I need help finding the right category to submit my site

I'm posting to this forum in regards to a new site in which I've made. I'll never be finished adding data to the site, however I think this site has enough content to be listed in the directory.

My site's URL is http://www.vgindex.com/ and the title is "The Video Game Index"

It basically covers cheat codes, release data, company data, platform data, and box cover graphics for 79 distinct platforms and over 55,300 games. I am adding content all the time, and I plan on adding much more content including screenshots and gameshark/game genie codes as well as any other data I can find.

It already has 55,000+ games listed, and with each one there is usually some piece of information on it. I've worked very hard on this site and I've spent over two years planning it out, as well as the last few months programming and gathering the data from all over the web.

It's very fast, and as of now it's ad-free. I appreciate your time and hopefully you guys can help suggest a category for me. I cover every game across every platform so I thought I could submit it to the top level category (Games/Video_Games/). I noticed there are a few sites there already so why not mine? (Submitting it to just cheat codes or just 'platform games' would not be suitable I would think because it covers way more than that?) But of course before I started the long submissions process I wanted to double-check as much as I could.

Anyways I do realize how busy you guys are and that you may not be able to respond immediately. However any help or suggestions would be most welcome, and most appreciated.

I'd probably submit to:

Games/Video_Games/Directories/Cheats_and_Hints/

But it's not exclusive to only cheats and hints...

Would that even make sense? I don't want my site to get broad-brushed to a category when it covers more outside of that category.

I would suggest that you submit to the category that 'you' feel would house your site appropriately as without an editor performing a detailed review it can be hard for us to establish the right home. As you know your site best you are in a far better position to make an informed submission.

If the reviewing editor has a different view then they will utilise our free 'move to a more appropriate category' service.

<added> The navigation at the top appears not be linked up (ie Home :: Forum :: Search :: About and the link at the bottom to the forum 404's. Given the amount of sites with such content you may wish to hold off until the site is fully operational</added>

leer said:

I would suggest that you submit to the category that 'you' feel would house your site appropriately as without an editor performing a detailed review it can be hard for us to establish the right home. As you know your site best you are in a far better position to make an informed submission.

If the reviewing editor has a different view then they will utilise our free 'move to a more appropriate category' service.

<added> The navigation at the top appears not be linked up (ie Home :: Forum :: Search :: About and the link at the bottom to the forum 404's. Given the amount of sites with such content you may wish to hold off until the site is fully operational</added>

Click to expand...

Well, it won't let me add a submission to the category I want to apply for, that was part of my question. I wanted to add it to the category of
http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/
and there is no submit URL link for that.

As to the 404's, I'm working to correct those as soon as now. However you said 'given the amount of sites with such content'... actually as far as I know there aren't that many that provide a full list of every single game and not just content specific to one type of content. In fact, this list is 20% larger than GameFaq's list It also includes a few platforms they don't have, either.

You aren't supposed to be able to add sites at that level because very few actually qualify!

If in the rare case a site does qualify - it can be moved there by an editor internally.

Your site is however a directory. Since there is a category for directories under Games/Video_Games - it won't be listed in Games/Video_Games.

If you feel it has substantial content beyond just the cheats - you could try:

Games/Video_Games/Directories/

HTH,

Andy

But I'm not too sure it would qualify as a "directory".

A directory is a directory of sites, not a directory of games. They have a link or two to sites that don't necessarily qualify (Gigex.com on the top level) so why shouldn't mine qualify?

The only thing is how do I even submit my site to it? I am quite reluctant to submit my site to the wrong directory because I cannot state my concerns such as this in the submit URL entry for other categories.

EDIT: I'm thinking maybe I could submit to more than one category. However I do wish I could get some suggestion in for the category, the least they could do is have a way to submit for that category heh

It's really not appropriate to drag out this discussion here. Submit to the best-fitting subcategory. The editor will decide what the best category is.

