Commercial sites

Netdetective · May 21, 2006

Is there ever a problem with commercial sites that are promoting and selling a product, as long as they contain lots of good genuine content that's not commercial in nature? :icon_ques

lmocr · May 21, 2006

We are very happy to list commercial sites that are promoting and selling a good genuine product, regardless of whether or not there is also good genuine noncommerical content.

motsa · May 21, 2006

But keep in mind that only the primary site selling and promoting, say, Netdetective, would be listable, not any of the many affiliates or resellers.

Netdetective · May 21, 2006

What if an affiliate's or reseller's site largely consists of good unique content, that is of genuine value to the visitor?

spectregunner · May 21, 2006

The "whatif" path is one that we are reluctant to walk.

There are so many factors to consider -- and whenever we start to discuss this type of thing (with qualifiers galore) our words get thrown back at us (minus any of the qualifiers) or get used in other forums to ddescribe how inconsistent and unfair we are.

The ODP is all about unique content. The proof is in the website.

I know that is not the answer you want -- but we are very reluctant to go much further.

hutcheson · May 21, 2006

>What if an affiliate's or reseller's site largely consists of good unique content, that is of genuine value to the visitor?

Ah, that happens so seldom, that it's not worth expending two cents' worth of worry over. Between vapid marketroid hype and plagiarized misinformation, it's just not a problem we run into.

What we do is try to provide this valuable service to surfers: accurately directing them to the actual providers of goods and services with accurate attribution.

Netdetective · May 22, 2006

I looked over http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html and see that an "affiliate" site can be permissible so long as it contains original content that would be useful to the visitors, not mirrored or duplicated content and does not primarily consist of affiliate links.

Netdetective · May 22, 2006

I'm sure there must be exceptions. A site who earns affiliate income, can primarily exist as a unique content site. It's true most website owners who are involved with affiliate programs produce sites that are purely sales pitches for their products, but there are a few exceptions.

Upon reading the submission guidelines http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html I see that "affiliate" sites can be acceptable, as long as they contain lots of unique content, not mirrored or duplicate content, and do not primarily consist of affiliate links.

hutcheson · May 22, 2006

The word you conspicuously omitted from your quotation is critical -- arguably the second most critical word in the whole guideline.

hutcheson · May 22, 2006

If the primary purpose of the site is any kind of "driving commercial traffic to another site" (which would include affiliate links), it's not listable, by frequently reiterated explicit staff edict.

Netdetective · May 22, 2006

I don't want to name any names but I did find a few examples here

http://dmoz.org/Reference/Directories/Address_and_Phone_Numbers/

Netdetective · May 22, 2006

I feel DMOZ maybe ought to consider easing up a little bit on their ultra-strict rules regarding "affiliate" sites. There really are lots of great affiliate sites that offer wonderful unique content. It's true most are junk sites, but you can't paint all affiliate sites with that same paint brush. I've heard stories of existing sites in dmoz getting dropped just for having adding a few Amazon.com links. Incidently, I just discovered a few affiliate sites currently in your system.

Just my $0.02 worth...

Sachti · May 22, 2006

Netdetective said:
I've heard stories of existing sites in dmoz getting dropped just for having adding a few Amazon.com links.

There are a lot of untrue stories and myths out there about the ODP.

hutcheson · May 22, 2006

The trouble is, there are so many untrue stories that it makes it hard to notice the true ones. I have run across a very few actual cases of editors inappropriately deleting sites. It is very rare. And ... this is a fairly important point ... it is evident that SURFERS would be better off if ODP editors spent LESS time, not more time, dealing with affiliate sites: and thus were freed to spend MORE time on the REAL businesses, the REAL topical experts, the REAL personal and community interests.

In other words, the "rare jewels" we lose quickly dumping the doorway muck, we make back much more quickly mining in veins known to be content-rich.

Now, the trick is figuring out HOW to do that: how to quickly spot and bypass anything that even smells doorwayish, while giving more thorough reviews of sites that smell like information. (Because nobody's sense of smell is perfect!)

motsa · May 22, 2006

Netdetective, I've combined all of your posts (and their replies) into your original thread. Please keep your comments related to affiliate sites to this thread instead of bumping old threads to so so.

Netdetective · May 22, 2006

I guess ultimately to find out the truth to my burning questions, I shall have to go ahead and submit my site for review. I heard it takes up to 6 months to get reviewed anyway.

Maybe dmoz should consider offering webmasters some kind of expedited paid inclusion program and hire additional editors to manage it.

Sachti · May 22, 2006

Netdetective said:
I heard it takes up to 6 months to get reviewed anyway.

Another myth. It may take several hours or days up to many years. In a certain category I am just digging in site proposals from 2003.

Netdetective said:
Maybe dmoz should consider offering webmasters some kind of expedited paid inclusion program and hire additional editors to manage it.

This would be against the intention of the ODP. The ODP does NOT offer services to webmasters, it is offering services to the directory user.

timamie261 · May 29, 2006

Well just got back after 2 near misses and two accidents I was not one of the latter two . The industry is getting greener with new hands that know nothing.

I wish some one would do some thing with this category

http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Classifieds/Automotive/Classics/

Same 31 listings no new ones

I was wondering if it would do any good to try to submit to other categories that would hold equal relevance as well.

I see several sites that have multiple listings, might this be an easier way to get listed

spectregunner · May 29, 2006

I was wondering if it would do any good to try to submit to other categories that would hold equal relevance as well.

That is a very, very wrong strategy -- one that ultimately could have very unfavorable long-term consequences.

Just learn so patience. No editr is going to jump into that category someply because you want one to. The category will get updated when it gets updated. Not a minute sooner.

That's just how it is.

timamie261 · May 30, 2006

spectregunner said:
That is a very, very wrong strategy -- one that ultimately could have very unfavorable long-term consequences.

How did the sites get multiple category listings then. This is question that came to mind tonight after a long drive home today.

Commercial sites

Netdetective

Member

lmocr

Member

motsa

Netdetective

Member

spectregunner

Member

hutcheson

Netdetective

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Netdetective

Member

hutcheson

hutcheson

Netdetective

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Netdetective

Member

Sachti

Member

hutcheson

motsa

Netdetective

Member

Sachti

Member

timamie261

Member

spectregunner

Member

timamie261

Member