Status of http://www.manhn.com

Hi - I submitted http://www.manhn.com at least three months ago and was wondering about its status. It does not come up in the directory search. Unforutnately I did not note down the category, but certainly it was computers (networks) and installation related.

The category must be Computers: Data Communications: Installation at

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/

Thanks for any status. Charles Stanton

[readme]t[/readme], particularly noting the clickable category.

Fixed clickable reference

See orginal message for clickable catecory, which is

http://dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/

Thx.

Any Status?

I don't seem to be able to get a response to my status post. Is there something I am doing wrong here?

Even a simple status of the status request would be great.

Thanks.

Charles Stanton

Waiting somewhere in Regional. Yours is an inherently local business and should be submitted in the most specific Locality category possible, and underneath that, in the most specific relevant Business topic. (Do you really send people out to do cabling in Kansas City -- let alone Ulan Bator?)

Your proper move would be to resubmit in the proper category, which will save the editors (1) hunting through and sorting out all the other misplaced local services, and (2) finding your place of business on your site, and sending it to the appropriate regional category.

Status of http://www.manhn.com - Continued

I am a bit confused about what to do next here or how I can move the original submission along.

I selected the category http://dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/
because it best fits what we do: install computer networks.

I appreciate the comment on putting the submission in Regional, but there really is not a good fit in terms of categories. The closest is this:

http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/North_..._and_Economy/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/

which then has subcategories which are not descriptive of what we do at all (we are not an access provider, web hoster or a web design shop).

This may explain the original category chosen. It also seems to me that if someone came across our site under the original category (http://dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/ ) and were from Kansas, it would not take them long to figure out that we don't do cabling in Topeka.

Meanwhile, I suppose the submission is still stuck somewhere, as it is not listed.

Should I absolutely re-submit to Regional? Even if there is no descriptive category that fits? Or any other advice? It has been at least 6 months now (actually I think much longer) since the original submission and it seems I am getting nowhere, fast.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Perhaps [cat=http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/New_York/Localities/N/New_York_City/Manhattan/Business_and_Economy/Computers_and_Internet/Networking_and_Information_Technology/]Networking_and_Information_Technology[/cat]

Status of http://www.manhn.com (again)

Hi,

Please let me know if there is any new status on this site.

Category:

1. http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/

Website:

2. http://www.manhn.com

I have been at this for over a year and just do not be able to get anywhere.

I was told at one point that category was not the best, but 1) I see local businesses in this category and 2) there really is no regional category that is a match.....not even close and all companies that do what we do are in the category selected.

If this still does not work, please let me know and I'll give up.

Thanks very much. Regards, Charles Stanton

It was moved by an editor a few months ago for review in http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_Amer...Localities/J/Jersey_City/Business_and_Economy .

nea]It was moved by an editor a few months ago for review in [url]http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/New_Jersey/Localities/J/Jersey_City/Business_and_Economy[/url said:

.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response. That category is not good. We don't do business in Jersey City, we are located here simply to get better rents. So that category is basically meaningless and possibly detrimental. Again I also see local/regional companies in the category I submitted to: Please see the second entry in the chosen category - it is for Denver. (http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/)

Most of our business is in Manhattan, NY and Westchester, NY. So is there anyway to get it moved to the submitted category (http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation)? Barring this is, if it gets listed in the category you indicated is there anyway to get it withdrawn completely - since I think there may be a significant downside to being listed in an inappropriate and incorrect category? So if it ends up there can I have it withdrawn? Thanks very much.

Regional Listing Policy

Policy at the ODP is that businesses are listed according to the physical location of their office/store.

Therefore, since you are located in Jersey City, that is where your only chance of a listing in the Regional Hierarchy is going to be.

Since your business is inherantly regional (the point was made before that you only do installations withint a fixed area) then a listing in the Regional branch of the ODP is the only one which, from my poinbt of view, makes sense.

However, I am but one editor, and my primary focus is Regional, so others may differ in their opinion....

Fair Enough explantion, but policy is inconsistent, unfair

Alucard said:

Policy at the ODP is that businesses are listed according to the physical location of their office/store.

Therefore, since you are located in Jersey City, that is where your only chance of a listing in the Regional Hierarchy is going to be.

Since your business is inherantly regional (the point was made before that you only do installations withint a fixed area) then a listing in the Regional branch of the ODP is the only one which, from my poinbt of view, makes sense.

However, I am but one editor, and my primary focus is Regional, so others may differ in their opinion....

Click to expand...

I hear you, but then why are local/regional sites with the same business profile listed in the requested category? Examples follow:

Submitted Category: http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/

Sample Regional/Local sites listed in that category:

http://www.airblaster.net/ (Same business profile, clearly local/regional)

http://www.bluebird-technologies.com/ (Ditto)

http://www.grimesgrafix.com/ (Ditto)

http://www.compuconn-inc.com/ (Ditto)

http://www.fastlinkcabling.com/ (a competitor in the same region)

These are examples through "f"; more are there.

So I just simply do not understand how our site is in regional and these sites are not. The policy is not fairly applied.

Thanks.

