Site Status http://www.cafeshops.com/rainbowsauce

I tried submitting my store several months ago - it deals with pride designs on t-shirts etc and it hasn't shown up. I submitted to
http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Niche/Gay,_Lesbian,_and_Bisexual/Pride_Merchandise

Now, in this category there are such things are ebay stores, so I figured my very active, long term cafepress store would be accepted. My store has literally 1000s of products and as many pages, it's not a one page, did it in a day type thing. This site is not going anywhere soon, after many months of work so I am hoping it is worthy of being added to the directory. Can anyone suggest if I am totally misguided or do I have a chance here - any advice would be appreciated.

Re: Site Status http://www.cafeshops.com/rainbowsa

Please see the answer to a similar question in this thread . It is highly unlikely that your store will be listed in its present state, sorry.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

I am not sure what you mean by "Present State"?
Also, you cannot compare our shops. Mine is long term and very large, not just a selection of no particular theme designs thrown together - although I have nothing against anyone elses designs - they cannot all just be lumped in together.

My store has a target market, my designs are relevant to the gay and lesbian community - there are many other pride merchandise sites in the directory whos designs are of lesser quality and whos sites aren't nearly as well made as my store.

I submit again that my store, although a cafepress store, still has considerable value to the gay and lesbian community.

[ADDED]

Also, may I bring your attention to the fact that other CP stores are listed

http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=cafeshops

In fact, another gay cafepress store is indexed - and their store only targets one subculture - mine features pridewear for the entire community.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

[removed, error, believed two related threads were from the same person]

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

This site seems to be part of http://www.rainbowsauce.com/ to me. That it is located at another server/url doesn't make it a different site. And as such shouldn't be listed.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

This site seems to be part of http://www.rainbowsauce.com/ to me. That it is located at another server/url doesn't make it a different site. And as such shouldn't be listed.

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What the? I advertise my store items ON my website. One sells things, the other is about gay and lesbian media - I wish you'd at least look at both sites before making sweeping generalisations.

Aside from that, Rainbowsauce.com is not in the index either. Are you saying that over 380 pages of website and over 1000 pages of store site do not deserve to be in the ODP? This is my life, the way I earn a living - I am one person who entirely created both sites and quite well if I do say so myself. I don't necessarily need to be in the ODP because I have optimized my pages well, however my peers sites all seem to get listed without issue and my sites are not badly made, their links work and they do offer something to the world. I regularly have GLBT authors writing to me thanking me, or submitting their latest work to be listed on Rainbowsauce.com.

I cannot believe that my websites, my livelyhood can be deemed without value.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

[removed, error, believed two related threads were from the same person]

Click to expand...

This is the only thread I have ever participated in in this forum.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

And the material you quoted recognizes that the editor in question made a posting, recognized an error and corrected it.

We do not delete posts we make in error, rather we correct them and clearly indicated that we have edited our postings.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

I find it harsh that someone would think they were connected, and I have no idea why they did in the first place. This is the problem - people are grouping submitters into the same category of quality or whatever just because they get their t-shirts printed through an online service.

CP has a huge range of unique art and content to offer - I believe it's unfair to class them all as substandard or "the same" because it's an online service. My store is not a cookie cutter of everyone elses - I added a lot of value to those blank t-shirts with my very own designs and I add to the glbt community with the messages represented by my pride wear.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

We look at it slightly differently. From our perspective, you do not have a store or a product or even a website.

CP has the website and the store and the product and provides the service. And we list CP.

Now, it so happens that they pay designers such as yourself a commission on sales of products using those designs. OK, we don't care about that, that's their "business model" -- we'd do exactly the same thing if they hired salaried designers.

And it so happens that the IMPRINT designers also design the pages on the CP website. Fine, again, WE don't care who designs their website. They can do it themselves, hire it done, or accept contributions from anyone.

But whoever designs it, there's just one website -- CP. There's just one store -- CP. There's just one provider of imprinting, packaging, selling, and shipping product -- CP. There's just one place where we can buy the images you designed -- CP.

We don't list separate pages of walmart.com for every brand of clothing they carry, so why should we treat CP any differently?

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

I find it harsh that someone would think they were connected, and I have no idea why they did in the first place. This is the problem - people are grouping submitters into the same category of quality or whatever just because they get their t-shirts printed through an online service.

Click to expand...

I wanted to comment on what I removed. I caught the link to the related thread above, which I looked into earlier. Oftentimes people start multiple threads. My complete error was "please keep discussions to one thread as per guidelines" which was posted for only a few minutes when I realized my error. Leaving it would cause confusion, so I immediately removed the thread and admitted I made a mistake. I didn't look at your site, I thought it was the same cafepress site being discussed within the last 24 hours. Not harsh in my opinion, just a small error I corrected almost immediately.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

I've noticed how you look at things, I just disagree. As far as I am concerned I pay hosting per month, like any other site or subdomain. I designed the site, it's branded with my website name. I designed the products and do not receive a commission - I am not an affiliate. I set the prices, I make profit like any other seller.

