old_crone

I don't edit on the ODP and have never edited on the ODP. I have edited (still do) elsewhere and I'm very good at it. You failed to read the part If every submitter followed the guidelines Why is it that people like you hold the ODP to unreasonable standards while ignoring your responsibility to read and at least try to follow the guidelines when submitting their site(s)? Then come here and complain and never give a moment of consideration to the fact that they may be a part of the problem. If you have seen the queue then you know that less than 10% come remotely close to following the guidelines. So, I prefer to edit those who do try first, since they cared enough to read and follow the guidelines.

If every submitter followed the guidelines than the first come first serve rule might be appropriate. But when an editor only has a shot time to volunteer his/her time, then they will look for submissions that won't take a lot of time to edit first. First come first serve will not make the time it takes to wade through bad submissions go any faster. If you could see the queue, your eyes would roll back in you head! And after several months looking at it you would find it hard to spend time there. No one gets paid to work in the ODP, everyone seems to forget that. You can not expect volunteers to do more than they are willing or have the spare time to do. If I were editing on the ODP and they made a rule about first come first serve, I'd choose to do none. And I believe I would not be alone in that choice and the queue would grow even larger and the waiting time would be even longer.

Re: http://www.conversionlink.com/ Don't worry, I doubt the UK site is going to be removed. As far as an ODP editor letting you know if the site is acceptable prior to reviewing it, your guess is as good as mine. I know that can be frustrating but it just depends on the individual editor. I can only say that if I were editing/reviewing the CL site I would deny its inclusion because it's redundant. An ODP editor in the know may come along and give you more info. I would not resubmit. Wait and ask again if you don't get a firm response now.

Re: http://www.conversionlink.com/ http://www.emaglink.co.uk/ is a mirror of http://www.emaglink.com/ http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Backup/Tape_Backup/ http://dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Formats/Conversion/Companies/ http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Wales/Blaenau_Gwent/Abertillery/Business_and_Economy/ I would think not since the parent site is already listed but an ODP editor will have to make that determination based on the current guidelines.

Re: http://www.conversionlink.com/ It's not the second link, it's the third listing, a sub-page and the ODP guidelines say only two listings per site/company. There may be exceptions to this rule, I'm not sure.

Re: http://www.conversionlink.com/ How does conversionlink.com differ in what is offered than http://www.emaglink.com/?

Well, gee ... just browsing, you got me on this one! <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" /> I should have looked at the whois before posting. Guess this one won't sneak in and the http://www.emaglink.com/MMPC.htm listing will most likely be removed.

Re: http://www.conversionlink.com/ This site isn't what I would call a "link farm" even though it does have links to the companies it works with. It is actually offering a service that is not offered on the linked sites, or not easy to find, with some exceptions (from what I can tell from the half dozen I looked at). I think it could be a valuable/worthy site to many users if it offered more info on the service they provide and why the user should use their services. Just my two cents <img src="/images/icons/smirk.gif" alt="" /> Edited to say; Ignor the above comment, I lost my mind for a few moments. <img src="/images/icons/confused.gif" alt="" />

No they aren't different products since the products in this case are tickets. The sites are not selling the Rolling Stones or the Super Bowl, they are selling tickets from the same source, hence the redundancy. I think you have been given some good info on the difference between good marketing strategies and directory indexing. The two do not always have a meeting of the minds. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

It's redundant, not to mention a creative spamming technique. All urls lead to the same source with the same primary objective; to sell entertainment and sporting events tickets. The only thing different about the sites are the events they are selling tickets for, which doesn't make them unique in my opinion.

From giz's message in this thread: Tickco is the parent company. There's your answer!

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" /> to everyone!

It does work better since I changed my ZoneAlarm settings but it's really not a good thing for us security conscious web surfers. Plus, it's not necessary. I have cookie authorization on the site I'm developing using php and mysql. I have no problem with my firewall and my computer accepts the cookie without doing any changes to my firewall's security settings. <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" alt="" />

"Are you behind a firewall (router/software)?" Isn't everyone?? If not they should be! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" /> I use ZoneAlarm. I just added resource-zone to my local zone so I can accept the cookie, though I didn't want to have to do that and shouldn't have to do it, but did it anyway. <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Hoping that fixes the slow login time.

