hutcheson

Re: Why does this site have 2930 multiple listings Several questions: 1) Yes, the rules have changed. 2) epinions were a "PCP" -- that is, they worked out an arrangement with Netscape/ODP staff on those deeplinks. There have been (and still are) a few other PCPs, and there are still sites out there that would qualify under the current rules for PCP's, because (see #1) 3) PCP arrangements are subject to review. Some sites that used to be PCPs were cut off, and/or even had their deeplinks purged. I expect that epinions is about to get reviewed...if your sampling can be validated in a broader test, then epinions will probably be removed. 4) Can you get individual products listed if your pages include reviews? Well, there are one or two sites in front of you in the queue. When you see all of amazon.com's book pages listed, come check again. Until then, please wait patiently.

Rejected. Multiple editors were unable to find any unique content. (Apparently they did search for it assiduously.) If, in the future, you have other sites to submit, please read and follow the submittal guidelines.

I'm fairly sure that the Google directory doesn't affect page rank. They don't need to spider it, they know they spider dmoz.org, and they know they spider the RDF (which, by the way, also doesn't count for page rank.) This is all based on my interpretation of an official Google rep's statement.

It's been rejected. An (experienced) editor couldn't find sufficient unique content to be worth listing.

This site isn't an agent, but a real-estate-related business: we should perhaps mention that we'd make the taxonomic decisions in the same way, simply for the sake of consistency. My understanding of the real estate rules are that the website DESCRIPTION can mention the area of coverage (downtown Honolulu, Northern Pacific Basin, whatever) and if this is omitted or inaccurate in the site description, an update request is reasonable.

It's up and down today.

Two questions: 1) Are you at dmoz.org, or at some license-holder like directory.google.com, etc.? 2) Please give the exact URL of the category to which you are submitting. The most likely situation is that the category has been moved or renamed, and you are looking at an out-of-date mirror (even the public side of dmoz.org is occasionally out-of-date.)

A public page is updated whenever 1) any single website or newsgroup listing is changed, added, or deleted 2) a subcategory or related category is added or removed. 3) the "mozzie" figure or category description is changed.4) a change in any subcategory or related category affects the number of sites listed in that other category. These changes usually happen "almost instantly" unless the server is bogged down (which has been often recently), although class #2 and 4 changes may be delayed if the RDF is being built (which, lately, means most of the time).

Re: Category Updated/Listing Removed? The voice of experience says, "a reorg of a thousand categories starts with one site move." Every editor has their own way of prioritizing. So long as every step an editor takes is in the right direction, and no step leaves the directory looking worse for long, we're happy to have the help. The _order_ of the steps taken doesn't have to be explained, let alone justified, to anyone.

I never did business with anyone from Anaheim, so I can't quite understand the prejudice that arouses in the Rocky Mountain states. >>If it is not a requirement of the Open Directory to have a physical address on the web site, please consider reinstating our listing It's not a requirement for an ODP listing per se, but ... it's pretty nigh impossible for an editor to tell FROM A WEBSITE REVIEW, that a site is appropriate for a REGIONAL category ... without any information to that effect on the website! It is also very difficult for an editor to determine (from website review, which is what we are supposed to base listings on!) that a website allegedly about a company actually contains information about a unique company, if the WEBSITE doesn't contain adequate information to identify the company (which might not include address, but in the absence of an address would have to include an awful lot else!) Again, it's not an absolute requirement for a listing. It IS an absolute requirement for an honest, professional company: and you are really selling your client short -- by helping them leave an appearance of unprofessionalism and/or deception --- if you don't persuade them that a website without company address is just as useful as a business card without any contact information.

I agree that a County listing is not acceptable. However, a Locality listing IS certainly appropriate, and a Business listing IS certainly appropriate. Submit to both categories, but in your suggested description, make sure that the capsule description of the company's services mentions the part relevant to that category. And make sure that the "about us" page on the website mentions both the local focus and the nationwide scope; and if possible, explains the nature of focus ("serves all El Tibia businesses, also recruits Elbonian-language executives worldwide.)

>>I have submitted my website about 1.5 months ago and still not able to get listed. Typical time to wait for a review is 3-6 months. Your mileage may vary CONSIDERABLY.

>>I'm not trying to be overly picky, just looking for a few decent guide sites for a return trip to Bali in a few months, and the less clutter the better for all. Do not apologize, please do not stop. This is exactly what public feedback was designed for.

Re: www.icreditcentral.com dfy, I couldn't make this stuff up. A tornado really did interrupt my editing early last week. And you remember about the recent server hardware problems.

>Still not sure why for a Web Directory the conception of "deep link" is important. The most critical part of a web directory design is the treatment of deeplinks. Taxonomy, site descriptions, etc., can all be developed with help from analogies in other fields. But how deep links are handled determines whether a directory is useful or feasible. Too many deeplinks, not practical to build. Too few, pointless to use. That "happy medium" doesn't fall in exactly the same place in every category, and it usually takes quite a bit of experience to know where to draw the line. I personally built up a lot of Arts categories from scratch, and have a good feel for the line there. But although I'm a programmer I don't edit much in Computers (partly because I never had a small category to build up while learning the ropes, and when I was starting out I really disagreed with the approach taken as I understood it. FTR, either my understanding has grown or the approach has been somewhat modifed, perhaps both.) This is not an issue you can resolve based on one site, especially not if you have a strong emotional or financial interest in it. You need to have tried to sort out thousands of sites, side by side, trying to make access to each of them appropriate to their content. It's hard, even for humans.

