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DMOZ

Editall & Catmv Guidelines

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:

Types of Editall Permissions

Standard Editall - Editalls are able to perform the following functions:

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:

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:

The Editall Category Edit Screen

The editall/catmv category edit screen contains the following additions to the regular edit screen:

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:

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

How to Move/Rename @Links

To move an @link:

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:

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:

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.

Mass Unreviewing/Moving

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

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.

Guideline: Add Note to URL Feature - Power Tool: Spiegel

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.