I'm an editor but i had to applied twice the first time i was rejected, the second time i made sure the form i filled in was 100% correct spelling punctuation, etc. a few day's later i got accepted...
The reason i decided to become an editor was because i couldn't get my site listed (waited 2 years) & to also improve the section, whilst checking the editors dashboard i saw sites submitted in 2000/2001 still waiting to be reviewed now there are two reasons for this:
1) Editors may not be interested in that category & don't check it.
2) Current editors have no sense of urgency to list competition.
Also i should add i submitted one of my sites to a category that i don't edit & it did get approved within a day or two (Amazing) it really does depend on the category, Editors...