Site is removed from ODP.

Hi,

Website: 14ushop.com/furnutire
Title: JJ&D, Inc.Inc.
Description: Sells a wide variety of furniture.

was removed from DMOZ for some reason.

Could you please tell me why it was removed, and how can I have it included? Shall I resubmit it?



Your input is highly appreciated.

Regards,

Zec

I'm sorry, but the rules of this forum forbid us to get into a discussion about individual sites.

Thanks for your quick reply.

Could you point me to the right direction though? If I resubmitted it might me treated as a spam.

Thanks.

If a site was removed from DMOZ there can be 2 reasons:
1) the site should not be slisted according to our (current) guidelines
2) the site was down for some longer time

Remember we don't accept deeplink as suggestions.

Have a look at our Site Selection Criteria.

Thanks for both of you for the info!

Speaking in general (without reference to the circumstances of this particular case): resubmitting is the only option.

Speaking again in general, without reference to the circumstances of this particular case: most of the time, the removal was appropriate, so resubmitting will not change anything, and yes, it'll be considered spam. (In the rare cases where the removal was NOT a mistake, resubmitting will NOT be considered spam.)

So the usual rules apply, just as if the site had never been listed. And again, speaking without explicit reference to the circumstances of this site but with specific reference to the commercial ("Business" and "Shopping") categories, I'll reiterate them:

This means identify the business that actually provides the goods and services described in the website. (Not "takes orders". Not "collects leads". Not "promotes and advertises." The business that does the real work.) Make VERY VERY sure that (1) that business is not already listed in the directory, and (2) IF there is any other site on the web that ALSO offers the same company's goods and services, make sure that ANY SURFER (including the ODP editor) can tell this site is the official one, not some "independent" "affiliate" or "marketer" or "drop-shipper". Get the OTHER sites (if any) straightened out: take them down, or get them linked together like an honest company who isn't afraid to be everywhere known by the same name. And then, when (or if) the site is really the verifiable unique official site of the actual product producer, submit it.

(The usual rules for multiple submittals apply also: up to once in Shopping or Business (but only if it meets the criteria!), up to once in Regional (but only if it meets the REGIONAL criteria!)

Wait "a few weeks" (I'd personally pick about six months as a good interval); if no listing has shown up anywhere by then (see the usual suggestions for searching for that listing), then submit again.

If you do this, you won't be spamming. If you skip a step, you may be spamming, or you may merely appear to be spamming even if you aren't--which is just as fatal to the site's chance of being listed. (I HATE it when that happens: when an honest business falls among ... SERP perps and gets advised to act like a fly-by-night doorway spammer just because the SERP perp never before had any other kind of site to promote.)

Hutchenson,

Thank you very much for your deatiled input.
Everything seems to be clear.

Another quick question please. pvgool mentioned that "Remember we don't accept deeplink as suggestions." There are thousands of sites in ODP with deep links. I think it is in the guidelines that if a site has imultiple parts and usefull information on those topics, than it can be accpeted. Is it correct?

Thanks

Zec said:

"Remember we don't accept deeplink as suggestions." There are thousands of sites in ODP with deep links. I think it is in the guidelines that if a site has imultiple parts and usefull information on those topics, than it can be accpeted. Is it correct?

Click to expand...

No, not really. Although there are some deeplinks in the directory (very few in comparison to the whole directory), they are not taken from the suggestion pool, but done by an editor who has determined the site to be very valuable and rich in unique content.

The submittal policies say: submit the site (not pages of it). The submittal policies say: submitting multiple "related" URLs can even cause all sites related to you in any way to be removed.

That is the harshest penalty described anywhere in those policies, and it is prescribed only for that action. Please take those words seriously.

Editors are allowed to make exceptions in "exceptional" cases, and I can tell you that in my experience the people who think their "Shopping" sites are "exceptional" are always right: their sites are always without exception exceptionally bad -- because it takes an awful lot of natural stupidity as well as carefully nurtured ignorance to miss not only the amazons and walmarts and abebooks and ebays and froogles and the ten thousand OTHER vstore doorways and see one's own personal ad banner farm site as "exceptional."

