Khym_Chanur

Neither submission have been touched. If your company has a "brick and mortar" location, you can also submit to the Regional category, but you won't be able to get two different listing under the Business category.

The site in question being BizRate.com, linked from user BizRate's profile.

I'm not completely sure, but I believe that if the change-after-listing is done purposefully ("bait-and-switch") that the site will be banned from ODP. If the domain for the site got bought up by one of those domain resellers that put affiliate link directories in their place, we'll try to find the new location for the site, and delete the entry if none can be found. If the site got bought by Acme Corp, and redirects to their already-listed-in-ODP website, it will get deleted. If the site owner, for whatever reason (besides bait-and-switch) decides to change the focus of the site, we'll move the listing to a more appropriate location.

Being in DMOZ in and of itself probably doesn't help PageRank. But since the ODP data is used at a couple hundred sites, being in the ODP will eventually (depending on when downstream sites update) give you a few hundred more places pointing at your page(s). If, before, you only had a few links to your site, this will help your PageRank a great deal; if you already had a hundred or so links to your site, it will help somewhat; if you have thousands of links to your site, it probably won't help at all. Some people believe that the Google PageRank algorithm gives a greater weight to links from http://dmoz.org/ than from other places, but I haven't seen anything that would confirm this.

Computers/Shopping seems to be in need of an editor, and at 44 sites is something a newbie might be able to get; however, I'm not sure if "Shopping" categories are ever given to newbies... Within Computers/, the following seem to need the most help: [*]Companies [*]Consultants [*]Intranet [*]Shopping [/list:u]In Business: [*]E-Commerce [*]International Business and Trade [*]Import and Export [*]Training and Schools [*]Small Business [/list:u]

Are you asking if there's search engines that use the ODP description in search results, instead of the description given by the search engine submitter, or in the META tag of the page? Google shows both the ODP description and the description given by the site owner; the regular description (grabbed from the page's META tag) is shown first, and the ODP description, preceded by a light gray "Description:" is given second.

Re: A whole directory vanished? <blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>apeuro wrote: "Frankly it's irrelevant .... No one is putting a gun to the head of John Q Public and forcing them to use the directory. Period." Ive heard more times than I care to mention "this is our directory - we will do what we want!" This is the exact godly attitude I was speaking about. <p><hr></blockquote>I don't see how this is a "godly attitude". Apeuro said that we try to edit based upon what we think that user would want (trying to serve the public doesn't seem much like a "godly attitude"), and that we make mistakes (which also isn't godly). The only thing left is the declaration of "we, the editors, are the ones who decide what the users would find useful". We editors do listen to public comments, including what users would find useful, and if we think the commenter is wrong, we say so. Is it disagreeing with these public comments that's the problem? Maybe we should put the ODP guidelines up to vote by the general Internet public? Or create an over-site committee, with it's members elected by the public?

Your submission has not been touched, and there are 182 other unreviewed submission in the same category.

Re: can you check on submission It is currently sitting in Shopping/Home_and_Garden/Garden_Accessories/, which has a bit of a backlog.

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>Quoth Axacta: Your argument was based on what you claimed "experts in Medicine" think, but now you argue as though it was about execution of the directory.<p><hr></blockquote>I'm not exactly sure dictinction you're making between what expert claim and "execution". Alternative medicine and normal medicine are at the same level in the heirarchy because (according to experts) alternative medicine is not a sub-category of medicine. However, because many people using the directory might think that it is a sub-category of medicine, we put an @link to it under the medicine category to help them find what they're looking for. If we were to make the real alternative medicine category a sub-category of medicine, and then put the @link in the top level Health category (the opositie of how it is now), we'd be saying that, in our opinion, alternative medicine is a sub-category of medicine. So it's not just mere execution; where the real categories go and where the @links go says something about what we think the logical structure of the topics are.<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>And for that matter it matters not to me if you use the same execution for Christianity as you do for Alternative Medicine - whatever works - but based on the more than abundant times I have explained my position, Christianity should appear on the Home Page in the second tier.<p><hr></blockquote>Your abundant reasons seem to be: [*]The Christianity category is much bigger than all the other categories under Society/Religion_and_Spirituality [*]All of the hard work that the editors of the Christianity categories have gone through.[/list:u]Overwhelmingly, ODP editors have rejected those as good reasons. Having a huge number of sites, or the editors having put in a huge effort, is not a good reason (in our opinion) to move a category up closer to the top of the heirarchy. It's extremely unlikely that you or anyone else will ever convince us otherwise. If you could convince us that directory users are expecting Christianity to appear directly under Society, and are confused by it not being there, then we'd put in an @link to Society/Religion_and_Spirituality/Christianity/ from the Society category. However, it's pretty unlikely that you'd convince us of that either, since those users will see the Religion and Spirituality category, think "Oh, it must be under there", and they'll be right. Now, if we put Christianity directly under Society, it might save some people some time, since they wouldn't have to take that extra second or so to see the Religion and Spirituality category and click on it, but that's not enough reason to move the Christianity either.

