Private Domain Name

I have several sites now that have not been accepted. I noticed that the difference between those that have and those that haven't is that some are domains registered private (ownership details hidden). Can anyone comment or give advice on this please.

In general we don't care for the owner of a site, just for its content. Some exceptions where the owner might play a role are listed in http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html but I assume your query is not about a site considered nonlistable.

The only exception I know of is the consumer information section. Due to a high load of sites that have been "sneaked in" we prefer to list non-anonymous sites. But even there we usually don't check Whois information but the information given onsite.

Any time I see that, I get highly suspicious of possible abuse and do an extremely detailed investigation.

Keep this in mind, if an editor cannot confirm a location in the Regional section of the Directory for the site suggestion, and the site doesn't qualify to be listed in the Topical part of the Directory, it gets deleted.

Thanks for your prompt replies. The sites in question are for corporate companies whom wish to keep their personal information anonymous. Their sites however provide more than enough business contact information (addresses, telephone numbers, live chat assistance etc). I have tried summiting the sites several times in various categories, assuming category selection error the possible reason for non-entry. I have chosen the same categories as their competitors and lots of others. One site I have been trying to submit for two or more years now. I am sure there must be a viable reason, just don't know what. I have successfully submitted many other sites and can only think that domain reg privacy may be the only reason.

Not as long as the business address is on the site, I can see no reason why that would affect it at all.

It wouldn't hurt to submit those suggestions just one more time, and if you've suggested them to a Topical category, like Business, please read the category description (in the right hand, upper corner of the page), which will tell you what's accepted and what isn't.

Also, a brick and mortar business can be listed twice, once in Topical (if it qualifies), and once in the Regional section of the Directory (in it's locality/city).

As far as category selection, if it's suggested to the wrong category, an editor will move it to the correct one, it's part of what we do. It would not be deleted for that reason.

The sites in question are for corporate companies whom wish to keep their personal information anonymous.

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The following are just a personal viewpoint, not an editing guideline:

From a personal point of view I have to take a very dim and suspicious view of any business that needs to hide its identity. There is no legitimate reason for an honest business entity to do so, and very few justifiable reasons for a private entity either. Hiding ownership in such a manner simply screams disreputable and unreliable.

And if they are reputable and reliable working under some misguided idea of privacy, they are only damaging their own image by making themselves look otherwise.

If you do a search on the term below you will find some very helpful information on this matter.

Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility

This is from the Stanford University site

Stanford University said:

How can you boost your web site's credibility?

We have compiled 10 guidelines for building the credibility of a web site. These guidelines are based on three years of research that included over 4,500 people.

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With so many phish out there it, is better to be open, then not to be.

I can not post a site here, there are plenty of corporations out there with the name of the legal entity listed as the owner and they don't use the private registration.

Instead they list the company name

The names are listed as the job title and not the name of the employee,
As you see below this is how corporations get around listing people as they tend to change often.

Registrant:
Corporate Name
Address

Domain Name: Domain here

Administrative Contact :
Domain, Administrator
Phone
Fax

Technical Contact :
Technical, Administrator
Phone
Fax

There is one other drawback not usually considered by the users of these services.

Though it is a legal technicality, as far as ICANN and accredited registrars are concerned, the person listed in the DNS record information is the domain owner. Which means that as far as the registering authority is concerned, the "proxy privacy service" actually own the domain.

If they should decide to abscond with it, or go out of business without transfering it back, or get bought out by someone less reputable you could lose all control over "your" domain name.

Callimachus said:

As far as ICANN and accredited registrars are concerned, the person listed in the DNS record information is the domain owner. Which means that as far as the registering authority is concerned, the "proxy privacy service" actually own the domain.

If they should decide to abscond with it, or go out of business without transfering it back, or get bought out by someone less reputable you could lose all control over "your" domain name.

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As RegisterFly users have found out, that's indeed the case. RegisterFly is in the process of going out of business, and users of their "private registration" service are in trouble.

Callimachus said:

There is one other drawback not usually considered by the users of these services.

Though it is a legal technicality, as far as ICANN and accredited registrars are concerned, the person listed in the DNS record information is the domain owner. Which means that as far as the registering authority is concerned, the "proxy privacy service" actually own the domain.

If they should decide to abscond with it, or go out of business without transfering it back, or get bought out by someone less reputable you could lose all control over "your" domain name.

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Callimachus that is an excellent observation, I have had to helped users get their domains back just for that reason. Domain resellers go out of business every day and so called hosting resellers. Any one can be a reseller and there are no regulations concerning this matter.


Any way I hope you get listed, follow the submission guidelines and you have a pretty fair chance if you follow every thing correctly.

Good luck and have a nice evening