Greetings!
I made a couple of posts this past week and thank you bobrat for replying, here's the thread (I hope I do this link stuff right.)
http://resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?postid=146549#poststop
I have been researching this site:
North American Wood Products
http://www.nawpi.com
Currently listed in ODP:
http://dmoz.org/Business/Constructi...tics/Wood_Products/Veneers_and_Fine_Hardwoods
The subject of this new thread focuses on something I brought up in an earlier post: What's with the Wood and Plastics category grouping?
Sorry the following may appear to be a long-winded way to get to this subject.
I've been trying to read all posts and links since I joined the Forum last week, and first off want to say that the efforts of all the folks who have ever worked on the ODP are greatly appreciated. I understand the difficulties in lining out an ever-expanding, logical and concise Information Architecture in such a grand scale as the Directory. Ever since I discovered it, I have been studying it with fascination as a topic of special interest to me.
For instance, I worked for (yes) decades as a designer in the sign industry. Projects included directories of all sorts, some complex, some simple: restaurant menu boards, corporate campus locator directories, convention center exhibitor floor plans, mall maps. Important (vital) linear information architecture, presented in a graphical way. Imagine how it would be in the world without these directories? We all agree we need them!
In the sign industry, with clients over the years, sometimes when their building complex or event grew or changed, it was realistically materialistically impossible to add the new information to the old structure. Designers would have to start over to present the new information with the bulk of the old, and a good designer would always be taking into account who would be using the directories and why.
I see directories as tools created to help us steer through the chaos of our world. And as the world changes, so do (or should) directories. Now that I am working on the web, building and managing web sites rather than sign systems, I come to the Directory, in all honesty, to add to it. I will in the future be creating or managing all sorts/topics of sites and will want to submit to the Directory. So I really want to understand how best to be a worthy participant. I come to this forum in sincerity, I feel, to the spirit of the Directory. I'm looking at it in a wider scope than just trying to get a "better" site placement.
NOW TO THE SUBJECT.
Category Editors, please consider the following. Go to:
http://dmoz.org/Business/Construction_and_Maintenance/Materials_and_Supplies/
See separate categories Concrete. Masonry and Stone. Metals. Pipes. Tiles.
Why "Wood and Plastics"? Why not a separate category for Plastics?
Really. How did this unnatural grouping happen? Consider the huge philosophical, political, spiritual ramifications of grouping plastics with wood!
By restructuring here, the editors would be doing a great service to both users of the Directory and those listed in all relating areas. I have seen evidence in my research that other directories pick up the ODP structure, and therefore, "Wood and Plastics" is to be found as a category in too many places. It's just not right. Or logical. Or "true."
Over time in the years since the Directory was first built, I am sure other groupings have been shifted around.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Regards.
mvolk
I made a couple of posts this past week and thank you bobrat for replying, here's the thread (I hope I do this link stuff right.)
http://resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?postid=146549#poststop
I have been researching this site:
North American Wood Products
http://www.nawpi.com
Currently listed in ODP:
http://dmoz.org/Business/Constructi...tics/Wood_Products/Veneers_and_Fine_Hardwoods
The subject of this new thread focuses on something I brought up in an earlier post: What's with the Wood and Plastics category grouping?
Sorry the following may appear to be a long-winded way to get to this subject.
I've been trying to read all posts and links since I joined the Forum last week, and first off want to say that the efforts of all the folks who have ever worked on the ODP are greatly appreciated. I understand the difficulties in lining out an ever-expanding, logical and concise Information Architecture in such a grand scale as the Directory. Ever since I discovered it, I have been studying it with fascination as a topic of special interest to me.
For instance, I worked for (yes) decades as a designer in the sign industry. Projects included directories of all sorts, some complex, some simple: restaurant menu boards, corporate campus locator directories, convention center exhibitor floor plans, mall maps. Important (vital) linear information architecture, presented in a graphical way. Imagine how it would be in the world without these directories? We all agree we need them!
In the sign industry, with clients over the years, sometimes when their building complex or event grew or changed, it was realistically materialistically impossible to add the new information to the old structure. Designers would have to start over to present the new information with the bulk of the old, and a good designer would always be taking into account who would be using the directories and why.
I see directories as tools created to help us steer through the chaos of our world. And as the world changes, so do (or should) directories. Now that I am working on the web, building and managing web sites rather than sign systems, I come to the Directory, in all honesty, to add to it. I will in the future be creating or managing all sorts/topics of sites and will want to submit to the Directory. So I really want to understand how best to be a worthy participant. I come to this forum in sincerity, I feel, to the spirit of the Directory. I'm looking at it in a wider scope than just trying to get a "better" site placement.
NOW TO THE SUBJECT.
Category Editors, please consider the following. Go to:
http://dmoz.org/Business/Construction_and_Maintenance/Materials_and_Supplies/
See separate categories Concrete. Masonry and Stone. Metals. Pipes. Tiles.
Why "Wood and Plastics"? Why not a separate category for Plastics?
Really. How did this unnatural grouping happen? Consider the huge philosophical, political, spiritual ramifications of grouping plastics with wood!
By restructuring here, the editors would be doing a great service to both users of the Directory and those listed in all relating areas. I have seen evidence in my research that other directories pick up the ODP structure, and therefore, "Wood and Plastics" is to be found as a category in too many places. It's just not right. Or logical. Or "true."
Over time in the years since the Directory was first built, I am sure other groupings have been shifted around.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Regards.
mvolk