You're asking an ODP editor to make a change for the effects on a search engine. That could get the editor removed--it's called abuse. Changing the subject a bit, to address the real problem, rather than the wrong solution: The change you're asking for will not have the effect you're looking for. The fact is, search at dmoz.org probably won't bring a dozen visitors a year (even if you stuffed "Britney Spears free pictures MP3 make money at home vacation in Atlantic City discount Hotels" into it); and web search at google.com relies far more on the page's text than the ODP title and description. (The ODP link does matter.) This particular page is graphics-intensive and text-poor, undoubtedly resulting in unnecessarily poor "relevance" for _all_ search engines. Improving the keyword-based relevance of the ODP directory page won't help that. Improving the keyword-based relevance of the site's home page will.

Re: www.icreditcentral.com Well, if you must know the details, lightning took out the UPS on the dmoz.org servers, a tornado carried away the programming staff, and Turkish police kidnapped the editors. But don't listen to your wife, and see a doctor about that rash. I must say that this is the most tactful way we've been accused of a having a God complex all week long.

Waiting for review, with several dozen other sites.

The second submittal is still waiting for review, with under a dozen sites. Computer sites tend to be somewhat backlogged, so don't expect a quick review. I can't see the first one. Consider submitting to the Business and Economy category of the actual locality of the business also, if (as I presume) the service providers actually have a business office where they might do something requiring people to know where they work: confuse clients, berate employees, accept process service, whatever. (Make sure the address is on the website, if you do this.) Such a submittal will not affect the status of the one you've already made: they'll be reviewed by different editors, at different times, based on their relevance to the respective categories. Often, though, we find that the Regional site submittal gets reviewed more quickly.

Re: status please http://www.atlanticcityshotels.c The GENERAL rule is: " Sites consisting primarily of affiliate links, or whose sole purpose is to drive user traffic to another site for the purpose of commission sales, provide no unique content and are not appropriate for inclusion in the directory." It's at http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html . Adding the level of detail you request would take more effort to keep updated than staff has available. and I suspect they think most editors can understand it pretty well as it is.

It is unlikely that the staff programmer would seriously consider that approach; it is almost equally unlikely that they have the extra hardware available to do it; and I for one am not going to give up the Quake server until orlady and her evil minions are driven into the Sea of Oblivion (which might be as early as tomorrow morning, but could drag on into the weekend.)

Re: status please http://www.atlanticcityshotels.c >... and as specific as possible? Note that the specific rules are all negative. There are not, and will never be, any specific rules saying, "any evil spammer can force any editor to get any worthless site listed by merely doing XXX, YYY, and ZZZ." But "editor discretion" is specifically written into the rules. So you can see why we adopt specific rules only as a last resort, knowing that listworthy sites can and will be excluded as a result. And note that the only conceivable, relevant, specific rule here would be "All hotel directory sites are excluded." We have not yet adopted that rule. Offered even odds as to whether it will be adopted this year, I'd buy into the "yes" pool.

I don't see the problem. Both the ilectric and the sam spade return code 200, and show the dmoz.org home page -- both look complete. What is missing? It does sound like you were overclocking a spider. IIRC, dmoz.org asks that you keep the page request rate down to one every second or two. This is basic courtesy for bots, and if that were the problem, I very much doubt that anyone would think of trying to send e-mail to the spider (assuming it identifies itself to that extent) before squashing it like a bug. I will say that dmoz.org has sustained a DDOS attack fairly recently, and you can probably expect anything that looks like packet piling-on to be treated the same way the last DDOS attack was. (Whether it's staff perusing logs whenever the meta-editors complain about the quake game bogging down, or something a trifle more automated, dmoz.org obviously has -- and needs -- some sort of protection.)

Re: www.icreditcentral.com Deep in the swamp, surrounded by alligators. Over 100 sites waiting review. Spam target. Expect delays.

Re: status please http://www.atlanticcityshotels.c It's not just the visible travelnow link. Any "Hotel Directory" site must expect to face almost absolute skepticism. If ANY responsible editor (cynical or not) DIDN'T see the travelnow (or competitive) link on such a site, the only question should be "how did they hide it this time?" And, knowing how much we hate their incessant spamming, the hotel reservation industry has taken to providing their affiliates with more and more deceptive scripts, to hide the affiliate links better (and for no other conceivable reason) and, then increased the barrage of spam. These are not humans, they are toxic waste. They share leucocytes with Bill Gates. But, biological and ethical issues aside: at this point, I do not believe it is technically POSSIBLE for a site visitor to examine a webpage or any of its source, and determine from that whether or not its individual hotel links are affiliates. (This doesn't mean that we can't detect many of them, because they have to tell other lies in order to hide the fact that they're concealing their affiliation. It does mean it's difficult. It means it's not fun to review such a site: it takes considerable research and investigation, with an almost foregone conclusion of "affiliate site wearing fright wig.") Add to this the consideration that (with ODP's coverage of hotel sites) the added value to surfers of ANY hotel directory has to be very, very low (if not negative.) All of that is general background, with no specific reference to your site. But that is the environment into which your site comes. Lots of pictures, even original (you claim, and I could believe it easily enough) -- but they are similar to the ones you'd see in any commercial hotel brochure. Not much non-hotel content, and not all that easily found, either. (Well, it calls itself a HOTEL site, and that's no lie.) For any city other than Atlantic City, yes, I think the concept of a fan site for hotels would be ludicrously incredible. Well, I can see that Atlantic City is a special case -- unique in the nature of its attractions (i.e. nothing to see but the place where you stay while waiting to gamble, if you want the really cynical slant.) I'll hold my breath and not touch this one, but ... [again, returning to the general topic, not this site specifically] I think the editing community is about two beers short of lynching _every_ hotel directory in the 'burg: and personally, I've got two pillows and a bucket of crude oil in the foyer, just waiting for the occasion.