status of - www.mybedroomgear.com

Please let me know the status of my website's submission to dmoz

I've submitted it last month to dmoz but as there is no assigned editor to the category I submitted to I'm a little concerned that my submission will go to the wayside and not get in. As that has happened many times in the past to me for other sites I've submitted.

submitted to: http://www.dmoz.org/Shopping/Clothing/Undergarments/Lingerie/

site:

Bedroom Gear

Submittals don't "go by the wayside." They wait until reviewed by an editor.

Since the vast majority of sites are reviewed by editors who are NOT the listed "category editor", there is no reason to be concerned about whether or not any particular category has any particular editor listed.

Since both of these are true, your statement "that has happened many times in the past to me" is puzzling. It isn't true, and if it were true, there would be no way you could know it except by asking an editor -- which you haven't done in this forum at least.

Check out our FAQ, which should alleviate some of your concerns, and our "read before posting" post, which will tell you what you need to do next.

To clarify a tad..

I have submitted other websites in the past to dmoz.org.. it's been years and never have I seen them get added (anywhere in dmoz).. the one thing I noticed was that the categories I have submitted different sites to never seem to have an editor listed.. as the one I most recently submitted is in the same boat (no listed editor) I figured I'd finally just ask.

It depends what you are submitting and where. The problem with this site you are asking about now is that all of the exact items can be found on other sites very easily. So if I were reviewing it I am not at all sure I would accept it. It also has content on it that might mean it being considered in a different part of the directory entirely.

As ODP is a community resource why would ODP limit the resources available to people? While some stores can offer similar merchandise are some stores not cheaper than others?

Maybe I don't understand the reasoning here but to apply this logic to other situations.. well, it doesn't add up.. ie: why bother listing internet service providers at all.. they all offer similar services? dsl, dial-up etc.

Excuding someone based on the fact that things can be found elsewhere seems just morally wrong to me.. especially when businesses that are solely internet based can offer such a wide variety of things.. and excluding them hurts not only the business being excluded but the internet surfer looking for options.. and they may need them.. customer service.. shipping costs.. speed of order processing are all different.

So to me, limiting choice based on things being available at other sites is completely the wrong reason.. heck , people don't get excluded from the phone book just because the phone book already has other $BUSINESS listed in it.

Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now..

The ODP lists sites with unique content, the more unique the better. Price isn't considered by us to be a unique factor - price comparison sites abound and they do that particular job far better than we could ever do. It is the content, the products, the background information, etc. etc. that creates the uniqueness we look for. If someone doesn't have information about shipping and payment then we might consider the omission quite serious (are they actually an online shop?) but its presence is usually just an essential element of any credible online seller not something to make a judgement on the detail of.

If you had your own exclusive range of lingerie designed for you and no-one else then that would be unique, something that people could not find elsewhere, and that might get completely submerged in a search engine - so a directory is the best tool for people to find that unique product. If someone wants a particular generic item - a stock camisole sold by 1000 online retailers then their best approach is to use (a) a search engine and (b) a price comparison site to narrow down their choice of supplier. Not a directory as we don't spider and record the individual pages of product.

Ignore the figures - they are for easy mathematics only. Say Seller 1 to Seller 1000 retail a standard set of items. In your case that set is substantially less than at least one other who had a much wider range including the ones you sell. We only need to list one of the sites, the one with the biggest range, say 500 items, so people know these goods are available on the Internet. If someone is interested then they can use search engines and price comparison sites to get the best deal on a particular item.

Sellers 1001 - 1050 retail original items, maybe on average 50 items each, they have designed and had manufactured for their exclusive sale. Those are all good additions for us because the items are not available on any other website.

In 51 listings our users therefore have access to 3000 different items - the 3000 different items that actually contribute 99% of the world's entire range of different products in that category. Now what is easier for an Internet surfer - 500,000 hits on a search engine spread over 25,000 pages with the top results being from the ones with the biggest marketing pot and only 500 different products turning up in the first 100 pages - or one page where you know that each and every site you click on will contain something different and present you with all 3000 different products available globally.

You may think that as a consumer you want the choice of supplier not product. That's fine but then ODP is not the tool for you to use when surfing for that choice - use search engines and price comparison sites instead. When it comes to online shopping our users are interested in choice of product not supplier. That is why people use us as opposed to a search engine. The likes of Google recognise the different needs of consumers. They provide a search engine for one, and use our data to provide the alternative approach for the other. But they are separate functions within Google - evidence that it is simply not possible at present to combine the two differing needs.

excluding them hurts not only the business being excluded

Click to expand...

That isn't true and it isn't a factor in any case were it to be true. We don't serve the businesses - others do like Yahoo and Overture but not us. We don't try and replicate what a search engine and price comparison site can do, that would be impossible since we are human-edited with no spidering technology. You pay nothing to suggest a site, nothing to have a site reviewed, nothing to have it listed, nothing to have it stay listed, and there is therefore nothing lost should the site be rejected. If it is accepted it might be a small bonus but realistically it won't affect your sales, at least not to the extent that could be achieved by investing the same effort into search engine promotion instead. Where you might consider it a positive to be listed is in what happens when other parties take up our data but we have no control or influence on that and it doesn't figure in our decision-making process. If you consider you could get a higher Google PR if listed and by not being listed you are being damaged then lobby Google to adjust their PR algorithms not us to change our concepts.

Maybe I don't understand the reasoning here but to apply this logic to other situations.. well, it doesn't add up.. ie: why bother listing internet service providers at all.. they all offer similar services? dsl, dial-up etc.

Click to expand...

Sorry, missed this point. There is a difference between goods and services. A camisole model 9999 is the same camisole model 9999 wherever you buy it from. A bottle of Coca Cola is the same wherever you buy it from. If an "ISP" is simply a straight reseller of another ISP's products then we would not list them for the same reason - no unique content. But each primary ISP, and to a lesser extent value-added resellers, will offer a unique set of packages including geographical coverage, resiliance, support, etc. The primary ISP, assuming their site contains sufficient information, will almost certainly get listed. The value-added reseller might get listed depending on the extent and uniqueness of the added value. In the same way as if a lingerie seller took standard camisole model 9999 and sewed sequins on it or dyed it in fluorescent orange - they have taken a standard product and turned it into something unique. The straight ISP reseller who does nothing other than set up a site selling the same products completely unchanged except for maybe a different address and a discount will be rejected.

Five years ago, we used to consider price a factor. Then vstore (the most evil website spammer in the galaxy at the time, the Spamford Wallace of websites) began to get really devious. They had always encouraged their evil minions to conceal their relationship with the mother demon. But they noticed that their spamming co-conspirators (free-lance mercenary affiliate doorway-affiliate store generators) were getting easily spotted and whacked in masse from the ODP because they all had the same products and prices. So vstore decided they were giving surfers too MUCH information (that is, how much the item would actually sell for) and encouraged each of their evil minions to tweak their individual product prices randomly up or down to make them look more independent.

Editors aren't stupid. Slow, sometimes, but not that stupid, at any rate.

Therefore price could no longer be a factor. You can thank vstore for that. (Or whatever they're calling themselves this week -- lately they've had to change their name a lot, trying to escape their reputation.)

Unique content. If you don't have it, the web won't miss you.