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>Quoth Brad: With all due respect, I cannot see how there is not a conflict of interest. If he is accepting money to have other industry professionals listed on his personal site, but REFUSES to add my site, which has a similar service, to the OPD, that goes beyond a conflict of interest.<p><hr></blockquote>It would only be a conflict of interest if his listing or not listing a site on his personal site must have an influence on how he lists sites on ODP. However, an intelligent and ethical person could easily separate the two things in his/her mind, and not let one have an influence on the other. Of course, he could have quid pro quo type situation where if you buy a listing on his personal page, he'll add you in the ODP, but that's just another form of bribery. If you have any evidence that this sort thing is happening, then please submit it to a meta-editor.

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>Quoth mike_gallagher: At the top of the ODP home page is a search option.<p><hr></blockquote>The ODP search is for editors, and is pretty much only used by editors and by ODP submitters trying to see if their site has made it in yet; very few end users use it. If a user on, say, Google Directory (based on ODP data), does a search for "spas" and "algae", it'll show your site with whatever description META tag you used, plus the ODP description and the category its under. Of course, if a site using ODP data uses only ODP data when doing a search, then a search for "spas" and "algae" will show... Well, it shows only a single site under the Regional/ category. But it's the job of the sites using the ODP data to layer a good search on top of the directory data we provide.

Re: My only problem <blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>Quoth yesem: A fix = Make it possible for an editor to take snapshots of the offending site, prior to deletion.<p><hr></blockquote>If a site is deleted and re-submitted, the next editor to look at it will see the note left by the editor who deleted it: "Pop ups, spam, affiliate links, made my computer explode and killed my cat". So as long as the deleting editor did a good job in writing a note, there's no need for a snapshot type mechanism. In addition to the "bait-and-switch" tactic mentioned by Hutcheson, some sites will show a different page to DMOZ editors than to everyone else (by looking at the referal headers): the DMOZ editor sees puppies and kittens, so he/she approves it, but everyone else sees hard-core porn. I presume that these folks get banned just as quickly bait-and-switch ones, if not quicker.

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>Quoth wladek: BTW from editors we expect proper spelling.<p><hr></blockquote>Isn't that what the spell checker is for? I myself am a prety bad speller, but I use the spell checker enough that I there aren't that many spelling problems in the categories I edit.

When looking at any URL that has an "@" in the very first part, the part before the "@" is actually a user name, so http://www.microsoft.com@dmoz.org/April-01-2002_GOD_PR.html is user "www.microsoft.com" at machine "dmoz.org". This little trick is used by many a scoundrel in furthering his nefarious schemes.

In my experience, if a site can't be viewed by XYZ browser, it will get reviewed, but have a tag added to the description saying "Requires Internet Explorer" or similar; a similar tag will be added if it requires Flash, ActiveX, and so on. However, while it will still be reviewed, it might take longer. If the usual editor for a category can't view a submitted site because it requires XYZ, then he or she will have to pass it off to another editor who is capable of viewing it.

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>Quoth GameBoy: I use to be listed in dmoz but I haven't been able to find my site anymore.<p><hr></blockquote>Also note that, after a site is added to dmoz, it takes time for dmoz's search engine index to be updated, so don't worry if it isn't showing up in the search results yet. Darn, I can't remember how long it takes for the dmoz search engine index to be updated. Anyone else know?

Re: Are SEO practioners not welcomed as editors? <blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>Quoth ettore: ... I somewhat prefer to err being on the cautious side that letting in someone who will betray our trust.<p><hr></blockquote>Hmmm... Does your level of paranoia vary depending upon the category? I mean, just gut instinct tells me that someone applying for a TV show or rockstar category is probably less likely to have ulterior motives than someone applying for a business related category. Maybe when applying the applicant should be told the level of paranoia for that category, so if they get rejected they can just say "Oh well, I got rejected because they were too paranoid"?

Re: Apply and wait....... wait....... (editors nee <blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>Quoth lisa: If as is the case I have to go up about 3 levels to find an editor, isn't this going to make review of the site unlikely?<p><hr></blockquote>It depends upon how big of a backlog that editor has. An editor who edits a single category might have more of a backlog than an editor who edits lots of categories that are 3 levels down (or more) from the main category they edit.