Submission status of http://www.poli-tape.co.uk

I submitted the site http://www.poli-tape.co.uk a few months back to the http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Business_and_Economy/Industries/Industrial_Supply/ forum... at least, I think it was that one.

I'd be much obliged to know its submission status, and whether I can or should resubmit it to the above category or a different one.

Many thanks,

David Bridgewater.

I am unable to see that site awaiting in that category or any of it's sub-categories. There is also no mention of the site being moved or deleted.

I did however notice http://www.chameleonskaife.com/ which is listed. Can you explain the connection and/or relationship between the two please?

Hi...

Thanks for the very prompt reply.

http://www.chameleonskaife.com and http://www.poli-tape.co.uk have their managing director in common. Chameleon Skaife deals in spooling services: essentially, taking big rolls of tape and using sophisticated machinery to make smaller rolls.

Poli-Tape actually sells finished tape products, and is an international company (main office in Germany I think). Poli-Tape UK is the UK subsidiary, and is an entirely separate company with a separate purpose to Chameleon Skaife.

It used to be that ChameleonSkaife did both things (spooling services AND product sales). This changed when Poli-Tape UK came into being. At this point, I requested an amendment to the DMOZ ChameleonSkaife listing which has been made. I also designed the separate web sites to reflect the different emphasis for the two separate companies.

I hope this adequately explains the relationship between the two sites.

Kind regards,

David.

Some supplemental information... before the http://www.poli-tape.co.uk site was launched as a separate site, the url www.poli-tape.co.uk did redirect to www.chameleonskaife.com.

However, www.poli-tape.co.uk is now most definitely a separate site (and was at the point where I requested its DMOZ listing), and is in no sense a "mirror site" for www.chameleonskaife.com. Apart from having a head office address and managing director in common, the content is very different.

Kind regards,

David.

I have to admit that I am having a little difficulty actually spotting the difference between the two (sorry I am not trying to sound pedantic or anything). I can see of course that they are both two seperate limited companies however that seems to be the extent of the difference.

For our purposes they ('they' being two seperate companies by name only) have the same MD, contact address, offer related services and even share telephone and fax machines.

In all honesty I cannot personally see any benefit to our users to have two sites listed in a category that are going to lead to the same end. I hope that you can see what I am trying to explain.

I have added the site into the pile for an editor to perform a full review (which I have not done) in due course. Inevitably the editor will have to look into the connection between the two from a 'user' standpoint which may result in the decision to list only one of them.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for your comments, and I can see why you might come to the conclusion you have (though I obviously disagree!). Thanks also for putting this into the pile for editorial review.

I'd be grateful if this thread could feed into that review, including these comments:

- the content is different. The Poli-Tape site mainly consists of information and brochures about the separate products they manufacture and sell. The Chameleon Skaife site describes a service that's offered (doesn't sell any products).
- the MD commissioned the separate web sites because the two companies have a different focus, and a different target audience. The users looking for CS spooling services are NOT the same as the users who buy ready-made products from Poli-Tape UK (acting as UK distributor of German manufactured goods). The MD doesn't even want the web sites linked (and they aren't. Even though it would be the obvious thing to do if we wanted users of one site to be aware of what the other offers).

One last question for you: should I re-submit http://www.poli-tape.co.uk, or has my original submission been located? I was hoping my original description for Poli-Tape had survived intact. I was also wondering if I was right to choose the same category for Poli-Tape as Chameleon Skaife... maybe Top: Regional: Europe: United Kingdom: Business and Economy: Industries: Manufacturing would have been a better choice for Poli-Tape.

Kind regards - and I do appreciate your time spent on this.

David.

Since the last message a decison has been made, like I expected, not to list http://www.poli-tape.co.uk/

I see what you are trying to explain however for our purpose they are reasons that do not reflect on our users.

We are not willing to list sites for what is in effect the same company (technical legalities aside) for related services/products. This would be exactly the same if you had one site/company for black tape, one site/company for white tape, one site for buying it, one site for manufacturing it, one site for wholesale and one site for retail. You may think that my examples do not reflect on your exact reasoning behind requesting more than one site listing however they are no different from our point of view and we will not be listing both.

Well, thanks anyway for the (voluntary) time and consideration and energy that's gone into the decision, even if it's not in my client's favour.

Actually, I think it's a matter of scale. Let's take an example I know well. You have no issues listing Dorothy Perkins and Burton Menswear as separate entries in the open directory. One sells women's clothes, the other men's. They are, of course, the same company - the Arcadia Group - with the same directorial board and listed head office.

Not that I would dispute for a moment that it's right and sensible for Dorothy Perkins and Burton Menswear to have separate listings. No-one would argue that this is a case of separate groups of users with separate interests.

It's harder to win the argument for my client's companies because they are more obscure and smaller, even though exactly the same applies.

But as I say - I respect your decision even if it's disappointing and I don't agree with it.

Kind regards,

David.

There are two extremes. Obviously General Electric (which makes light switches, power plants, and nuclear submarines) has different divisions. Equally obviously, the gonif who boasted in another forum that he had fifty-seven businesses (by which he meant, fifty-seven websites taking orders for fifty-seven different product lines, none of which he supplied, sold, or supported) doesn't even have one. Obviously, you aren't _really_ close to either. Well, all three collectivities have ONE CEO, so we would be looking at other things to make the distinction.

I think the clincher for us is when you say "the people who are looking for xxx are not the same as the people who're looking for yyy". That tells us the distinction is for marketing purposes, which is pretty well determinative for us: we won't recognize it.

You don't see the chairman of GE explaining to his board, "you see, we really need separate websites because, um, we sell coal-fired power generators to the department of defense, and nuclear-powered fast attack subs to the city of Cleveland ... or something like that." You don't see Walmart setting up separate divisions because the people who buy fishing tackle are not the same people who by fabric by the yard.

You can set up however many websites you want. But the one we want to list is the one that points to all the neat things the company does (whether on one domain name or a dozen.)