Multi Service Site with Service based sub-domains

Hello,

Great job in maintaining the Directory on the Web! I was looking for these Forums for some time. I always wanted to talk to someone at DMOZ about my sub-domain issue.

I am the webmaster of a website that provides Residential Relocation Services. Basically, it provides Rental, Home-Buyer, Home-Seller, Moving, and Storage Services. The Site is organized by giving each of these Services a unique subdomain. The following are subdomains -
www.somerelocation.com -> Main website
rent.somerelocation.com -> Search for Rental Apt/Home ...
sale.somerelocation.com -> Search for Home/Condo for sale..
moving.somerelocation.com -> Get FREE Moving quotes ...
storage.somerelocation.com -> Get FREE Storage quotes ...

I think, the content of each section is totally independent of the other sections. But, when I have submitted all the above mentioned links, only 2 links are approved. Since I did not understand the process, I have submitted the rest of these links again. But, this time 2 different links are approved.

WHY only 2 links are approved?


Thanks
RGudi

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

It's very difficult to answer a question like that without looking at the actual website rather than a hypothetical example.

If you'll post the url, I'll try to answer your question.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

Thanks for a quick reply.

Actually, I wanted to get an unbiased opinion. If you need the actual URL, it is http://www.residencyguide.com.

As you might have noticed, some of the subdomains are hosted at a different IP Address than the others. Since the cotent is also totally independent, I was expecting them to be acceptable as different URLs for DMOZ.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

We won't care whether all the content is hosted on the same domain or the same IP address ... except ... if one site is spread out over multiple domains and/or multiple IP addresses, and there are other reasons to suspect something dodgy is going on, that will be considered as confirmation.

Normally, something like a "directory" only gets listed once (i.e. multiple listings are significantly rarer for directories than for some other classes of sites. We could give Yahoo! 250,000 listings ... but we ain't gonna.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

My first thought on looking at the site was that it should have one listing, not two, and that the listing should be for the root domain. Further research revealed that another editor already came to the same conclusion before you posted and removed the subdomain listings.

That same other editor made a valiant effort to determine that the main domain was listable, but failed because of an inability to navigate the search on the site to any successful conclusion despite several attempts.

I too found nothing in several search attempts for my area, and was also unable to navigate from the forums on the site to reach any posting.

My suggestion is to fix the navigation problems on the site, making sure they work in a variety of standards compliant browsers, and resubmit the root domain to the most appropriate dmoz category.

The subdomains will not be listed in any case, since we do not feel they would add anything to our directory even if they work.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

I am not saying that all multi-subdomain and multi-IP based websites must have all sub-domains listed at DMOZ.

Residency Guide is NOT a Directory. It actually provides all the following Relocation Services:
Helps finding Rental Apartments/Homes
Helps finding Roommates
Residential Properties can be listed
Moving Quotes are Provided
Storage Quotes are Provided

Currently, Residency Guide has about many hundreds of Properties listed. We recieve many Rental Property requests, For Sale Property requests, Moving Quote Requests and Storage Quote requests.

Of course, we may not provide all the services from begin to end ourselves. While offering some services ourselves, we work with our partners for many of these services.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

As far as I can tell, there were 2 URLs. If they were removed, thats NEWS to me.

> I too found nothing in several search attempts for my area

As the Property Services page explains, it costs about $2.99 per month with the first month FREE. We are trying our best to market Residency Guide.

There were many homes added this month. For example, please review the following properties:
*) Apartments for Rent in Florida > Metro Gainesville > Hawthorne.
*) Condo for Rent in Colorado > Metro Denver > Aurora

If there were no Properties listed in your area, it should not be assumed that there were no Properties at all.

> , and was also unable to navigate from the forums on the site to reach any posting.

In our testing, we were able to go to Forums and view postings and add postings without any Problem. What browser are you using? Can you open Topics List Page in Forums?

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

It won't help you at all to optimize for my browser, since I'm not likely to be the editor who reviews the site.

I suggest testing on a variety of browsers, including at least recent versions of Opera, Mozilla and IE.

And I really don't have the time or the inclination to do your testing for you.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

OK. I will test with those browsers. We use plain HTML and very little Java Script. I have tested successfully using IE and Netscapte both before.

Sorry for taking more of your time. But, I am VERY concerned about removal of Residency Guide because it did not contain any Properties. It does contain many Rental and Sale properties.

Recently, we have also released Partner Services where Parnters can login and provide services to our Customers at Residency Guide.

Are both the residencyguide.com Links removed from DMOZ? If so, why were they removed?

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

The subdomains were removed because we don't consider them to add value to the directory. Since this conclusion was reached independently by three different editors, I seriously doubt that it will change.

I suggest again, make sure the site contains substantial content that can be reached from a wide variety of browsers since neither you nor I know what browser a reviewing editor will use. I further suggest that if cookies or javascript or anything else besides plain html is required, that requirement be prominently displayed on the site.

And I really have nothing further to say on this.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

brmehlman,

I have successfully tested with no Forum Navigation problems in IE 6.0, Mozilla 1.4, and Opera 7.11.

Sorry for bugging you with more questions. I personally feel that DMOZ is the best Directory on the Web (with OR without my URLs).

