Report Hijacks, Dead Links, Inappropriate DMOZ Content, and other issues here ONLY

www.webphotoschool.com

By some miracle, http://www.webphotoschool.com/ has managed to get itself listed under http://dmoz.org/Arts/Photography/Education

First comment: this site's description is "Provides fee-based lessons online for beginning through advanced photographers"... but after much detective work involving seeing the very frequent use of phrases such as "Add to card", "Shopping Cart", "Checkout"... shouldn't this site live under http://dmoz.org/Shopping/ ?

Second: 99% of the content on this site isn't free - why is it listed so high up under http://dmoz.org/Arts/Photography/Education/ ? The category description says "Very few sites will be listed at the top level. Please find the subcategory that most closely describes the type of photography education you offer and submit to that subcategory." - how come this site managed to get listed?

Third comment: almost every page on this site has multiple links to www.photoflex.com - in fact, every time a product is mentioned, it's more than likely to be a photoflex product, and if it *is* a photoflex product, you can be sure it links though to www.photoflex.com

HEY, what an amazing coincidence: check the WHOIS information for webphotoschool.com:

Domain Name: WEBPHOTOSCHOOL.COM

Registrant: Photoflex Products, Inc (WN-D-93866090)
97 HANGAR WAY
WATSONVILLE, CA 95076-2465
US


So, does this mean that all businesses which want an extra listing in the ODP, can simply throw together a second website, stuff it with links to their main site, and <chuckle> get the site listed under a non-Shopping category, even through the site features very little free content and is actually e-commerce based?

<boggle>... :-(

reather

Report of Innappropriate Content

Greetings,
I had recently suggested a site for consideration WhyDoWork.com in
Business:Small Business:Home Office
and was informed it may have been deleted for review for having affiliate content on the site. (contains maybe 2-5% affiliate content at any given time)

The following sites in the submitted category contain heavy amounts of affiliate links and it was advised that they be reported:

http://biz-whiz.com/
http://www.home-opportunities.com/

please advise,

Thanks

#940 dealt with, thanks. The changes may not show immediately on the public side.

Bad Sites

http://www.dmoz.com/Home/Consumer_Information/Price_Comparisons/
Looks like it hasn't been edited in quite some time.
---
http://www.akabook.com/ belongs in Books subcategory.
http://www.bookfinder.us/ belongs in Books subcategory.
http://www.buypath.com/ is powered by Shopping.com which is already listed.
http://www.compare123.com/ is powered by Streetprices.com which is already listed.
http://electronics.comparesite.com/ is powered by Nextag.com which is already listed.
http://www.gtmci.com/ is listed as DealTime and is powered by Shopping.com which was previously DealTime and is already listed.
http://www.ebuyingguides.com/ is not a price comparison site.
http://www.metaprices.com/ Out of business? Doesn't seem to have any listings no matter what you search for.
http://www.pricevariety.com/ is not a price comparison site.
http://www.shoppingspot.com/ is not a price comparison site.

Inappropriate Content

I reported all of these once before at dmoz months ago, nothing seems to happen, not sure why. Here is the list again, looks like spam / pure abuse to me...

The category is Business / Investing / News and Media / Magazines and E-Zines:

http://www.dmoz.org/Business/Investing/News_and_Media/Magazines_and_E-zines/

Here is my report...

This site sells books...
Investor Book Store - http://www.investorbookstore.com/
Over 2,000 financial books and videos.

Thi site sells one book...
The Online Brokers Guide - http://www.onlinebrokersguide.com/
The complete guide to opening a online trading account.

This site has one page about the spelling of the word whiskey...
Pochemu.Net - http://www.Pochemu.Net/
Guide to online trading with sample technical analysis programs and trading software on CD-ROM.

This site says it is a store...
Online Trading Academy Store - http://www.daytradingstore.com
Day trading manuals, videos, and cds.

Looks like a four page website that wants your contact information...
Futures Trading Course - http://www.commodity-trading-course.com/
Free educational futures trading book in pdf format. Teaches basic technical risk analysis and advanced order placement.

Looks like an affiliate site for credit cards to me...
Wilson Financial Report - http://www.wilsonreport.com
Free quotes, model portfolios, market sentiment, and stock market commentary.

Another one that sells books...
Traders Press Online Investment Bookstore - http://www.traderspress.com
Traders Press, retailer, wholesaler and publisher of books on trading and investing. Serving traders and investors since 1975.

