questions concerning multilingual site

Hi. My first post here...
I have a belgian multilingual website with .be extension that I would like to submit.
The site's languages are English, French, German, Dutch. According to the language used, the pages are grouped in subdirectories like this:
I) http://www.mysite.be/en/ pages in english
II) http://www.mysite.be/fr/ pages in french
III) http://www.mysite.be/de/ pages in german
IV) http://www.mysite.be/nl/ pages in dutch
The names of pages and subdirs are the same for each language.

The top directory http://www.mysite.be/ contains 4 pages:
a) http://www.mysite.be/index.html start page in English linking to the main pages in the en/ subdir and linking to b) , c) and d).
b) http://www.mysite.be/index.fr.html start page in french linking to the main pages in the fr/ subdir and linking to a) , c) and d).
c) http://www.mysite.be/index.de.html start page in german linking to the main pages in the de/ subdir and linking to a) , b) and d).
d) http://www.mysite.be/index.nl.html start page in dutch linking to the main pages in the nl/ subdir and linking to a) , b) and c).

In every page I have specified the language via the meta tag with http-equiv="content-language"; also I did not restrict french to belgian French (fr_BE) but kept it more general as "fr" and I did the same thing for the other languages.
When you are in a page in a given language you can switch to the same page in one of the other languages via a script and you have a direct link only to the home page in that language, i.e. if you are in a page in French you will have a direct link to II) and to b); please note that these two pages have different content.

How should I proceed with the submission?
for example -in the German language case- which would be an acceptable approach:
1) submit http://www.mysite.be/index.de.html in the appropriate http://www.dmoz.org/World/Deutsch/ subdirectory
2) submit directly the URL http://www.mysite.be/de/ in the appropriate http://www.dmoz.org/World/Deutsch/ subdirectory ?
If I understood well from another thread of this forum approach number 2 would be prefereable. However I am not sure that I got it right so I'd like to have some advice on this matter if possible.
Thank you in advance!
-Cla303

Please submit the root URL http://www.mysite.be/ to the appopriate categories for each of the languages. As long as the links to the other languages are very plain on the main index.html page, then this is the one that will get added.

Hope this helps.

This is described in the ODP guidelines section Multi-lingual Sites.

Thank you Alucard and windharp for your comments.

I have one more question: am I allowed to submit the site to different categories in the way specified below:
I would submit it once to
world/regional/europe/belgium/specific_category/... and once to
/business/specific_category for each of the languages, but not sure if that is acceptable.
For example in the german case:
first submission : World/Deutsch/Wirtschaft/Mycategory
second submission : Regional/Europe/Belgium/Mycategory

this would mean a total of 8 submissions, two for each of the languages.
Would that be ok? or shall I limit myself to 4 submissions? If so perhaps the first one would be the more convenient...


-cla303

Provided your site is listable at all and meets the specific requirements for each category then in this case 8 submission would be acceptable (Topical + Regional for each language). This doesn't mean you'll get 8 listings, but it won't be considered spamming.

Thanks senox.

Here I am with another question related to what we discussed above:
I have suggested the site to the regional categories in the different languages. Things went OK (suggestion went through).

I'd like now to suggest in a more general category. I saw this category exists for all the 4 languages; however the problem is that for
Top/business/my_category/ there is no possibility to suggest a URL, whereas for the same category in FR, DE or NL (got there clicking on one of the language links in the Top/business/my_category/ page) this is possible.
What can I do to solve this?
Should I submit for EN to a deeper category (unfortunately one which could be appropriate is only available for EN and DE)? Should I contact the editor?
Or is the only way to go to try to become an editor? The point is that I don't have too much time to get this done (just a couple of days)....
thanks in advance.
-cla303

Or is the only way to go to try to become an editor? The point is that I don't have too much time to get this done (just a couple of days)....

Click to expand...

Please do not apply if that is your motivation.

