DIRpopulus - The SystemWeb Directory

Due to some further and deeper thinking, the initial plan changed. Quite a bit...

DIRpopulus is aiming to be a collection of useful web resources for people, edited by people. That being said, anyone can suggest and edit any resource.
Of course, the need for a relation between user actions and the resources which those actions affect exists so anyone wishing to suggest and/or edit resources will have to sign up. The sign up/log in form is part of the suggest/edit process. Once you start suggesting web resources or editing the existing ones you'll be asked to sign up or log in.

Read on to find out how it works.

Suggesting a web resource

A web resource can be suggested to any of the existing DIRpopulus categories. On every category page there are at least two -- clearly visible, red -- icons (buttons) that need to be clicked to fire up the suggest form which contains three fields:

  1. URL - The URL where the resource can be found
  2. Title - The title of the web resource as it should appear on DIRpopulus
  3. Description - The description of the web resource as it should appear on DIRpopulus

While filling out these fields, the system will validate the data and will return one of the following three icons:
= the content of the respective field is acceptable
= the content of the respective field already exists
= the content of the respective field is not acceptable (maybe less words than required)

Any other validation issues will be displayed explicitly in English.

Once the form has been submitted, the system will:

Ask for your Email address if not already logged in. After typing your Email address you'll be asked to set up a password (if first time suggest) or to use your password (if you've set up one previously).
Or, if you're already logged in, submit the newly suggested web resource.

Your suggestion can not yet be reviewed!

In order for your suggestion to make it to the review queue, you will need to provide 9 editings. In other words, you'll need to edit a total of 9 pieces of information, regardless of what it is (title, description or category). After 9 editings the system will automatically submit your listing to the queue.

Please note that you can review web resources even if you don't suggest one. Your editings will be counted and, whenever you decide to suggest a site, they will automatically be used by the system.
For example, if you have completed 27 editings and suggest 3 sites after doing so, your 3 suggestions will be automatically submitted to the review queue.

Editing web resources

For as long as a web resource doesn't receive 9 consecutive positive reviews (3 for the title, 3 for the description and 3 for the category) the resource is considered to be under review and will be displayed towards the bottom of the page, under the already active resources. Once a resource receives it's 9 consecutive approvals it is considered a valuable web resource, it will be moved up to the active listings section and the review will not be possible anymore until 3 different users request to restart the review process.
One good reason to restart the review process is the fact that a website may have changed it's topic/activity since the last review took place which means that the title, description and category may need to be changed.

Whenever you start editing you'll need to set up or use your Email and password, just like you do when you suggest a site (described above).

The DIRpopulus system constantly "watches" your activity and, whenever you completed 9 editings, it looks for sites suggested by you. If it finds one it will add it to the review queue.

The initial plan is described below. It changed after the first major update (described above) that was performed on 2017-05-30.

Suggesting a web resource

In order to suggest a web resource one needs to (be logged in and) select/fill out the following:

  1. Language - The language in which the resource is written
  2. Category - The category under which you think the resource should go
  3. URL - The URL where the resource can be found
  4. Title - The title of the web resource as it should appear on DIRpopulus
  5. Description - The description of the web resource as it should appear on DIRpopulus

A category search engine is available due to the large number of categories available. Please use it to find the most appropriate category for the resource you're suggesting.
If the category you're looking for doesn't exist, feel free to suggest a new category.

Once a category has been selected, several resources from that category will be displayed so that you can compare them to the resource you're suggesting. This is meant to help you choose the right category.

After the URL has been filled out, the system will check the DIRpopulus directory to see if that resource (or resources from the same website) exist and, if that's the case, they will be shown to you.

Before you can actually submit the resource to the database the system will also check the title and description of the resource. If identical or very similar title/description is being found, they will be shown along with the existing resource URL.

Once Language and Category is selected and the URL, Title and Description are filled out, the system will load the questionnaire. If this is the first time you suggest a web resource you'll need to complete the form containing:

  1. What languages you speak
  2. Categories you're interested in
  3. If you're a former DMOZ editor, provide your DMOZ editor name
  4. Website(s) you own/admin

The next time you'll be using the system the form will automatically be filled for you but you will be able to add/remove languages, categories and websites.

Reviewing a web resource

You can review web resources even if you don't suggest one!

Based on the information you filled out in the questionnaire, the system will start providing web resources for you to review, one at a time.

There will be 3 pieces of information related to that particular web resource, each having a right/wrong radio button that needs to be checked:

  1. Category
  2. Title
  3. Description

The "right/wrong" radio buttons will become active after you actually view the web resource by clicking on its title!

If the category is right you'll need to click on the "right" button to confirm. If you think that is not the right category for the resource, click on "wrong" and that will unlock the category field and allow you to search/select another category.

For the title/description, if the information is correct the "right" button needs to be clicked whereas if you believe the information is not correct or needs improvement you click on "wrong" which will allow you to suggest a new title/description. If the "wrong" title or "wrong" description is clicked, the titles or descriptions suggested by other editors for that particular web resource will be shown (if available) with the possibility to check the one you believe is right. If you don't find any of them to be right simply suggest your own.

If for some reason you can't review the resource on screen simply move on to the next one. The next web resource will only be made available once you check out the current (on screen) one.

The system will provide a certain number of old (DMOZ) web resources as well as a certain number of new (DIRpopulus) web resources to be reviewed by editors. In order to keep the review process as objective as possible and because all web resources are equally important, this information (old or new) will be only available once the resource gets approved.

As long as the DIRpopulus database contains 90% or more DMOZ resources, editors will review 9 DMOZ and 1 DIRpopulus resources (9/1 ratio) for each suggested resource. Once the number of newly suggested resources in the database passes 10% (which means the DMOZ resources now represent less than 90%) the ratio changes to 8/2. Whenever the new web resources raise to over 20% the ratio changes to 7/3 and so on and so forth...

During a review session, if you need to leave for any reason feel free to do so. Your work is saved and you can move on from where you left it whenever you come back.

Once you've reviewed 10 resources your suggested web resource is being added to the review queue. You can not review your own suggestions. They will be reviewed by other editors.

Again, in order to be as close as possible to an objective review, the only review activity related to a web resource available to the editor is his/her own activity. In other words, you can not see what other editors did.
However, this is only valid for as long as the web resource is under review. Once the resource is approved all editing activity will be revealed to everybody, including the general public so that everybody can see who did what and report if necessary.

The review activity of each editor is being recorded to the database so that it can be made available later on if necessary. The plan is to have the best editors (most active and most efficient) paid at a later stage of this project.

Approving a web resource

Whenever a web resource receives 3 consecutive approvals for every piece of information (category, title and description), that resource is automatically being approved.

If a web resource is getting 3 consecutive approvals for any piece of related information (category, title or description) the review of that particular piece of information will be considered complete and the "right/wrong" buttons won't be available.
For example if both, the category and the title, of a resource have been marked as "right" 3 times in a row, the next time that particular resource is presented to an editor for review, the only piece of information that can be reviewed will be the description. Once the description also gets 3 "rights" in a row, the resource is approved and is being made available on DIRpopulus.