Guest Posted December 13, 2002 Posted December 13, 2002 Hi, 9 months ago I originally submitted to the hgh category(was never listed), but since then I greatly expanded my site and 4 months ago submitted to the Shopping: Health: Alternative: Life Extension: Multiple-Product Sites category, and still have heard no reponse. Please help, 9 months is a long time to wait. Thanks.
Meta hutcheson Posted December 13, 2002 Meta Posted December 13, 2002 Rejected per the current guidelines. (MLM sites may have been acceptable nine months ago, but aren't now.)
motsa Posted December 13, 2002 Posted December 13, 2002 FYI: You should have reused your original thread to make this inquiry.
Guest Posted December 13, 2002 Posted December 13, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - help site not mlm Hi, I don't know how my site got listed as MLM. My site is not MLM in anyway. I buy all my products from different manufacturers, and can give you exact info. Please let me know what I have to do to remove my site from this crazy MLM status that you somehow gave me. Thanks for your help.
beebware Posted December 13, 2002 Posted December 13, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - help site not mlm Whilst I don't edit much in that area, I am aware that Pro-HGH is a common MLM product (a quick search on Google also confirms this). Looking at your site, it does give an indication of being a MLM distributor (even if it's several MLM schemes - it's still MLM). For further details of what we term "Multi-Level Marketing" (MLM), please see the editor guidelines]http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html#affiliate]editor guidelines. Several other of your product lines have been recognised by fellow editors as being MLM-products: hence it is unlikely that your site will be listed.
shritwod Posted December 13, 2002 Posted December 13, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - help site not mlm I don't edit that area at all, but there are lots of signs that it appears to be an affiliate or MLM site. No, I won't list what those indications are here - I think in the case of this site you'd need to show that your company actually exists and is actually respsonsible for the distribution of these products and the fulfillment of customer orders.
donaldb Posted December 13, 2002 Posted December 13, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - help site not mlm This thread is sounding very familiar. Haven't we had this discussion before? http://www.resource-zone.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=status&Number=4173
Guest Posted December 14, 2002 Posted December 14, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - help site not mlm In order to clarify my site is not MLM in any way. I buy product directly from non MLM manufactures, process it by credit card, and ship the products. The editor's misunderstanding with GHR15 and Pro Hgh may stem from the fact that these are the most popular hgh products and there are a lot of sites selling them, none of them are MLM because these products are simply popular products, any body selling has to buy them from the manufacture, and can sell at whatever price they like, there is NO compensation structure of any sort that would clasify it as MLM. If you would like contact the manufactures of any of my products I would be happy to give the phone #'s. Please help as your present categorization of my site is unfair and unjust. I am not trying to manipulate your system, I am only asking for faireness and honesty. Thanks for your help in seriously looking into this matter. Doug
Guest Posted December 16, 2002 Posted December 16, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - $250 award - site not MLM Hi, I don't know what to do, nothing on my site is MLM, but I am told you think it is MLM. I will offer you or anybody $250 if you can show that anything on my site is MLM including Pro Hgh and GHR15. I am offering this because I know I am right. I feel it is extremely unfair to have my website labeled as MLM, and therefore unable to list. Please let me know what to do, or how to contact the editor of the catagory I am submitting: Shopping: Health: Alternative: Life Extension: Multiple-Product Sites
shritwod Posted December 17, 2002 Posted December 17, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - $250 award - site not MLM Affiliate sites are also prohibited from being listed in the directory. Please understand that I'm not the person who would be reviewing your application, but I can't see that you actually have the capacity to ship product yourself. The last time this came up the editors identified the site as a possible fraternal mirror: Affiliate Reseller Sites (aka Fraternal Mirrors) Fraternal Mirrors have the same basic content, but usually different designs. Fraternal mirrors are harder to spot because the sites are designed and written to appear different, but a careful examination will reveal they offer the exact same product or service as another affiliated company. The are usually set up by merchants as affiliate, reseller, or lead generator sites. For example, sites which sell products or services provided by another company and make a small margin on the sale are affiliate mirrors. In general we do not list affiliate sites unless the affiliate has strong, high quality content of its own that end-users will find really useful. The shopping cart from 1Automationwiz.com lists order fulfillment as being from "IMI Health Care" which does not appear to be in the business listings anywhere. This is not reflected in your WHOIS entry which appears to indicate that you are a private individual. Pretty much all the product details are duplicated on other similiar sites, although I will concede that there is no other site with identical content as far as I can see. The 1AutomationWiz.com program is a useful one for MLM as it keeps track of different tiers of commissions, which is an indicator that some of the products might be MLM. So, if it's not MLM or an affiliate program, then I guess you must be dropshipping? Or do you actually process physical product?