We do this in the ODP, every day, for EVERYBODY -- submitted and unsubmitted sites alike. We can do it very efficiently there. Let us.

hutcheson,

My reasoning for discussing this in the forum is so that I don't waste the editor's time. Once it's submitted, the submission cannot be changed, so as they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I mean what's worse, adding too many submissions which will take months to check up on, or making my submissions count? For this category, I hear it takes a long time to process submissions.

I thought the Open Directory project and editors alike wanted each submission to be as close as possible anyways?

I don't see this as 'dragging out' anything. Besides this situation could perhaps help someone else who may find a closed category they wish to submit their site in.

valkorn:

Think of it this way. The advice that you have been given has ben based entirely on the way that you chose to describe your site.

This is one of the great challenges in marketing: what exactly is it that we are trying to market?

This is what I am seeing here. You are strugging to accurately and concisely describe your site -- we are strugging to understand what your site is all about.

Try this at home (when no children are within hearing distance): describe your site in 50 words or less. OK, now describe your site in 25 words or less. OK, now it starts getting hard, cut 5 words from that decription. Now cut 5 more. Now take that 15-word description and rewrite it half a dozen times until it accurately describes your site in 10 words. No, you're not going to be able to list every feature, but you have just created an excellent tagline -- and what can be the basis for a correct categorization of your site.

BTW, I was peripherally involved in a similar effort a decate ago trying to reduce Intel's tag line to 5 words or less. With many an argument and not a few nose-to-nose confrontations, we settled on four: World's Leading Semiconductor Manufacturer. That was the essence of Intel. What can you do for your webiste? What is the essence of http://www.vgindex.com/ ?

When you get it nailed, come back here and post it, and we'll probably be able to help pick a category based on it.

I understand. But you just didn't think it through. Penny-wise, maybe, but pound-foolish for sure.

Hmm... that's a very interesting topic, hutcheson.

I've posted something similar to what I hope to accomplish on my site, which is:

"The Video Game Index is an online website project created to generate a complete list of every game known for every platform."

But, perhaps something like:

"The Video Game Index is an online encyclopedia of every video game known for every platform. Included are box covers, screenshots, gameshark codes, cheat codes, hints and strategies as well as release dates and information on who manufactured each game."

It's a bit lengthy but the first sentence of that might suffice in case the whole thing doesn't?

Hopefully that'll help find the proper category. Thanks for your help

EDIT: I have yet to upload some of whats in that description (screenshots and gameshark codes), but that description does include what should be there within the next few days. Uploading all the data and re-parsing it is a chore, especially for 55,000 titles.

Definition of a directory:
I think your site qualifies as a directory.

Maybe the category description needs changing

http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Directories/desc.html

Directories of video game related links. - implies that it's for sites that are directories of other web sites about games, not directories of games.

Maybe the category description needs changing

http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Video_Gam...ories/desc.html

Directories of video game related links. - implies that it's for sites that are directories of other web sites about games, not directories of games.

Click to expand...

That's what I was pointing out. The category is for a directory of links, not a directory of games.

So I could submit to the cheats and hints directory, and maybe one or two others, but in either case it still is not a perfect match.

Is there any way I can still suggest the site to the general directory or submit it to a lesser directory? If so, how do I mention in the submission that I feel it possibly belongs in a category which I cannot submit to?

The guidance on standard subcategory names and content:

http://dmoz.org/preferredterms.html#Directories

Suggests the scope of directories categories is wider than indicated by the current specific charter wording.

But anyway as Hutcheson said - suggest it to the site you feel it fits best in - you don't have to take my or anyone elses suggestions. If you still feel it belongs in the category above it - add a note to the end of the description (stick it in curly brackets or something) stating your reasoning. The reviewing editor will remove the note as part of the review anyway.

Taking spectregunner's advice on writing a concise description would be good too.

But whatever you do - submit it to ONE category only - the ONE category that you feel it best fits in. Even if you think it would fit 'okay' in several, still pick the best of those and submit to that category.

I just submitted it in the cheats and hints directory with a small footnote that I couldn't suggest it for the top level and that I did think that it could possibly be appropriate since it has such a general area of content.

Hopefully that will help. Thanks for your time!