I don't think for a minute my sales come because my website is a 'CP website' - I attract my own customers, I doubt CP's front page attracts a lot of customers who just happen to browse for things and buy them. Without CP's "subdomains" which is basically what each store is, CP would be nothing.

Aside from any of these arguments, there are already CP stores listed in the directory - why treat others differently than you treat me? In the category my store suits, you've listed an ebay store. An ebay store can be setup within a day and dismantled just as fast - it's not a real domain, just part of ebay - yet he receives the priveledge of being added to the directory. I cannot see the difference... oh... cept I offer about 2500 more products than his ebay store does - I always have items for sale and I am open 24/7. I am not CP, it is my store, with paid hosting, my brand and my products - I am NOT an affiliate but a shopkeeper who sets their own profit margin like any seller.

We look at it slightly differently. From our perspective, you do not have a store or a product or even a website.

CP has the website and the store and the product and provides the service. And we list CP.

Now, it so happens that they pay designers such as yourself a commission on sales of products using those designs. OK, we don't care about that, that's their "business model" -- we'd do exactly the same thing if they hired salaried designers.

And it so happens that the IMPRINT designers also design the pages on the CP website. Fine, again, WE don't care who designs their website. They can do it themselves, hire it done, or accept contributions from anyone.

But whoever designs it, there's just one website -- CP. There's just one store -- CP. There's just one provider of imprinting, packaging, selling, and shipping product -- CP. There's just one place where we can buy the images you designed -- CP.

We don't list separate pages of walmart.com for every brand of clothing they carry, so why should we treat CP any differently?

Click to expand...

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

>>I cannot believe that my websites, my livelyhood can be deemed without value.<<

Nobody said that.

As for other CP stores being listed, that's not a reason for yours to be, though I understand why you think that it is.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

Equal rights is all I ask - or at least for the editor of the section I am submitting to to even take a look at my site.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

I believe we are even less tolerant of eBay substores than CP ones.

Here's how your "equal rights" would work.

There would be three "level of content" boundary lines, let's call them, say, "subminimal", "ok", and "enough" (in increasing order, respectively.) All of these boundaries are slightly fuzzy, depending on editorial judgment and experience.

At any given time, if a site has more than "enough" content, and an editor takes the time to review it, he'll add it.

If a site has "ok" content, and it's already listed, an editor that reviews it will leave it listed. But an editor wouldn't add it.

If a site has "subminimal" content, it will not be listed. And if already listed and reviewed again, it will be removed. But an editor wouldn't run over a small child on the way to removing it.

But if a site has little enough content, just say the word and hordes of ravening editors will race to that category to remove it altogether.

Since more and more content is being added to the net, and duplicate content abounds, all of these boundaries rise over time. This is eminently fair, since it gives an advantage to the people who provide content most quickly...time is money also.

In fact, that is EXACTLY what is happening. At some prior time, this OTHER cafe shop had "enough" content, although I think we all agree it wouldn't be considered "enough" today. In fact, it probably wouldn't even be OK. But it isn't less than "minimal", so no editors are scurrying around to fix that quality problem immediately.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

That doesn't really explain how on earth an ebay store made it in the first place.

Either way, my peers are listed and I am not. That's the reality of the situation.

You know, I sell real products, shipped by me, on my website at http://www.rainbowsauce.com - surely this would qualify me for listing.. or would I be penalised because of my Cafepress associations?

My site has over 380 pages of glbt media, as well as my store where I sell my jewellery, bamboo curtains and other gifts and it also has links to my CP store. Can you see why rainbowsauce.com wouldn't get listed?

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

>>Can you see why rainbowsauce.com<<

There's no major reason why other than if it were loaded with affiliate links and affiliate banners and such.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

Selling the books from our community of authors via Amazon.com is a way of paying for the webhosting and keeping it online as a resource. Again, it's just being lumped into the 'nothing site' category without really looking into it or thinking about the reasoning behind it.

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

You know, I sell real products, shipped by me, on my website at http://www.rainbowsauce.com

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I see very few products shipped by you at all, I did random searches and found it to be almost completely affiliate driven site. That site has very minimal original content. Overwhelmingly the content is affiliate, and as such absolutely does not qualify for a listing. I found amazon affiliate products, allposter.com affiliate products, and oneposter.co.uk affiliate products. I'd estimate the affiliate links at 90%. http://www.rainbowsauce.com/ does not qualify for a listing at all in it's present state. No site where the majority of it's links are affiliate does. It absolutely does not matter what the reasoning behind including a large amount of affiliate links is. As stated in the ODP guidelines, affiliate sites are not listed.

[edited to add] Please see http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html#notinclude

Re: Site Status Rainbowsauce

http://www.gifts.rainbowsauce.com/ - how could you miss the store?