Guest Posted December 17, 2002 Posted December 17, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - Award increased to $1,000 I have increased my reward to $1,000 for anyone who can show that my site is MLM or is a "fraternal mirror" as you call it. Being mislabeled is frustrating. Let my site be a lesson as to how you can abuse legitamate websites by jumping to conclusions. Somebody labeled my site MLM about 6 months ago and I have been dealing with this problem ever since. In response to the last reply IMI Health is my personal company name and I can prove that I am the only signer on the Bank Account. I also process my own credit credit card transactions, and buy product and ship it. I would be happy to provide all this info to an editor who can make a decsion regarding listing my site. This has been extremely frustrating for me as I have worked long and hard on this site, and would really like to see it given a legitamate opportunity to be listed. If somebody could get in touch with the actual editor responsible for the Health: Alternative: Life Extension: Multiple-Product Sites category and notify them of this thread that would be greatly appreciated as a good positive start forward. Thanks everyone for all you help.
holstein13 Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - Award increased to $1,000 Wow, give this guy a break, will you. As a casual uninvolved observer, I took a look at his website and his shopping cart and found nothing to suggest he is MLM. Just because he uses a shopping cart that could be used to pay any affiliates does not make him MLM. Even if he hired an army of affiliates that wouldn't necessarily make him MLM. If he distributes the product and processes the payment, he deserves to be listed. As an online merchant, I recognize his business for what it is -- just a guy trying to sell products on the net. I suggest you buy his product and then return it for your money back. That way, you risk nothing and you can see for yourself if he is legit. He's got a 100% money back guarantee and a toll free number. In this country, our justice system says you are innocent until proven guilty. DMOZ should just assume he is innocent unless proven otherwise.
Guest wkallander Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - Award increased to $1,000 The stipulation here has to do with unique content. Affiliates and MLM sites, by their definition, do not provide content, and in the ODP, content is king. I do not think it can be listed per Open Directory Guidelines, because it lacks the necessary original content. It is not just the products being sold that are available all over the net, but the content is too. Since content is the determining factor, and the site lacks original content, this is more than enough information on the matter to come to a decision not to list it. Have a look at http://www.hgh-human-growth-hormone-guide.com/ as an example of a similar site. You will find that the this page: http://www.hgh-human-growth-hormone-guide.com/hgh-supplement-scam.htm content is repeated almost verbatim on this page: http://amazing-hgh.com/human_growth_hormone_scams.htm , which is non-unique. It even goes so far as to preserve the ordering of the "scams" it purports to warn about. So, it cannot be listed, be it an MLM or not.
holstein13 Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - Award increased to $1,000 Content is king and I agree with you that the same content shouldn't be listed twice on ODP; however, it should appear at least once. If there are no other sites listed in ODP, then maybe this guy should get a listing. If he is just copying someone elses content then no greater purpose is served by listing his site. He should write some original content and try to resubmit.
