Query regarding multiple listings

FAO Dmoz editors,

Hi there,

I'm the managing editor for a music site called soundgenerator.com. We're one of the most popular independent music sites in Europe and also one of the largest with over 50,000 pages in our databases. Our most popular areas are the up-to-the-minute, in-depth music news, features and interviews, artist database with a host of information as well as our music industry and educational directories, which are the largest available on the internet.

My query is regarding our placement within the Dmoz directories.

The site is currently listed under dir/artists & bands. I feel there is a strong case to feature deep linking on the directory to three other key areas, which form the backbone of the site:

www.soundgenerator.com/news - which is our music news

www.soundgenerator.com/education - education news, features and the directory

www.soundgenerator.com/industry - our music industry directory, which also has industry news, features and latest music jobs.

We also do high quality editorial for gig / album reviews, festivals, etc which I think would easily stand up and add a level of quality and a different perspective to their prospective databases. I notice sites in a similar editorial vien to ours like nme.com and dotmusic.com have the multiple listings I’m mentioning.


So my question really, is the best way to go about adding these. I would have just submitted them to their relevant directories using the submit site option but am wary of the spam guidelines. Obviously I know the ed's will use common sense when checking this, so should I do things this way?

Any feedback much appreciated.

Regards,

Christopher Elkins


____________________________________________________________________________

Christopher D. Elkins
Creative Director
Soundgenerator Int. Ltd
72 Charlotte Street
London W1T 4QQ

www.soundgenerator.com

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Arguably, the SITE could be moved from "Bands and Artists" to "News", which seems to be its focus. In fact, that is probably a good idea. I would not list it in both.

The "Education" idea is a non-starter--insufficient content, and unfriendly to use as well. (It's all in a hidden database with a VERY small peephole.)

And so, for a different reason, is the "Industry" idea--that's for websites of music businesses, not news sites.

Thanks for your response hutchson.

I'm suprised by your comments, not much positive there. Firstly our music news is certainly a high profile part of the site, i'll give it that. But our artists directory, we feel, is easily of high enough quality to stand above the majority of other listings, with 1000's of entries linked to feature rich content like features, audio and video.

Education; again appricate your feedback, but in terms of design i don't understand the comment on about a peephole and unfriendly to use. Content - we have the largest online educational database - at least in Europe - and i know of no other site doing what we're doing with music education...

Finally industry - again you mention news. We display industry news on the front page (http://www.soundgenerator.com/directory/index.cfm) but equally high profile on the page is the huge list of directory listings next to it.

Look forward to your comments, good to get some challenging feedback occasionally.

People volunteering to work on directories do that because they, well, like organizing things in directory structures (and using things organized that way.) No surprise there.

The size of the educational directory would be a lot more obvious if it were browsable like a directory, rather than forcing the reviewer (or user) to guess what names or locations might be available. My guesses weren't very successful -- of course, although I edit in both Music and Education, my knowledge of European Musical Education is somewhat limited. So it's hard (because of your presentation) to actually get a feel for the size of your directory.

Obviously, other users may not all be directory-geeks. But ... it's a cinch your ODP reviewer will be.

Right ok, I’ve latched on to your point of view now.

Currently the directories are set up and promoted in a way that when searching for a name, for instance, you would be looking for a specific piece of info as they are used primarily by industry here in the UK - although in education you can do alternate searches by type of course etc. But we're currently implementing a hierarchy system similar, for instance, in the way dmoz works. because of the way we collect info from each listing (country, state, city etc) and because this is databased it is an easy and logical next step.

Good to see it from your perspective anyway

>Right ok, I’ve latched on to your point of view now.

Great! If you use this information to tweak your site to make it more usable for people like me, I'll feel rewarded.

Another idea: "Bands and Artists" directories seems not the best place for the site (it isn't focused on B&A). Probably better would be a listing in "Music/Directories" (which is where other broad-scope music directories would be listed.)

A separate listing in News is IMO a possibility. It's hard to tell, with so many sites giving the same moreover.com feeds, and I haven't done the necessary review.

> A separate listing in News is IMO a possibility. It's hard to tell, with so many sites giving the same moreover.com feeds, and I haven't done the necessary review.

woah... just to put the point straight on that one. All our news is gathered the same way as sources such as the NME and Rolling Stone, with original in-depth writing from our journalists. We're actually a major contributor to moreover's music news and music reviews feeds as well as many others. I know you haven't properly reviewed the news section, just wanted to make the point.

Thanks for the other feedback, it does really help. A lot of our feedback does seem to come from similar user groups, i.e music fans, musicians, industry etc (not that i'm saying your not in one of those groups!)

I think the bands & artists listing is right for that section, as it is very detailed and comprehensive (with over 10,000 listings, many rich with content). However i think, as i initially mentioned, it should be deep linked to www.soundgenerator.com/directory/artisthome.cfm

The trouble is, and hence my initial post, the sites focus is on becoming 'the essential resource for music', be it news, artist info, industry and education contacts. Its a gargantuan task, but we're getting closer to that goal every day.

I don't think i'm going to be able to make any suggestions for a while anyway, at least until the dmoz submit problems go away.