This website has moved...
Thomson Financial - http://www.investext.com
Investment research, market analysis, and industry intelligence.

Hello,
The following category has some issues. Some are abusive, most not.
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...fornia/Regions/Lake_Tahoe/Travel_and_Tourism/
"Digital City - Lake Tahoe" -Goes to Sacramento.
"High Sierra WorldWeb Travel Guide" -Should be in Sierra Nevada (or not).
"Lake Tahoe, Nevada" -Should be Nevada.
"Tahoe Central" -Redirects to web design firm.
"Tahoe City Marina" -Should be Tahoe City.
"Tahoe Tom" -Lots of broken links, broken images, and lots of links to one site.
"Tahoe's Magical West Shore" -A book sold on a site that already has a listing.

And thats about it.

denied because of not listing all affiliations

I applied to the shopping>crafts>ceramics>decoration>handpainted category. I listed that I am affiliated with both the sites.

Since ATM these are the only 2 sites I am affiliated with and working on I did not feel the need to list my entire clientele list on the application. And I got a note not to re-apply as an edior again on the rejection of the application.

So since I am not allowed to re-apply, can some editor take a look at the category to clean out all the bad URL's that are cluttered in it? I know you guys are busy and that is why I applied as an editor. Anyways here is a list of the problems:
#1 - Aunt Bea's Ceramics - "We have gone out of business as og 2003" page.
#3 - DragonLady Projects - is a studio for animation, films, and video effects
#12 Rosehawke Studio - 1 page saying anything about ceramics the rest is picture of renovating a house. If it has to stay in the category it should link to - http://www.rosehawke.com/html/sculpture.html
#14 - Set in Stone - bad URL page not found
#15 - Sheila's Ceramic Art - Page saying sorry this web site is closed
#16 - Switchwitch.com - page not found bad URL

#947 done; thanks.

#946 done
"Lake Tahoe, Nevada" -Should be Nevada. - the CA and Nevada Tahoe Region categories were combined some years ago.
"Tahoe Tom" -Lots of broken links, broken images, and lots of links to one site.
I didn't spot broken links in the few I tried, the broken images are annoying but dont detract from the text content, I emailed the author, so will check again in a few days.

Thanks
:tree:

Thanks for the quick action.
Okay, so lets drop it down one cat to
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer.../Regions/Lake_Tahoe/Travel_and_Tourism/Parks/
The getoutdoors.com listings have very little information to deserve listings for each park they mention.

Or jump over to
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...egions/Lake_Tahoe/Travel_and_Tourism/Lodging/
http://www.tahoehotelrez.com/ The information links aren't links. It's one page with links to a booking engine
http://www.allworld-vacation.com/nevada2.htm Link to booking engine
http://www.laketahoevacations.ws/ Redirect
http://www.squawvacations.com/ squaw.com already has a listing I would assume. Same owner, different domain for lodging.
http://tahoe.tahoechamber.org/index.asp inntopia booking engine doesn't rate a deep link IMO.
http://www.vacationhotels.net/laketahoe/ another booking engine deep link.

And that ought to do it for now.

Item 950 checked,
There's a couple I'll have to look at in more depth.

Thanks for the quality control check.

:tree:

Site shut down

under
http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...as_Vegas/Business_and_Economy/Event_Planning/

SinCityVIP.com is no longer a website.
thank you

Directory fixed but the change might take a few days to show up on our public facing servers.

Thanks .

ditto

http://www.ballensbanquets.com/

on the same page

ditto

Thank you

Please Don't forget about Post 945

I spent about 45 minutes looking at all the links in that category, trying to clean out the bad actors or inappropriate content. Again, any help is appreciated.

Bill

Hi there,

I am looking at the category called, http://dmoz.org/Regional/Middle_East/Saudi_Arabia/Education/

It seems there are a couple of problems that I can see, for one there is Jubail Industrial College which says directory listing denied.

And in another which is Pakistan International School, it says things like module not available, and no download categories available and other problems.

Maybe someone can take a look at these.

Thank you.

Thanks, shama. The dysfunctional links are removed.

Not really abuse, but I came across a few sites in http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Outdoors/Hiking/Organizations/ which redirect you to a new site at a different address. I guess the old URL might get hijacked or go dead soon... and even before then, it's a quality issue for the directory.

South Gwent Ramblers
http://website.lineone.net/~south-gwent-ramblers/index.html

Northumbria Backpackers
http://www.backpackers.freeuk.com/

Tewkesbury Walking Club
http://www.twc-walking.org.uk/