Suggesting multiple addresses

Hi, I have a very big website that talks about a lot of different themes extensively (e.g. programming, philosophy, animals, drawing, etc. etc. ETC.). It is not a simple generalistic blog, all the subjects are seriously treated. Can I add it to multiple categories? Should I add the same URL or a more specific one each time?

Thanks in advance.

The rules apply to all site suggestions: one suggestion per site.

A site whose only unifying theme is "what one person is interested in" is a personal site: check out some subcategory of http://dmoz.org/Society/People/Personal_Homepages/

It's not a personal website, it deeply treats each argument. Moreover i saw a lot of sites listed more than once in dmoz (dmoz.org itself e.g.)

"Personal" doesn't mean "shallow" or "frivolous". It means "organized around the interests of the person."

A lot of sites are listed more than once in the ODP. But that is not an issue here. The question is, can a site be suggested in more than one category?

And the submittal policy says "no".

hutcheson said:

"Personal" doesn't mean "shallow" or "frivolous". It means "organized around the interests of the person."

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Well, it isn't that kind of site. A lot of people collaborate. There is a community with more than 3'000 users too!

hutcheson said:

A lot of sites are listed more than once in the ODP. But that is not an issue here. The question is, can a site be suggested in more than one category?

And the submittal policy says "no".

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Well, how can i get my website listed more than once? Submitting it in a single category would be an error. Should i contact an editor? (i'm italian)

You can't "get" a website listed at all. No website is guaranteed even one listing.

You shouldn't contact an editor to lobby for a site. A site that can't stand on its own doesn't deserve even one listing, and an experienced editor will assume any site that COMES with lobbying probably isn't listable at all. (Is that the first impression you want to give?)

The submittal policy and social contract are really simple. Anyone who's willing to follow the rules can suggest any site. And the editing community agrees to review any suggested site at least once.

And the reason for that restriction is obvious. Can you imagine the unspeakable abuse that would result from everyone who thought his own thoughts were serious were allowed to badger the volunteers?

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The editors' guidelines are more nuanced. An "exceptional" site may be listed in multiple categories, at the editors' discretion. The key, then, is making an exceptional site.

But people don't build "exceptional" sites to get listed in the ODP. People build exceptional sites because they are personally driven to excel, regardless of what website reviewers (or any other bystanders) think.

> about a lot of different themes
> A lot of people collaborate. There is a community with more than 3'000 users too!

sounds to me like a community website
How about http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Online_Communities/

But be sure to read the category description. They are very strict on what will be listed and where it will be listed.

(related thread in Italian)

It is not a community website, it has one, but it's just a small part of the traffic.
My website has good material and can stand on his own without problem, what i want to do is improve the way it's listed in a project i think is very useful and cool. I do not want to lobby, my suggestion would improve the service, because in several categories without editors there are a lot of low-quality website.
It is obvious that it would advantage my website, but any editor could understand that my material is of good quality, so it would be better for dmoz too.

Then there is only one thing you can do
...... suggest it to the ONE category you think is the best

If a site is about more than one subject select a category which has all subjects as its children.

There's no rule against an editor seeing one suggestion (or not seeing any suggestion at all) and adding multiple listings for the site. It is, of course, an exceptional situation. But with 8-10 million listings that have come and gone, there's room, relatively speaking, for a lot of exceptions.

The exceptional sites, of course, become well known without ODP help--that's part of what it means to be exceptional. If this site is truly manifold (as opposed to merely "vague and unfocused") and truly exceptional (as opposed to merely "good quality") editors will be eager to add multiple links.

Well, most of the categories i want to be added to are without editors, so maybe it's normal they don't know my website. I'm not a dmoz expert but i think that most of the suggestion come from users, but users can't add the same site more than once.
I'm sure you understand that there isn't just microsoft.com for the software category, but also notBigAsMicrosoft.com in World > Pakistan > Astrology.

> Well, most of the categories i want to be added to are without editors,
The "no editor" part is answered in our FAQ (link at the top of this page).
It is not about where you want your site to be listed but about wher the editors will list you site according to DMOZ guidelines.

> but users can't add the same site more than once.
User can't add a site at all. The only thing they can do is suggest a site. To help the editors as much as possible they should suggest it to the ONE best category. An editor will look at the site (which we call review) and decide if it will be added and if the category realy is the best.

> I'm sure you understand that there isn't just microsoft.com for the
> software category, but also notBigAsMicrosoft.com in World > Pakistan >
> Astrology.
Yes, and all these sites (big and small) are treated the same.
You, and anybody else, are allowed to suggest a site ONCE. An editor might decide to list it more than once.

>I'm not a dmoz expert but i think that most of the suggestion come from users

Well, now that you mention it, most suggestions do come from abusive spammers.

And certainly, some definitions of "user" (think psychology) would include such creatures.

On the other hand, from all accounts of people with DMOZ experience, most actual site listings probably come from somewhere than suggestions.

Which gets back to multiple listings per site. I've aggressively deeplinked a number of websites, and I have a list of websites (not suggested!) that should have more deep links. And the vast vast majority of THOSE listings CERTAINLY do NOT come from suggestions.

Why not? because (1) socially-adjusted, polite people follow the submittal policies, which means they DON'T suggest a site more than once or twice, and (2) the other folk, self-centered and rude, are generally not generating content of public interest.

In practice, this means that sites suggested multiple times are hundreds of times less likely to be listable at all anywhere, than sites only suggested once. In the extreme case, the strongest possible statistical proof that a site is NOT listable, is that it has been suggested dozens of times.

pvgool, what i mean is that dmoz doesn't have an editor for each category, so it's obvious that certain sites won't be added until someone suggest them, don't you think?

Anyway, thanks for the info pvgool. I just wanted to add value to dmoz with my contribute, but it seems it is not possible because there isn't any editor intrested in certain arguments.

hutcheson, here you look the only one rude, and please do not judge a site if you neither saw it, is it your method to work in dmoz?

Bye

>what i mean is that dmoz doesn't have an editor for each category, so it's obvious that certain sites won't be added until someone suggest them, don't you think?

Read the FAQ. This error is corrected there.

>is it your method to work in dmoz?

It's not possible to sites statistically. But every site makes a first impression (either good or bad). Aggressive site suggestion makes a bad first impression, because of the statistical reality. A really good site can overcome a bad first impression. A borderline site might not.

For the vast majority of sites, suggestion patterns don't affect whether they are listed or not. All the suggestion does is POSSIBLY help a site get found and reviewed more quickly.

>please do not judge a site if you neither saw it

Without experience reading webmasters' self reviews, you'd be surprised how often you can judge a site well simply by its self-description. But again, that's a statistical phenomenon, and there's more to ODP editing than judging sites.

reiguz said:

pvgool, what i mean is that dmoz doesn't have an editor for each category, so it's obvious that certain sites won't be added until someone suggest them, don't you think?

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As I wrote before. The issue "dmoz doesn't have an editor for each category" is answered in our FAQ.

Anyway, thanks for the info pvgool. I just wanted to add value to dmoz with my contribute, but it seems it is not possible because there isn't any editor intrested in certain arguments.

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And as has been answered several times if you want to suggest a site you will have to do so following our guidelines. Seems a very good argument to me.