I did look but couldn't find anything but I admit that I gave up because the site is sooooooo slow for me right now. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

that has been asked and answered before but what do the stars under the ratings mean? And how does a thread get them? Is it by how many view the thread or by importance? Thanks old_crone

"Well none of the (unsolicited) testimonials agree with you, neither does the CEO of ClickBank." Well I'll be dipped in ---- ain't that a surprise. The only person who's opinion counts in regards to the ODP is the editor who reviews your site(s). If everyone agreed there'd be no point in having an opinion, would there. :/images/dmoz/purplegrin.gif

"clickbankguide.com and ad-tracking.com are certainly acceptable information sites." Not in my opinion, but not to worry, my opinion isn't worth much here. But I do just love to offer it on this forum anyway. The merchant guide leads the user to clickbank's info through the supertips site, same with opening an account, operating a merchant account, and software tools. As for the more tips for merchants, well, I'm sure that info is offered on the clickbank site. Give me a break, everything leads the user to the supertips site in one form or another, which takes them to an affiliate of one kind or another. This site has no original content of it's own and smacks of an affiliate farm. It's a perfect example of a site built to support its affiliate links.

Oh, and about the www.ad-tracking.com site, someone needs to have a closer look at its affiliation with Supertips, of which you are the owner of. Tisk, tisk, tisk!

Oh, my, I went to the "free books for merchants" under the "Merchant Guide" link and discovered it downloads the books from http://supertips.com/. That made me curious so I did a search for Supertips in dmoz and found 13 one page listings for Supertips. All of which are nothing more than a doorway page to other URLs. I wonder what else one might find should they choose to look more thoroughly at this site?

Actually the secure server is licensed under a different name than the sites name. But I also think it's a worthy site and should be listed. I enjoyed wondering through the wine content and found it informative.

hutcheson, you expressed the problem with most sites built around affiliate programs very well. Thank you. I guess my problem with this particular site is that it proclaims to be a financial information/advice service but only endorses affiliates to met his users needs. But I'm not the reviewing editor, of which he can be grateful for because I would decline its inclusion into the directory.

Thank you but you really didn't answer my question. Personally, I have no problem with a webmaster trying to earn money from his/her website through affiliate links. What does bother me is that they don't offer non-affiliate links also, which would be of benefit to the end user. From my perspective a site like this appears to be built around the affiliate links. It isn't that these affiliates aren't helpful or even useful, it's that they are redundant. Unique content is a subjective term and I didn't find anything unique about your site. That doesn't mean that I don't believe you have helped your users. It would have been unique and refreshing to have seen non-affiliate links in the mix.

Let me ask you a question, something I have often wondered about. Why don't you offer your users links to financial services that aren't referral links or affiliate partnerships? Why only list the ones you can make money on when your site is about FREE advice or financial information? Why not give them a full range of lending/financial service links with comparable descriptions? "I use the mouseover function so that inexperienced users aren't confused by the tracking URLs, not to dupe people." The inexperienced user will never notice the tracking URLs to become confused about.

I did notice that you appear to have you're own content on the Dream Gold site. But if what you are saying is true about your affiliation with ejewelry.com, then why have the affiliation at all? Especially since it could compromise your dmoz listings, not to mention that your users think they are buying from you when they clearly aren't. Let me offer you some food for thought. Would you divide up your in-store jewelry stock by type (gold, silver, diamonds) and then place them in different stores at different locations? Of course you wouldn't if you're a smart retailer, not to mention the overhead it would cost. Most people are spontaneous shoppers and if they have to go to two or three different stores to buy what they want, they will most likely go where they can get everything in one place. And you will miss a sale. So, what is different about doing it on the Internet? Why not offer all your relative merchandize in one location? What reason do you have to divide your online stock and have different urls? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why. I believe you knew the potential for being labeled a spammer by sneaking this site in. Why else would you pretend not to know that a site can be listed in both the topical and regional categories? Do yourself a favor and spend your time and energy developing a good online jewelry site. One that offers all your products and develop more information for you potential customers and earn even more online credibility. That is of course, if you're in it for the long haul. While the two sites look different the content is still jewelry, which doesn't offer anything unique by definition. Just my 2 cents, which is all it's worth since I'm not an editor on the ODP.