anelder Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 As I mentioned in the last thread about this site, this URL was rejected for being a fraternal mirror. We recognize it is not an MLM site. The 'manufacturers' of GHR-15, ProHGH, Gerovital, and other growth hormone products are or will be listed in Business. The distributors will not be listed, for lack of content. This is specifically what the guidelines say about fraternal mirrors. I would think this has been successfully answered on several occasions. Anita
Guest Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - Award increased to $1,000 Thanks in response to your reply, finally someone admitted that my site is not MLM. As far as unique content, my site is unique there is no other site on the internet selling the same products. Saying that you can't sell products that someone else sells is ridiculous. For example since Barnes and Noble and Amazon sell the same books, according to you they should not be listed. As far as the duplicate page that you found, that is my second site. A person is alowed to own more than one site. www.hgh-human-growth-hormone-guide.com is not listed in ODP,plus it only sells two of the same products. Instead of just barking why don't you compare my site to other sites in the ODP category that I am trying to submit, and you will see that it is totaly uniqe. As far as unique content it has a lot of it, just look through it, more specifically read click the estrogen link. I am trying to add more products and content to my site, but without a ODP listing I am having a hard time showing up in Google. To clarify, my site is not MLM, it is not a mirror site of any other site. If you look at your ODP guidlines you will notice that mirror sites are copies or close copies to other sites, my site is neither. If you say it is not unique show me a site that is the same. Having one page that is similar to another site does not make it a mirror. All I ask is that you give me a break. I have dealt with a lot of stress due to this. I believe my site is of value and quality espetially in the category in which I am trying to list. Shopping: Health: Alternative: Life Extension: Multiple-Product Sites . My site sells more life extension products than most of the site listed. The majority of the sites in this section only carry two or three products. I still believe people are looking for excuses and are looking at my site much harder than the majority being listed. If my site wasn't first wrongly categorized as MLM nobody would be even questioning anything. Outside of one of my pages out of over 40 being a close copy to one page in another site that is not even listed in ODP, it is totaly unique. Why don't you look at some other sites in the category that I am trying to list, and then look at my site and you will see that it deserves to be listed. Can someone at least please bring the editor of the category I am trying to list into this discusion. I have tried many times to find out who the editor is with no luck, can someone at least help with this. Thanks. Doug
beebware Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - Award increased to $1,000 >> Can someone at least please bring the editor of the category I am trying to list into this discusion. << FYI: A note has been attached to your site which will point ANY editors reviewing your site towards this thread. We prefer to use these "editor only notes" than emails as they are visible to everyone (your site "could be" reviewed by an editall or meta editor who doesn't necessarily spend a lot of time in that area-hence the email would have been worthless).
Guest Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - wrongly charged I believe the above editors are wrongly interpreting "fraternal mirrors" or more commonly "affiliate sites" ODP definition "For example, sites which sell products or services provided by another company and make a small margin on the sale are affiliate mirrors." Anita(editor) and others seem to think that my site has similarities to an affiliate site. To clarify for the fifth time I PROVIDE MY OWN PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. I am still offering a $1000 reward to anyone who "understands what an affiliate site is," and can show that my site is a affiliate site. It simply is not. As far as selling products that other websites have, this is totaly allowed or else you would only have one book store, or vitamin store listed. The line is not being drawn as you mention with only the manufactures being listed. In this case your directory would be a directory of manufacturers. Could someone bring in some kind of senior editor that truly understands the meaning of MLM and affiliate sites; as my site is clearly neither. Plus it is totaly unique and offers a different product offering and content from any other site. Plus I am in the process of adding unique products and content. My $1000 reward still stands. Thanks for taking the time to try and help resolve this matter. Doug
beebware Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 Re: amazing-hgh.com - wrongly charged >> Could someone bring in some kind of senior editor that truly understands the meaning of MLM and affiliate sites; << The most senior editors we have are "metas". hutcheson and donaldb have already made little comments here (and I'm reasonably sure that they are probably watching this thread - other metas may also be lurking). Editalls, catmvs, catmods are practically the "next level of seniority" and quite a number of those have been lurking and posting here. Usually if something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck - you can usually be certain you've got a member of the family Anatidae on your hands... Basically, you appear to be selling products that are "normally" sold (in ODP experience) by MLM distributors, have (as another editor has pointed out) copied content from other sites (as MLM distributors tend to do) and then look of the site makes me, personally, think that it could be MLM.... Since you are quoting our guidelines >> sites which sell products or services provided by another company and make a small margin on the sale are affiliate mirrors << Can you answer 'yes' or 'no' to the following question: Do you make a small margin on the sale of products provided by another company? If 'yes', then maybe you can give us your drugs manufacteurs licence number (or whatever legal thing you have) and the address of your factory - if not, well, can I claim my $1000 <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> Continuing on that paragraph from the guidelines, it does state >> In general we do not list affiliate sites unless the affiliate has strong, high quality content of its own that end-users will find really useful. <<. This is where it's been noted that your site is "lacking": original, high-quality content.
