewed edit to the standard edit page by choosing "Old Style Reviewed Edit".
- "Cancel" will reset all titles/descriptions/checkboxes to what they were the last time you loaded the power reviewed edit page.
- "Clear Marked Sites" will untick all the check boxes.
- You can enter a note into the "DMOZ Note" field, which will be attached to all edits made by your next update/unreview/move made with power reviewed edit.
Mass Unreviewing/Moving
- Select the sites you wish to unreview/move by ticking the check box next to the site.
- Choose a category, either by typing one into the appropriate box, or choosing one from the pull down menu.
- Select "Move selected URLs" to move the URLs and list them in the destination category, or "Move URLs to Unreviewed" to move the URLs to the destination category's unreviewed queue.
Note: There is also an "Unreview Marked Sites" button which places the selected sites into the unreviewed queue of the current category.
Mass Updating Titles/Descriptions
- Change the titles/descriptions as appropriate by altering the values in the text boxes.
- Choose the sites you wish to update by ticking the check boxes next to the sites.
- Select "Update Titles/Descriptions."
Adding Notes to URLs
The colored notes at the top of the "edit URL" screen communicate important information about a particular URL or web site.
All (k)editalls and (k)cateditalls may post URL notes, without discussion. If you have questions about which color is appropriate for a specific site, or group of sites, please discuss it in the appropriate p-editall thread.
Editall Projects
As an Editall, you have the opportunity to take part in a number of projects that seek to improve the quality and quantity of the directory. You are not required to participate in organized editing initiatives; however, as an Editall, the DMOZ community does expect you to be actively editing across the various subject categories. Any time you can devote to directory wide editing projects is appreciated. As a leader in the community, you are in a unique position to seize new opportunities and fill in gaps where you see them. New ideas for growing and developing DMOZ's content and improving its quality are encouraged.
All Editalls are encouraged to take part in editing projects, and contribute their expertise in all areas of the directory.