The status of our submiission. Please, help...

Hello, Editors.

I've just found out about this wonderful forum and decided immediately to register for the membership. I'll get right to the point as I know all of you are volunteers with limited time resources.

I'm an administrator for the site that we've been trying to get listed in the Open Directory for about two months. I'd would really appreciate if someone could check the status of my submission.

I submitted to the category TOP/GAMES/GAMBLING/BLACKJACK and followed all the guidelines as closely as possible.

The site's url:

http://online-blackjack-game-downloads.com

(I hope it's O.K. to post a link in this forum)

Thanks.

You are all doing a great job /images/icons/smile.gif

Try resubmitting to Games/Gambling/Blackjack/Software. I'll add a note on the URL for the reviewer to take more than a cursory look at it. Try to make sure the title and description are reasonable.

Thank you, Steve. I'll submit it to

Games/Gambling/Blackjack/Software

in 20 minutes or so. /images/icons/smile.gif

You don't mention what description you suggested. (We find that many people, with what we assume is the best will in the world, simply CAN'T write a guidelines-conforming description.) But in any case, the site has been rejected.

It is hard to find any "unique" content at the site. Certainly the title (Blackjack Games Downloads) is about content that is already listed (via sites owned by the content creators). Perhaps your description also featured content which the reviewer recognized as not unique, and this may have contributed to its rejection. Or perhaps there isn't any unique content: this would be grounds for rejection.

The steps to getting a site added are:

1) Have unique content (you'd be amazed how large a majority of submitters skip this step.
2) Feature that unique content prominently in the site navigation (many affiliate-business-model sites skip this, if they didn't skip step 1 already.
3) Find the category corresponding to that unique content (again, the pencil-seller-site submitted to "Arts/Literature/Writers_Resources" is an all-too-common type of stupidity that will be considered abuse by the victims, that is, us editors.)
4) Feature the unique content in the suggested site description. (This will tell the editor what to look for, and provides the best assurance that it won't get overlooked.)

I've just submitted to the category that you suggested. Then I realized this category - GAMES/GAMBLING/BLACKJACK/SOFTWARE - does not have an editor.

Should I be concerned?

Editors can edit in any of the subcategories of the categories they have editing permissions for. None of the Blackjack categories have a large unreviewed queue, so we can assume some editor is fairly active there, even in the subcategories.

Hello, hutcheson.

Thank you for taking your time to reply to my post.
I'll try to address each point that you raise in your post.

_____________________
Hutcheson writes: "You don't mention what description you suggested. (We find that many people, with what we assume is the best will in the world, simply CAN'T write a guidelines-conforming description.)"

Here is the description that I submitted to
GAMES/GAMBLING/BLACKJACK/SOFTWARE category.

~~~~~~~~~~
Download blackjack software and play free casino games
online. Blackjack strategy, tips and rules.
~~~~~~~~~~~

The reason I chose this description is that it reflects the nature of our site. There are three major sections: 1) library of free downloadable files - (this allows visitors to read descriptions, quickly download and compare games provided by the various software developers); 2) Free blackjack games that our visitors can play instantly in their browsers, and 3) Educational resources: blackjack school, articles, blackjack systems, tips, strategies, fans' reviews, etc.




Hutcheson writes: "Certainly the title (Blackjack Games Downloads) is about content that is already listed (via sites owned by the content creators)."

We have collected in one place downloadable files from various software developers. Each file is accompanied by detailed descriptions and comments. Each listing allows visitors to leave their comments and rate the software on 0
to 10 scale. It is a "time-saver" and is one of the most popular sections at our site.




Hutcheson writes: "Perhaps your description also featured content which the reviewer recognized as not unique, and this may have contributed to its rejection. Or perhaps there isn't any unique content: this would be grounds for rejection."

I'll let you be the judge. Here is a list of free services and educational resources that we provide at the site.

1) Free search engine dedicated specifically to blackjack.
2) Free software library.
3) Reviews/opinions posted by our visitors, blackjack fans.

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/reviews_and_opinions


4) Free blackjack school online - 20 pages of pure educational information.

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/GameMasters/GameMasterClassicsIndex.html

5) Free blackjack systems that visitors can study.

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/blackjack_systems

6) Free blackjack tips

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/blackjack_strategy_and_tips

7) Descriptions of blackjack tournaments online.

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/blackjack_tournaments

8) Blackjack rules section for newbies.

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/blackjack_rules

9) Free blackjack strip games.

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/strip_blackjack

10) Blackjack articles (history, myths and facts)

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/blackjack_history

11) blackjack related newsletter directory

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/blackjack_newsletter_directory

12) Bonus listings

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/free_blackjack/online_casino_bonus_listings

13) Blackjack forum
14) Casino industry specific news
15) Free web-based email accounts for the members of our community.

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/bin/mail/mailnow.cgi

16) Blackjack classifieds.

http://www.online-blackjack-game-downloads.com/bin/classifieds.cgi

I could go on but I think I've made my point.

Now, is it fair to say that we offer no unique content?
(Our visitors post their own reviews and comments. Is this unique content or what?)

Hutcheson, I agree with you when you say that we could probably make our content more visible to a casual visitor.

Perhaps, an editor took a quick look and did not see all the free services and content that we offer. Could we get someone to take a closer look? After all, we invested a lot
of efforts in this site /images/icons/smile.gif

>Perhaps, an editor took a quick look and did not see all the free services and content that we offer. Could we get someone to take a closer look?

This is certainly a possibility. (And it sounds like some editors think it's worth a second look.) But think about this--is a casual visitor likely to look that much harder for the content? If the editor misses it, so might your customers. Hint, hint: you very likely probably almost-more-than-certainly need to put some more work into your navigation. [This is not at all unusual--spending more time on graphical bells and whistles and not enough time on functionality is probably the most common disastrous design decision made by website designers. Perhaps it's because so many of them are primarily graphic artists, not user interface designers.] But it doesn't matter why -- the fact is, you'll lose most of your visitors this way.

Hutcheson, I get you point... First thing tomorrow morning I'll get our webmaster to move the content to a more visible place. Peace /images/icons/smile.gif

Liana

This just reinforces an idea I've been stewing on: Editors are human beings. Design your site for human beings. Don't get mad at them because of your inability to design for human beings.

cjtripnewton, I'm not mad. We had a discussion and discovered what the problem was. The site's content was not visible enough - (it is there but not as visible as it should have been). The editor probably did not notice it. Tomorrow morning I'll make sure our webmaster will take care of the problem. Hopefully one of the editors at this forum will take the necessary steps to approve our newly submitted listing. As was suggested by stevesliva we have re-submitted our site to the following category.

GAMES/GAMBLING/BLACKJACK/SOFTWARE

Liana
p.s. I still believe that - GAMES/GAMBLING/BLACKJACK category - seems to be a much better choice. We offer much more than just free software downloads. Having said this, we would accept any category gratefully.

I just cleaned the small unreviewed queue in Games/Gambling/Blackjack . Your site has been added in this category as well, you should be able to find it in the search as soon as the next update will be completed. /images/icons/smile.gif

That was fast...

/images/icons/wink.gif

Thank you Arkoid, Stevesliva, Hutcheson and all others who participated in this thread.