Site listed in multiple categories

It is suggested at the site that a link can only be added to one category, and that the editors will decide where to finally put it. Would it be possible to allow users an interface to suggest additional listings of their sites? (This might also be helping out the work of editors.)

I just had to write an email to an editor. Besides other things I was unsure to which editor to write in the first place; the one of the existing, or the one of the potential new category.

Details about my actual link:
QML (http://questml.com , before my new update in DMOZ it's currently listed as http://www.outer-court.com/goodies/qml.htm ) is a tool to game developer tool to create CYOA "online gamebooks". It's currently listed in
- Games: Game Design: Development Tools and Software
but would IMO also fit into
- Games: Roleplaying: Gamebooks

Additional question on the technical side: are these double entries saved in redundant form, or are they linked together (so that updating the one automatically updates the other)?

I'll take a swipe at answering this.

First of all, each entry for a multiple listing is stored individually, with its own title and description. This way, a URL that is listed twice can have different descriptions in each category it is listed in (for example, a bilingual site listed in two different languages would need to have a description in World/Deutch/.. in German and in Arts/.. in English). Changing the description for one listing has no effect on the other listings. However, internally, editors can see if a URL has multiple listings and see where else the URL is listed (and can import the title and description from any of the other listings, which they can then use as is or with modifications.

If I were trying to get a listing moved, I'd contact the editor where it was listed and ask for it to be moved. If I were trying to get a second listing, i'd submit my URL to the category where I desire that listing and submit it there. Emailing an editor in that category would be using the feedback form to ask for a listing, which is frowned upon. Emailing the editor where it is already listed would be barking up the wrong tree, in most cases.

That said, I consistently delete submissions asking for a second listing, if the site is off-topic where they are seeking the second listing and it looks appropriately placed where it already is listed. Make sure you make a good case to the editor that the site deserves the second listing, and look at the submission guidelines to make sure that your site really can be listed where you think it can.

I'm really not sure what your proposed "interface to suggest additional listings of their sites" would do that submitting the site to a second or third category doesn't already accomplish -- Foe

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>I'm really not sure what your proposed "interface to suggest additional listings of their sites" would do that submitting the site to a second or third category doesn't already accomplish<p><hr></blockquote>

If submitting a second time using the standard "Add URL" interface is indeed the correct way, then the official help text is misleading:

"How do I get my site listed in more than one category?
You should submit your site to the single most appropriate category that is directly relevant to your site's content. Please only submit your site one time."

Add to that the official warnings on the submission page:

"Do not submit an URL that contains only the same or similar content as other sites you may have listed in the directory. Multiple submissions of the same or related sites may result in the exclusion and/or deletion of those and all affiliated sites."

This clearly indicates that submitting to a second category not only would be inappropriate (first help text), but could also result in a deletion of the first listing (submission help).

The fact that quote help "The ODP editors reserve the right to use their editorial discretion to determine which category or categories your site will ultimately be placed" indeed indicated that the best way would be to write to the original editor that already placed my site (what you now call barking at the wrong tree).

PhilipP, not all editors have access to all categories. Meaning, if you emailed the original editor and they agreed, then they might only be able to place your site in the unreviewed queue of the other cat, which means possibly a longer wait for you.

Also, all that information about submitting only once is outdated (and needs to be fixed). Submitting one's site to two or three applicable categories is not a problem, and will not get you in trouble. We will block abusive submitters and perhaps remove them from the directory, but a handful of submissions does not constitute abuse.

That said, many editors will look at such additional submissions, see where the site is already listed, and delete the additional submission because they feel the current listing is sufficient. Personally, I delete many such listings as being "already appropriately listed" when they submit their online shopping site to Arts/.. when it is already listed in Shopping/.. per our guidelines -- Foe

The submittal guidelines do well to strongly suggest only one submittal -- in view of the major problem we have with pestilences who submit every page of their site to the same egregiously irrelevant category.

But there are specific cases where multiple submissions is OK.

1) If you have content in multiple languages, submit to a category in each language.
2) If you have content that relates, in very different ways, to two completely different and unrelated topics, submit to both topics. The e-text of the well-known best-selling book "Archaeology of Beekeeping" (no, I'm not making this up: I only regret I didn't buy a copy before it went OOP) SHOULD be submitted to both an Archaeological category and an Agriculture category.
3) If the locus of your site is geographically relevant, it SHOULD be submitted to a Regional subcategory, regardless of whether it's submitted to any topical category. Please don't depend on the editor to know exactly where that geographical region is: how many of you could find Tripoli on a map--even if you knew which city was meant? We've got editors from all over the world. Nearly all of them are just as ignorant as you are, of the geography of the world outside the range of their UZI.

On the other hand, do you want a quick pass to the spammer's corner? Easily done, in only one or two submissions!

1) Submit a real-estate site to every locality within driving range of your Honda Civic. Submitting twice ANYWHERE is once too many.
2) Submit a "directory" that has hardly anything besides affiliate links. Submitting it once is three too many times.
3) Submit your MLM, or "network-marketing" (or whatever buzzword they're calling these thinly-disguised Ponzi schemes this year, since the reputation caught up with the character of the last buzzword) site outside the MLM category for the relevant company. Just one submission is all it takes: instant fame as a pustule on the body politic!
4) Submit all of the vanity-keyword-packed IP-redirected alias URLs of your site: a pestilential action guaranteed to give the ODP editor the most emphatic initial impression possible of you and your ancestry, ethics, manners, and hygienic habits...although not necessarily the most favorable. But we do promise to give your submissions special attention.

What hutcheson said so well!

Personally, I try to take the time to send copies to appropriate places if it is another language or something I think is really nifty content. However as long as a site is listed once, I don't worry too much about all appropriate extra listings, because quite frankly, at least it is listed once and I have plenty more to go work on. I'm sure that editors in areas with high unreviewed many times just delete the duplicates so that they can focus on sites that don't have any listing yet.