On the issue of time, you are aware, I presume, that it can easily take more than two years for an editor to review a submission? There is no "ticking clock" at ODP, and I can guarantee that, barring some incredible luck on your part, nothing will be done in "just a couple of days."

I'm confused by your last question. What specific categories have you submitted to, and what specific categories are you struggling with? The devil is in the details and generic examples only get us so far.

spectregunner said:

Please do not apply if that is your motivation.

On the issue of time, you are aware, I presume, that it can easily take more than two years for an editor to review a submission? There is no "ticking clock" at ODP, and I can guarantee that, barring some incredible luck on your part, nothing will be done in "just a couple of days."

Click to expand...

I know it can take time, otherwise I would not have asked. Afterall that's also why this forum is there for, I presume.
This said, no hard feelings.

spectregunner said:

I'm confused by your last question. What specific categories have you submitted to, and what specific categories are you struggling with? The devil is in the details and generic examples only get us so far.

Click to expand...

You are right:
the specific category where I would like to suggest the site in all the 4 languages of my site is Business/Transportation_and_Logistics/.
This category exists for all the languages I am interested in.
I made a check and saw that the total number of sites listed is:
about 10500 for english, (Business/Transportation_and_Logistics/)
about 1700 for german (/World/Deutsch/Wirtschaft/Verkehr_und_Logistik/) ,
about 250 for french (World/Fran%c3%a7ais/Commerce_et_%c3%a9conomie/Transport_et_logistique/) and
about 300 for dutch (World/Nederlands/Zakelijk/Transport_en_Logistiek/).

"suggest a URL" for the english language (Business/Transportation_and_Logistics/) is not possible although at this level there are only 9 sites listed, however there are many subcategories where the big bunch of the remaining sites are distributed. Could the huge number of sites listed in this category and its subcategories be the reason why "URL suggestion" for Business/Transportation_and_Logistics/ is blocked?

If the way to go is to choose for a deeper category when cases like this occur, the more specific category that would suit my site would be Business/Transportation_and_Logistics/Special_Goods_and_Terms/.
Its counterpart in german language is:
World/Deutsch/Wirtschaft/Verkehr_und_Logistik/Gefahrgut/.
The problem is that I would like to suggest the site also for World/French and World/Dutch but this subcategory is not existing in
World/Fran%c3%a7ais/Commerce_et_%c3%a9conomie/Transport_et_logistique/
and in
World/Nederlands/Zakelijk/Transport_en_Logistiek/.

Therefore my question: how to proceed?
I hope this helps to clarify my previous question.

-cla303

Hello,

I haven't checked your site, so this may not apply.

We try very hard to maintain a coherent ontology in the different languages, but there are occasions where there must be differences.

One of them is linked witht the culture(s) of people speaking a language. I'm pretty sure that's not the case with such a boring subject as Transportation_and_Logistics (just a joke: that's where I make my living!).

The other one is simply size. Some sectors of the directory are not as important in some languages (for a number of reasons), so their ontologies are not as developped. This is exactly what is happening in Transportation_and_Logistics.

Our guidelines say, and they apply here, suggest your site to the single one best categories. (For your site: the single one best category in each language).

It does not have to be (and in this case, it will not be) categories that are linked, for the reasons I outlined above.

Therefore my question: how to proceed?

Click to expand...

You should always submit to the most appropriate category (at the deepest level of the hierarchy). If no appropriate subcategory exists then submit to the parent category.

The fact that the French and Dutch counterparts of Special_Goods_and_Terms don't exist doesn't mean that they won't be created one day. But that depends on the number of available sites as well as editor time and interest.

BTW, nothing prevents you from submitting 5 or more listable sites suitable for a Special_Goods_and_Terms category in French or Dutch. It certainly increases the probability that such categories will be created one day, although this is not a guarantee that it will happen.

Ok, thanks to both of you for the answers. I'll follow your advice.
-cla303