Is it possible to suggest a new category?

I posted a question about our website's submission, and got some great advice there. But I've been thinking about where exactly we should be listed, and I figured I'd ask here.

We're in the "event marketing" industry. When Duff beer wants to send the Duff Party Bus to Moe's, they can call us. We'll hire Duffman and some beautiful women. We can also rent the van, decorate it with the Duff logo, hire a driver, find some oversized beer-mugs, etc. When Duffman heads towards Springfield, we keep in touch with the crew and make sure everything goes off without a hitch.

The best category I can find is Event Planning and Production. It's true, we do plan events for businesses. But looking at the sites already listed, it seems like they focus more on planning conferences, business meetings, etc. The events we do are always promotional/marketing in nature.

I found a category that seems related, but doesn't seem like a perfect fit:
Promotional Products (since we do occasionally organize events where people pass out free samples). There are a few sites listed there that work in the same industry.

Finally, we are in some senses a staffing/talent agency. A lot of what our company does is find, interview, hire, schedule, etc. the Duffmen of the world.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I don't know how many sites need to be listed before a new category is created, but it might be worth considering making a section called "Event Marketing," "Experiential Marketing," "Live Marketing," "Marketing Event Staffing," or something along those lines. This would probably go best under Marketing and Advertising.

Thanks for your time,

Luke

In my opinion, you are a classic event planning and production company. You are not in the business of trash and trinkets, so you don't belong in promotional products, nor are you marketing and advertising. Similarly, you probably have events where beverages are served, but that does not make you a bar or restaurant.

Live Event Marketing is just event planning and production with a sexy title. I know, I've hired/contracted plenty of both. A Refuse Manager is still the trash guy. The person providing strategic council is usually a PR person who has a higher billing rate.

While we are certainly open to the consideration new categories, I think this one falls well short of the mark.

Wouldn't it be appropriate somewhere in one of the locality categories - http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer.../Localities/A/Asheville/Business_and_Economy/? There is an Event_Planning category there.

donaldb]Wouldn said:

http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/North_Carolina/Localities/A/Asheville/Business_and_Economy/[/url']? There is an Event_Planning category there.

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I don't think so. While we are physically located in Asheville (and Georgia, and soon Arizona), we very rarely ever put on promotions here. 99.9% of our promos are done elsewhere in the US. I thinking about who would be looking for us, and how they'd be looking for us. They'd be thinking, "I need someone to hire people for this marketing promotion in LA, NYC, and Chicago...I'll look in Business, Marketing, ...uh... Marketing Support Services, @Events ...uh... Ah, Event Planning and Production!"

It was by following that thought process (about how people would be looking for us) that I came up with the idea that Event Marketing might warrant its own category. But I can accept being kept in with the other (non-marketing) event planners.

Out of curiosity, how do you decide when a new category needs to be formed? I remember seeing a mention of it in the "dog bow" thread. It that decision entirely up to the category editor? (I'm not trying to argue or anything, just curious.)

Nareau

When enough sites are found that seem to logically group together, then a new category is started. There is no hard-and-fast value of "enough", though - it depends veyr much on the area of the directory.

New categories are often formed when someone notices that several related-subject sites are listed across several different categories.

An internal forum thread is started, and discussion of the best way to reorganise things begins. It takes weeks for consensus to happen.

Eventually the sites are moved according to the decisions made, and all the old locations are linked through to the new location. This usually makes the new category more visible in the directory than it was before.

Look down any category path, and see that some sub-categories are marked with an @ before the name. That @link category looks like a subcategory of wherever you are at the moment, but might be a worm-hole to a far distant part of the directory in another completely different branch.

I don't think so. While we are physically located in Asheville (and Georgia, and soon Arizona), we very rarely ever put on promotions here.

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Might I gently suggest that you misunderstand Regional. Regional is where we list businesses based upon where they are located, not upon where they market/sell/merchandise, etc. You have an office in Asheville. People come to work there? You hire from within the local community? You get the newspaper delivered? If the answer to most of these is "yes" then you likely qualify for a Regional listing in addition to being considered for a listing by topic (what you do).

When you think about our directory and where we place sites, it is always important to remember that we categorize sites based upon the needs of the surfer, not upon the desires of the business. This really comes into play within Regional. We list a business with a physical presence in a community not because they market or sell there, but because surfers wanting to know what businesses are located in Asheville would want to find your business listed -- even if they would never do business with you. You are part fo the Asheville business climate.

spectregunner]Might I gently suggest that you misunderstand Regional. Regional is where we list businesses based upon where they are located said:

being considered for a listing by topic (what you do).

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Ah, indeed I did misunderstand Regional. For some reason, I had thought it was only possible to be listed in a single category on DMOZ.

I totally understand DMOZ listing sites based on the "needs of the surfer". It's an interesting ontological question (to me, anyways)...is it better to list a site based on what it does, where it is, who's looking for it, or how they're looking? I think you guys have it figured out pretty well--by largely organizing on how people look for things.

We list a business with a physical presence in a community not because they market or sell there, but because surfers wanting to know what businesses are located in Asheville would want to find your business listed -- even if they would never do business with you.

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While I understand your point, I'm not sure I agree 100%. Why would a surfer want to know what businesses are located in Asheville, if they have no interest in doing business with them? I could see maybe printers, office supply stores, etc. wanting to find local businesses to contract with/sell to...so in that sense, it would be useful to them. But I doubt anyone looking for our services would surf for it by region. I dunno...maybe.

At any rate, thanks for all the answers. Organizing the sum of human knowlege is pretty mind-boggling stuff to me; I'm glad someone else has thought about it more than I have.

Nareau

Maybe they are looking for jobs in the area, or have always wondered what that company down the road does. Maybe they are looking for local companies to enter some sort of local sponsorship for charitable events... maybe they believe in keeping the local business alive by only shopping with the "small guy" in their community.

And, I'm sure, lots more possible reasons.