Status of www.protectionshoppe.com

Can someone please give me the status of www.protectionshoppe.com being added to the directory?
It was submitted to....http://dmoz.org/Business/Business_Services/Security/Products_and_Equipment/Personal_Protection/
Thanks....

What's up with the unclickable clickable link? Accident or deliberate?

I would have thought that the correct category for you would be http://dmoz.org/Shopping/Home_and_Garden/Emergency_Supplies/Personal_Defense but it looks like there is some overlapping between the two categories. Hmmm....

Anyway, your site is waiting in the queue along with a couple hundred other sites. Looks like it's going to be quite a while before it gets review.

I wanted to lend a hand in reviews and submitted an application to be an editor in this category but was turned down.

Sorry for that, but you should understand that we have to check the applications for people we assume are wanting to edit and capable of doing it and people we think arent. Its quite difficult, since the amount of data we get to judge this is very limited.

Look at the letter you received and try to figure out what to do better next time you apply.

I think you will have been turned down because there are so many sites waiting in that category. We tend to only accept new editors in more 'tame' categories than that.

Of course, if you apply for another category and get accepted, you could always work your way up until you are experienced enough for that category.

It's also a category that is prone to spam and affiliate submissions and so is not a good one to start off with.

Your site will not be listed, as it offers the exact same affiliate type product content as found on literally hundreds of other personal safety and self defense product sites and therefore the content cannot be considered unique. Sorry.

Our site is not an affiliate site, even though we sell many products that are available at other sites. Every one of our products are either stocked by us or shipped from one of our fulfillment centers around the country.As the name implies (Protection Shoppe), we are building our site as a place for folks to not only purchase personal protection for themselves and their family, but also provide free protection information for their protection as well as free products. Even though our store is an "infant" in the scheme of things, we have had many compliments from customers about our products and were very thankful that we were providing products for their security. We respectfully request that you reconsider your decision and help us raise the bar of what a real "Protection Shoppe" should be in your directory.

Thank You.

I've been uncertain exactly where these products have been originating from, some seem to come from template driven affiliate sites--others have a much more original feel to them. The end result, unfortnately, is that it doesn't really matter if the products come from an affiliate type source, the MLM company that is distrubuting the catalog where the majority of these products are found, or a manufacturer who is offering them also. The problem lies in that there are so many of them out there that the content is not original and therefore cannot be listed in the ODP.

I personally have seen at least 200 sites selling some combination of these same products in the last month (and I am unfortunately not even exagerating) and they are coming in every day in pretty high numbers.

To be listed a site must offer original content. It would not be fair to list your site, when there are huge numbers of sites selling those same products who are also being denied. It doesn't have anything to do with the actual quality fo the products, but the sheer number of sites offering them. Sorry <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" alt="" />

Thank you Lin for your reply, and I understand that dmoz is looking for original content. However, I don't think that rule is always followed. For example, if I do a search on "stun gun", which happens to be a product that we carry many types of, not just one or two, the very first listing in dmoz in Open Directory Sites is http://www.aladdinsecurity.com. Going to this site you will see that it is an affiliate site big time that sells everything under the sun. No personal service, no address or phone number, no human to talk to, no original content. Look at #3...Sure they sell stun guns, but they also sell stuff to speed up your internet access, to clean your credit, and they sell genealogy software. Is that original content? Our site may not be as pretty as others, but we offer something that Aladdinsecurity can't, and that's down home personal service from folks that care. Our store should be where Aladdinsecurity is.

Thank You.

I checked on http://www.aladdinsecurity.com/ and show it isn't listed and that it never has been. Is it possible you are looking on Google or you have the url wrong? I actually visited that site and the domain is one of many hijacks by ultimatesearch.com and isn't a valid site.

If you see sites listed that shouldn't be there, I am very interested and would appreciate it if you could send me feedback at http://dmoz.org/cgi-bin/send.cgi?toeditor=kokopeli, you can also do it via a personal message on this board. I personally removed many listed sites in the last month that carry the same products you are carrying as lack of unique content. Due to some upgrades on the ODP our RDF dump hasn't been generated and as a result google hasn't been updated with ODP info recently--so some sites will show as listed on ODP in a Google search when they actually are not (if that makes sense).

As for your site itself, I see nothing wrong with it. It is very easy to navigate...which is not always the case with many a site. Also, it doesn't matter to an editor if a site is pretty or not, some people have a huge amount of money to sink into design--others do not. As a consumer, I would personally never buy from a company that didn't have some kind of address listed. From a purely editor perspective that doesn't matter however, because it isn't a requirement for listing. I am sorry I cannot give you more positive news.

This is the results page for Aladdinsecurity...http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=stun+gun

Can you offer some suggestions as to what original content that I would need to add to get listed?

Thank you.

The Aladdin Security site was removed over a month ago (the search hasn't been updated since then, that's why you still see it in the search results).

Thanks....Any suggestions on adding "original content" to my site so that it may be listed?

Thank you.

The majority of the content would need to be products that are unique and not found anywhere else.

In answer to the new thread you started...as mentioned before, your site cannot be listed. Too many of the products you offer are on hundreds and hundreds of other sites also being submitted. Content is not unique. Sorry.