I need to clarify... what I was talking about was a listing in the "Regional" branch of the directory, and why it is not going to be possible for that URL to be listed in Manhattan, Westchester County or any other locality other than Jersey City.

For *some* types of businesses it is possible for business to get two listings - one in Regional, in the locality where they have an office, and then one in the non-Regional part of the directory.

But that second part is very, very dependant on the policies in the area of the directory - and those are set by editor concensus. This is the reason for my disclaimers in my original answer - I not sufficiently knowledegable about that particular part of the directory to be able to make that call.

But I would agree with you that the examples you cite look like inherantly regional businesses, but I would bow to the experience of an editor more knowledgeable in that area of the directory.

Hope this clarifies.

Still confused :rain:

:rain: Thanks for your response. But let me take the example of the competitor I mentioned, who is based in the Freehold, NJ area and who is in the category I submitted to: http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/

The example site is: http://www.fastlinkcabling.com. Their description is essentially similiar to mine and states that they serve New York City and New Jersey. Now when I do a search on them from the dmoz.og home page, they come up in one and only one category (again: http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/).

There is no regional catergory for that company, but the company is clearly regional - and only regional.

Anyway....I feel like I am getting nowhere fast...(for the past 13 months :rain: )....Maybe the policy changed at some point...(?).
I guess it is best just to let the thing play out and resign myself to the opaque nature of the beast...

Thx, Charles

A prior mistake is not an irrevokable precedent.

Yes, the policies have changed in many ways, and you are seeing old edits (perhaps old mistakes) done under old rules.

It is, however, reasonable to mention in your description that you serve the NYC metropolitan area.

Hmmm...I surrender!!

hutcheson said:

A prior mistake is not an irrevokable precedent.

Yes, the policies have changed in many ways, and you are seeing old edits (perhaps old mistakes) done under old rules.

It is, however, reasonable to mention in your description that you serve the NYC metropolitan area.

Click to expand...

So does that mean the 100 plus local companies listed under the category http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/ are all mistakes or the result of no longer valid or operable rules (this is a aprox. 30% of all listings in that category)? That on its face does not sound right. Or the policies have changed so much as to make the nature of the category itself invalid? But I don't think you are saying that...or maybe you are. Not sure from the post.

Moreover, there are not many installation companies of any sort that are not local or regional -- afterall they are not selling widgets over the internet - real people must be on site and doing the work. This is reflected in the companies listed........

Anyway the process is truly mysterious, drawn out and capricious. Worse, the response to inquiries are nearly always beaurcratic in tone and rarely address this issue at all, as the above quote illustrates (e.g., it is a mistake or an old rule....only problem is it applies to a huge percentage of submissions to the given category - so one must wonder what the mistake is).

FYI - I did put in the description the service coverage area (which is many times larger than the service areas of many of the other local companies listed in that category, but I don't figure that came into the calculation, whatever that is).

Logically, one should first wonder whether it's a mistake or an old rule.

Equally logically (although more subtlely), it's true that as the directory grows, more and more business categories turn out to be better organized regionally only than by business type, or even by business type and region. This is obviously a case, as you say, where we should have gone local from the beginning: we've weeded out many of those taxonomic mistakes (imagine, if you can: once upon a time we listed all real estate agents in a Business category!) but there are still, I'm sure, many left.

Another guide to enlightenment: when you are mystified, plausibility is no longer a reliable guide to truth.

Long Live Nail Salons!

hutcheson said:

Logically, one should first wonder whether it's a mistake or an old rule.

Equally logically (although more subtlely), it's true that as the directory grows, more and more business categories turn out to be better organized regionally only than by business type, or even by business type and region. This is obviously a case, as you say, where we should have gone local from the beginning: we've weeded out many of those taxonomic mistakes (imagine, if you can: once upon a time we listed all real estate agents in a Business category!) but there are still, I'm sure, many left.

Another guide to enlightenment: when you are mystified, plausibility is no longer a reliable guide to truth.

Click to expand...

I would understand if there was a sub-category that remotely fit what we do, but there is not. There is not even a sub-category for Computers under the regions, much less Data Communications or Data
Communications > Installation.

I also miscaluated the number of local businesses in the http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Data_Communications/Installation/ catgory: there are 100 out 163. That is over 60%. This can't possibly be a mistake, could it?

So the end result is the category we may end up in (if listed at all....it has been a very long time) is for a locality that we don't do business in, which has nothing to do with computer network installations, and judging from what is in that category now we will be listed along with a bunch of Nail Salons.

Long Live Nail Salons!

Well, by that logic it sounds even more like a change in the rules, doesn't it? And yes, it does sound like some work needs to be done in that category. (Which makes it how different from which other categories?)

Are asking me what the rules are?

hutcheson said:

Well, by that logic it sounds even more like a change in the rules, doesn't it? And yes, it does sound like some work needs to be done in that category. (Which makes it how different from which other categories?)

Click to expand...

Don't you people make the rules? It is beyond me what the rules are. One thing I do know: they are inconsistent.

Where do these listing rules reside? And how are they determined? My sense is that they are like 'secrets of the temple', obscure and undefined.

Maybe I missing something, no?