Based on my limited research, I found the following ways to add multiple URLs into DMOZ:
*) springstreet.com is a subsidiary of Homestore.com. Homestore provides the same services as that of Residency Guide, but it is a HUGE company. Many links of both Homestore.com and Springstreet.com are added to the DMOZ.
*) atlantapartments4rent.com, apartments-in-biloxi.com and many other localized sites (with the same content except the city name) are maintained by the same company, but most of these URLs (new domains) were successfully added to the DMOZ.
*) Create a mirror site and add it to DMOZ under a different website for adding many more ULRs successfully like AIM Relocation.

So, if I create a different domains for each Service and follow one of the above examples (instead of subdomain), will that be acceptable to DMOZ?

Thanks for your time.
RGudi

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

Please carefully read hutcheson's post above.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

So, if I create a different domains for each Service and follow one of the above examples (instead of subdomain), will that be acceptable to DMOZ?

Click to expand...

It has already been said that you will probably only get one listing, regardless of whether the site is on multiple domains.

If you feel that this is unfair, in that other companies have got away with it, please provide a list of such URLs and the categories that they are listed in, and a reason why you think they should not be listed (there's a thread in the Abuse Reporting forum for this). We'll then go through them and take appropriate action.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

Sorry, I could not stop with out responding.

He was assuming that Residency Guide was just another Directory site. But it is not, it is a Web Application. I have responded to his message. I did not get any response from him. I have worked about 2 years to create Residency Guide. So far, it has about 300 web pages (excluding dummy redirect and include pages) and SQL database with 120 tables.

Do you (also) think Residency Guide is a Directory site?

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

Regardless of whether or not we would classify the site as a directory, the subsites will not be added, whether you give them their own domains or keep them as subdomains. Additionally, as brmehlman said, several editors were unable to locate any listings despite several tries. You may actually have listings but if noone can find them in a reasonable number of sample searches, then you can't be surprised that the site would be judged to have insufficient content.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

OK. Now, I understand about subdomains and multiple URLs for the same company are not acceptable for DMOZ.

But, removing all the URLs for residencyguide.com from DMOZ for Residency Guide is NOT FAIR. We are trying our best to get more properties listed by marketing within our financial reach. Actually, FYI, we indicated that we will be charging about $2.99 per property, but we are not charging for the listed Properties yet. That means, we are giving FREE property listings for our customers until now. And, we will be charging them very soon. Basically, anybody can post Property Information online right now.

As far as unique content is concerned, Residency Guide's Property lising and Advanced Search is unique on the web. Since we require lot of information for a Property, most of the Properties are not listed. But, our goal was for our customers to get as much Property information as possible from Residency Guide.

If you were thinking, we are trying to abuse DMOZ by using multiple sub-domains and multiple IP Addresses - its not true. We have created sub-domains as part of our architecture to avoid redudant web pages. Since the main website could not handle the load under our hosting plan, we had to split it into multiple websites and IP Addresses (as a webmaster, I would prefer to have all under one website for ease of maintenance).

Please keep atleast the main URL http://www.residencyguide.com in DMOZ. How can the main URL included in DMOZ quickly?

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

We can only list a site based on current content. If we can't find what content there is, we can't list the site. It's that simple. An editor isn't going to spend an hour searching through every possible permutation and combination of search terms to find the listings that might be there. Your search may be unique but if no results turn up for most searches, what's the point? We don't list sites on the basis of what content they could add if only they were more visible on the web, content they might have at some nebulous point in the future. We list based on the content they have now.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

I searched in many locations with no success at finding houses for sale or apartments for rent. If you had not posted a specific example, I would have thought there were no listings at all.

Based on that, and the fact that the "no results" page, asks me to supply my contact information so a realtor could get in contact with me, I might well conclude that this site is on a fishing expedition for prospective clients.

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

>He was assuming that Residency Guide was just another Directory site. But it is not, it is a Web Application.
Um, like the ODP? Which is a pretty significant we application with a lot more than 2 man-years worth of work in it. And is, um, still a directory! But I agree, "classified ads" is a more precise description. And "classified ads" sites get fewer deeplinks than directories.

>I have worked about 2 years to create Residency Guide.
Don't give me straight lines like that, and I promise not to say "Yeah, I've known programmers like that."

>So far, it has about 300 web pages (excluding dummy redirect and include pages)
That would be approximately 1/1000 as many as Yahoo.

>and SQL database with 120 tables.
No comment on that from this professional database designer.

Reiterate what you've heard: yes, the real estate classified ads business attracts abusers and deceptive promoting practices BIG=TIME! And some of the spam slips in. We'd love to have any help you or anyone else can give, pruning such sites back to one listing. And -- if you list a town in your database, show it on your selection screen, but don't have any listings for it, then we will PROPERLY assume that all your other towns are equally empty. It should be a simple enough programming change NOT to show towns on the "user" side (you should show them on the "advertiser" side). There is NOTHING that screams SPAM! SPAM! SPAM! louder than a real-estate classified ads site with doorway pages to empty towns. Our experienced regional editors will unite in wishing such people as short a life as is compatible with death from a lingering, painful, disfiguring and humiliating disease. If a trivial programming change will keep you out of that dispicable company, it's well worth doing!

Re: Multi Service Site with Service based sub-doma

hutcheson,

I always admired ODP and its Professional Volunteer Editors for maintaining the best DMOZ directory on the web. I am Professional and I would like to be treated as a Professional.

I definetly agree that Residency Guide is very tiny when compared with DMOZ OR Yahoo. I just want to end this discussion by saying that - Residency Guide provides all types of Relocation Services.

Thanks
RGudi