Even editors very very very seldom double-list sites in different Shopping categories. If you see cases, please report them in the "Quality feedback" forum -- if it's not submitter abuse or editor error, then it's probably just editor abuse.

Editors had a discussion a while ago about multiple listings of sites and deeplinks. It was virtually impossible for anyone to think up an example where it might be appropriate in Shopping because the structure allows for shops selling goods that cross category boundaries to be listed further up the tree or in general merchandising categories. Virtually impossible means the only examples were hypothetical (no clues).

In other branches the level of exceptionality required varies but is always an editor decision - the likes of Lonely Planet have never themselves submitted any links.

In one or two limited areas, such as movie reviews, news articles, obituaries, social and political issues, deeplinks are the norm - they are relatively easy to spot when all the listings are deeplinks. Only in those categories would a deeplink from a credible source be accepted from an outside submitter, and in fact welcomed (they don't get a lot of submissions and public assistance is a good thing). But before anyone gets the idea of developing some spam sites to take advantage, remember the content has to be useful, original and credible. A movie review with a one-liner is useless, sydicated material is likely to get the site completely excluded, etc. But sift out some useful articles from the BBC or Sydney Morning Herald, or a movie review from your local online newspaper, and we'll happily look at them.

>> "Remember we don't accept deeplink as suggestions." <<

That means: "submit only the root URL of the site" - that is all you can suggest.

If an editor notices a site as exceptional, the editor may create additional listings pointing directly to separate sections of the site.

>> "Remember we don't accept deeplink as suggestions." <<

That means: "submit only the root URL of the site" - that is all you can suggest.

Click to expand...

That is potentially misleading advice. There are a few instances as I outlined where deeplinks are the norm and suggestions are accepted. And in many cases a "site" by our definition does not start at the root - e.g. those using ISP webspace. Home page would be more accurate. Categories listing news articles, reviews, academic and scientific papers, etc. invariably are not on the root URL. We want to encourage their submission not tell people they are forbidden.

Why there is a general position that in most parts of the directory submitters should not submit deeplinks is the assumption that they will submit multiple deeplinks and the home page too, which are 99.9% certain to be "related" and fall foul of the guidelines in that respect. Submitters should be very certain, for their own sakes, that they don't transgress - it is a harsh punishment often meted out.

Deeplinks for different languages

Hey,
about deeplinking. What if the site is available in more than one language? The addresses could for example be:

www.mydomain.com/en/ (for english)
www.mydomain.com/fr/ (for french)
etc.

Even though the root page may detect the user's language by IP-address, I'm guessing the norm is to accept these deeplinks, the enlish site in the main category as well as the other languages in the World category. Am I right?

No, we don't like doing that, although we might. We much prefer that you have one top level URL from which the viewer chooses the language. And we list that same URL multiple times in each language.

[My own personal view is that automatic language detection is a bad design, If I happen to be in Germany and want to view a site that is in English and German, I would like to be able to choose the English language site, and not be forced to the German one]

I know I'm a bit off-topic (but hey, we allready were).

I don't agree. I would rather redirect the users to the IP address' local language since it's probably accurate at least 9 times out of 10. The tenth time he or she would be incorrectly redirected, but ofcourse the visitor would have the option to change language at any stage, and for the next visit the cookie hits in and problem solved. (Or he/she bookmarks the /en/ part and there you go.)

Of course, by all means do it the way you prefer. It is your site. You obviously can afford to miss that 1 in 10 surfer. But it is a little hard to bookmark an /en/ part if you have already been redirected to another part. I myself would not bother to try to find the /en/ part in this case. I would just find another site.

>> And in many cases a "site" by our definition does not start at the root - e.g. those using ISP webspace. <<

That's why I said root of the site, not the root of the domain name (a site may consist of one or more pages, folders, sub-domains, and/or domains).

I stand corrected - but I misintepreted it so I think it was worth pointing out we mean home page to remove possible ambiguity.

No problem.