site red flagged

My site has been red flagged by a senior editor because I have mirror sites... I have created an affiliate program for my site and some of my affiliates have taken and coppied my webpages and content, thus creating mirror sites with different urls. So I haven't actually created the mirrors but my listing has been dropped. Does anyone have any advice as to what I can do to get listed in the directory???

Thanks Carl

Could you please let us know what you mean by "red-flagged"? How did you hear that your site was somehow flagged?

With the situation with mirrors, unless the submitter has been an aggregious spammer, submitting many many times to different categories, one of the sites will be appropriate to list (and an editor will make the call on which one), the others will get deleted as mirrors, with an appropriate note.

If you will let us know what the URL is of the "main" site, together with whatever mirrors you believe may have been deleted, we can do some investigation and determine if your main site will be listable.

Thanks. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

As alucard said, we can investigate. But note well -- this is not for the sake of the webmaster. The submittal guidelines -- you and your affiliates were told right up front: DO NOT SUBMIT AFFILIATE SITES! and submittal of multiple "related sites" can (and that does mean "sometimes DOES") cause all related sites to be removed. We do this reluctantly, when the pain of the persistent spamming gets to be greater than the benefit to our users of listing the site. Note that this is the benefit of the surfer -- a site in a competitive market, that isn't very unique, has a very low benefit to the surfer, even if it has a high value to the webmaster. We consider ONLY the value from the surfer's perspective.

To protect yourself, when you are setting up a "distributed mirror site scheme" (also known as "affiliate spam"), you need to make sure that all of the involved parties know NOT to think about spamming the ODP, because for all practical purposes we will consider you the responsible party.

Thanks for the quick responses. I contacted a dmoz editor for my category, asking why my site hasn't been listed and what advice they could give me for a listing. The editor replied my site has been red flagged by a senior editor for having a mirror site and there is nothing they can do. My site is www.gen-fit.com and the mirror in question is www.abatechmedical.com. Thanks

Those two sites have clearly both been created by the same person, and are therefore mirrors. Your claim that abatechmedical.com was set up by an affiliate of yours is frankly ludicrous.

Clarification - these sites are the company sites. 1 has been submitted and the other hasn't. As for the mirrors, I have no idea which are the mirror sites as we have 2300 affiliates. I am just pointing out our 2 company sites. The site that I contacted dmoz about was www.gen-fit.com, www.abatechmedical.com should be of no concern as it has never undergone any sort of website promotions. The problem is I have no idea which affiliates are creating the problem... thanks

&gt;&gt; 1 has been submitted and the other hasn't &lt;&lt;

That's not strictly true is it. Both of them have been submitted, dozens of times, to a wide variety of different categories. In fact that seems to be the root of your problem. gen-fit.com has been deleted dozens of times for multiple submissions, spamming, inappropriate submission , and being a mirror of abatechmedical.com. In turn abatechmedical.com as been deleted for the same reasons, as well as being a mirror of gen-fit.com.

That's what happens when mirrors are aggressively submitted. Editors get fed up with deleteing them, and they slip up when doing their checks.

Thank you for the reply. No one form our office has submitted abatechmedical to any directory nor have we spammed any directory with any of our listings. Is it possible a competitor could do this to create problems with our directory placements?

Given that both sites were submitted several times while they still said "under construction", I think that that's unlikely. The pattern of submissions for both sites is very similar, so unless you're mistaken about what you submitted, the person that's damaging your reputation is working in the same office as you and looking over your shoulder to see what you're up to.

Nevermind <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

&gt;Is it possible a competitor could do this to create problems with our directory placements?

"It is not possible that a competitor could have done this to create problems with your directory placements."
I know this is not exactly the question you asked.

It is of course My Opinion. But I have spent time tracking down "provocateur" spammers before; and on this one I'll trust my judgment. (i.e. the thread is open to prove me wrong, but I'm predicting that no experienced editors will disagree.)

No one in our office has done what you are accusing us of doing. My question, how do we get a listing and what can we do to stop who ever is submitting our sites to your directory. Can you log and block ip addresses?

Sorry, we can't discuss anti-spam algorithms or methodologies.

And there's nothing you can "do" to "get" a listing.

The way the ODP works, anyone may submit any site for review and consideration for a listing. But anything perceived to be "pressuring" or "bribing" or "harassing" a volunteer editor _will_ have negative consequences: we don't have as many editors as we could use, and we _are_ protective of them.

Thanks for all the posts...

Again to answer a slightly different question:

By the public ODP guidelines, both sites mentioned are (in the judgment of myself and many other editors) unlistable. I would even go so far as to say that every single submittal of each of them, from the very first, involved multiple violations of the submittal policies.

My usual recommendation for all sites like these is to seek ad-banner venues, which the ODP is not. I am really persuaded that submitting them to the ODP is counterproductive not only for the ODP but also for the submitted site.