How many categories may list a site?

I'm new to this forum and have a question that has puzzled me for some time.

From the discussions I see that it is extremely difficult to get a site listed in more than one or maybe two categories. I understand fully that the ODP is not about helping the individual site owners but about relevancy for the users.

Imagine a site in X languages. Are there any guideslines against getting a listing for each language, provided of course, that the editor of the relevant category for each language accepts the site. Thus, in theory, the site might have X+1 listings, as you might get both a geographic and business-category listing in our own language.

As many smaller languages need listings about a lot of topics I would find a limit in regard of the total number of listings not beneficial to the purpose of the ODP. Is there such a limit?

A site may be listed in whatever languages it has versions for, provided those versions contain sufficient content and aren't translated on the fly using an tool like Babelfish.

the site might have X+1 listings

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Actually, it's more like 2x listings - once in a Regional category and once in a Topical category for each language.

However, there are lots of exceptions. Not every site is regional in character, so some sites will have no Regional listing. Some sites are so Regional in nature they won't get a topical listing. If an ice cream parlor has a website, we'll probably list it in the locality category where it is located. However, we won't list it under ice cream.

Are there any guideslines against getting a listing for each language

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Effectively, each language listed under http://dmoz.org/World/ is its own mini-ODP. We encourage listing sites under each language available, following the general guidelines mentioned above.

Thank you lissa and motsa. That was the answer I hoped for. I've heard from other sources that if you have more than two ODP-links you should be very silent about it as it was against the guidelines. Your answer makes sense and I'm glad to hear (lissa) that you even encourage listings in multiple languages.

As for sole's answer I would like to give an example to make sure I understand it right. Say I run a hotel in Copenhagen and have a site in danish, english and german. In danish I could apply for both a topical and regional listing. But for english and german only a regional listing would apply? A topical listing in those language would not be accepted as the business is solely in Denmark. Is this correct?

On the other hand if you run a worldwide hotel chain you might get both a regional and topical listing for each country/language provided your website is in that language (regional) and you have a hotel in that country (topical).

Is that correct?

As for sole's answer I would like to give an example to make sure I understand it right. Say I run a hotel in Copenhagen and have a site in danish, english and german. In danish I could apply for both a topical and regional listing. But for english and german only a regional listing would apply? A topical listing in those language would not be accepted as the business is solely in Denmark. Is this correct?

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In the English-language part of the ODP, individual hotels are listed only in the Regional branch, because we consider them relevant only to the region in which they are located -- you can only use their service if you actually go to that area. This is true no matter what country they are located in.

In World/Dansk, it appears that hotels are listed in appropriate geographical subcategories of http://dmoz.org/World/Dansk/Fritid/Rejser/Overnatning/Hoteller/ and not at all in http://dmoz.org/World/Dansk/Regional/ . For example, in http://dmoz.org/World/Dansk/Regional/Danmark/Amter_og_kommuner/Roskilde_Amt/Rejser_og_turisme/Overnatning , the "Hoteller" link is really an @link (or symbolic link) that takes you to http://dmoz.org/World/Dansk/Fritid/Rejser/Overnatning/Hoteller/Roskilde_Amt . So in Danish, it appears that a hotel will only get one listing, too, but in the Fritid branch, rather than Regional. However, you might want to check with an editor who understands the language for an authoritative answer. Still, in every World category I checked, hotels are a type of business that we only list once per language.

A better example might be a candy shop, which has a brick-and-mortar location in, say Hershey, Pennsylvania, where customers can visit and make purchases, and which also has international shipping for online orders. For each language of their site, they could get one Regional/ branch listing (in the appropriate category for Hershey, PA) and one Shopping/ branch listing (for online candy sales). So if they had a site in English, German, and Danish, they could potentially get 6 listings.

So could you say in short that you may potentially get a regional listing for each language. Then, if you offer a service that customers in that language may acquire in their region, either because of a physical presence or an online shop, you may potentially get a topical listing as well?

Not quite. If you have a site that is generally only listed in the regional area (e.g. hotels, real estate agents), you can potentially have a regional listing in each language. If you have a site that really has no regional aspect (e.g an informational site or a site with only an online presence), you can potentially have a topical listing in each language. Other business or organization sites can potentially have both a regional and a topical listing in each language.

Very precise, thank you!

For now the hotels are listed in http://dmoz.org/World/Dansk/Fritid/Rejser/Overnatning/Hoteller/ but World/Dansk intend to list the hotel-sites in World/Dansk/Regional/..Kommune too.