where to submit

can someone please tell me the appropriate section to submit http://www.celebrationsflowers.com i have tried a few times over the last couple years to get the site submitted to the same category as my competitors but have recieved conflicting information and no positive response. i initially tried to get the site listed with it's competitors under shopping/flowers/weddings but was told since it wasn't an ecommerce site that it didn't belong in that category despite the fact that many of the sites in that category didn't have ecommerce capability. i eventually got the site listed in the regional category... for what category you ask?.... shopping of course! i later saw that a new category was created and many sites were moved to it society/relationships/weddings/flowers i asked to be included in that category but never was. i now can't find that category. could someone please tell me what is the appropriate category for this web site? they are an event florist for weddings and corporate events. they don't sell a product but a service. thanks.

>>i eventually got the site listed in the regional category... for what category you ask?.... shopping of course!

Just to clarify, a Shopping category in Regional has different inclusion guidelines than a Top/Shopping category does.

The site seems to be appropriately listed as it is.

I believe the disappearing categories are explained by an ongoing reorganization of categories that are related to flowers.

A reading of http://dmoz.org/Shopping/faq.html will explain why your site does not qualify for a listing in the topical shopping category.

Since we in fact don't go into explanations of why sites are listed or not - the following is not the start of a dialog about your site, this is just a general explanation of a misunderstanding that applies to many sites submitted to Shopping - see http://dmoz.org/Shopping/faq.html

The key is that the site contains three elements: lists of products for sale, prices, and information on how the consumer can obtain the product from their own home.

<edited> URL changed so that non-editors can use it. </edited>

i'm not asking why i didn't get listed, i would just like to know the appropriate category so i can submit to it.

Your site is of regional relevance and is listed appropriately in http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/California/Localities/N/Napa/Business_and_Economy/Event_Planning/ (note that I shifted it over from shopping and it may take a day or three for it to show on the public server.)

There is no other category appropriate, so you may consider your ODP listing task complete.

why isn't it appropriate for a non regional listing? wouldn't something like society/relationships/weddings/florists work? under society/relationships/weddings there are every other type of service professional listed except florist. seems odd doesn't it?

No, that's not odd. There are special guidelines for ubiquitous, inherently-local businesses like Real Estate agents and retail florists. And, as a matter of general policy, when a particular business category gets too large and unmanageable, we start asking "is this another kind of UILB?" For florists, the answer is definitely and unquestionably "yes" -- so you'll see new listings appear only in local categories, and older listings migrating to the local categories. That's part of the ODP growing pains -- and the ODP is always growing.

this company isn't a typical florist. event florists don't have a retail shop. they are more of a service oriented company. is there any way to distinguish the two? event planning isn't exactly correct either. it's a related field, but not the same animal.

For the purposes of TAXONOMY (which category), we wouldn't care whether you have walkin business, or local delivery, or both. For the purposes of LISTING (what listing), I would argue that any business which doesn't follow the "normal" service pattern should have that fact mentioned in the description. (This would include new car dealers that don't sell used cars, florists that don't have a retail shop, DJs that don't do private parties, real estate agents that don't do residential sales or only serve buyers, etc.) Of course, some businesses don't HAVE a "normal" service pattern, so we should mention (very briefly) in each description what kind of service that firm provides.

under society/relationships/weddings there are every other type of service professional listed except florist. seems odd doesn't it?

Click to expand...

Quite right, that did seem odd. Sometimes it takes an outsider's eye to spot an obvious hole, and we thank you for calling it to our attention.

Most people planning a wedding will be looking for flowers, and will no doubt be glad to see that Shopping/Flowers/Florists is now a related category shown under the wedding category.

Just noted that in fact Florists [pointing to Shopping: Flowers] was already listed under http://dmoz.org/Society/Relationships/Weddings/Ceremony/