Seeking Editor Guidelines

Lest this be taken as a rant by a disgruntled submitter... it is not. I'm seeking guidance on an issue that will occur frequently in my pet area and I'd like to get it right for all parties involved, DMOZ included.

(Hypothetically) ... I develop and submit a site for the Acme Holiday Resort in Barbados. All OK... it is accepted into the Barbados resorts lodgings cat.

Then the Acme team want a separate site extolling the virtues of Barbados and its vacations so we put together a legitimate multi-page destination guide for Barbados. We submit it to the Barbados destination guide cat (or similar).

However, it is declined because the accommodation available is at the Acme resort and they already have a site over in a lodgings cat.

I can see the logic in guarding against multiple inclusions for the same business in the same cat, but if a site delivers legitimate, on-topic content relevant to the cat to which it was sibmitted, should it not be reviewed on that? If it happens to be the best Barbados holiday guide, shouldn't it be considered on that... after all, that's what the cat is supposed to be all about.

How do we accommodate both points of view without depriving the directory of good content sites?

The only possible answer is quite simple: A site (or more sites from one owner) will not be accepteds into the same branch several times. If this happens - its only by mistake, if an editor thinks you are forcing to get it in several times (by cloaking, mirrors, ...) he might classify the site as a spammer [which you wouldnt want to be called I hope <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> ]

If a site offers content for several subcategories in one branch it is placed into the most apropriate category regarding all unique content.

Example: A local site offering tourist information _and_ descriptions of local politic groups will not be put in both subcategories but in the main category of the locality.

Remember: The ODP is NOT there for optimizing site appearance and site rank but for the end-user.

Hmmm, hypothetical. Yeah. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

If the information site contains practically the same area information as the Acme Hotel site and prominently features information about the hotel itself (and not about any other hotels), the two sites are in essence offering the same information in different packages (i.e. mirrors). We only list one of them. Period. This is the category your nonhypothetical submissions from earlier fell into and any other sites you have like them will fall into this category as well.

A hypothetical "best Barbados holiday guide" wouldn't limit lodging information to a single hotel or it would be simply another site for that hotel and not a Barbados tourism guide. Now, if you wanted to include decent information about the other hotels (i.e. competitors) in the area and unique Barbadian (??) information that isn't on the Acme Hotel site, well, that might be a totally different kettle of fish (I say "might" because it's impossible to say for sure without seeing the sites in question).

Frankly, the only real reason a hotel would want to create a separate site for area information instead of putting it on their hotel site is to try to drum up more traffic. Being helpful to surfers is secondary to their quest for guests.

windharp... thanks. your comments appreciated.

motsa... I've just spent the best part of an hour phrasing a suitable response... then I realised I didn't need to say a thing.

Cheers