Guest Posted December 18, 2002 Posted December 18, 2002 Re: Editor tries to claim $1000 reward In response to the last editor post, to repeat for the fifth time, none of my products are MLM or sold by MLM distributors. My $1000 offer still stands for anyone who can show any of my products are MLM. They are not MLM << Can you answer 'yes' or 'no' to the following question: Do you make a small margin on the sale of products provided by another company? For the sixth time no, I buy my own products direct from the manufacture, I set my own profit margin which is not small, I wherehouse and ship the products and am not an Affiliate to anyone! $1000 reward still stands for anyone who can show my site is MLM or an Affiliate. Why am I offering this $1000 reward. Simply because you keep blaming my site for things that it is not. Trying to claim $1000 reward. beebware wrote If 'yes', then maybe you can give us your drugs manufacteurs licence number (or whatever legal thing you have) and the address of your factory - if not, well, can I claim my $1000 Continuing on that paragraph from the guidelines, it does state >> In general we do not list affiliate sites unless the affiliate has strong, high quality content of its own that end-users will find really useful Obvously none of the editors who are writing here seems to understand what an affiliate is! I do not manufacture my own product. I buy it from the manufacturer. This does not make me an affiliate, I am a retailer that buys products wholesale and resell them at my own price. Affiliates are people that sell for other websites and recieve a percentage of sale or a commision for the sale. Affiliates never process there own credit card transactions, nor do they buy products direct, nor do they do shipping. In response to claiming the reward. You need to fully understand what a affiliate is, before you try and claim the reward. Just becuase I am not the manufacturer of a product does not make me an affiliate. If this where the case then Amazon, and every retailer in the country would be an affiliate which is not the case. Editor training. This thread should be used as an education tool for unseasoned editors who don't really understand the definition of MLM or affiliate site. To claim the $1000 reward first research and understand what MLM and affiliates are, and then find why my site is one of the above. It simply is not MLM or an affiliate site, and I am getting tired of responding to editors who don't really understand the concept. If you think my site is MLM or any of the products are MLM, show me a site or show me how my site appears MLM. If you think my site is an affiliate, then show how my site is selling for another website,it simply is not. By now my site has been analized more deeply than practically any site listed in your directory. I find it frustrating that unseasoned editors keep saying my site is MLM or an affiliate site. It is neither. The first step is to acknowledge this, and then look at my site for its own merits. I am in the process of adding more products and more unique content. Go to my site and click estrogen, and notice the links for estrogen on my site. I am in the process of doing this for the other products as well. I have put a great deal of time into developing this site, and believe it is better than at least 60% of the sites listed in my category. As far as original content. Amazing-Hgh is the only site on the net selling the same variety of products, and my descriptions are more in depth of each product than any other site on the net. How can you say my sites content is not original? It is more original than any site in the category I am trying to submit. The only reason that you say it is not unique is because it has one page that has some simularities to my other website which is not listed in ODP. Do the editors here even understand "unique." Unique as used by ODP seems to mean unique to all other websites in a particular category or in your directory. My site is unique. If you believe it is not, please show how it is not unique. Showing a page or a product that is sold by another website has nothing to do with unique. There are hundreds of websites selling Compaq computers, does this mean you can only list one site that sells Compaq computers, or a book title, or cd title. Unique has to do with content, focus, and offering. Unique means that no other website is the same. By all definitions this site is unique if you think otherwise please show why it is not. Why is everyone so determined to rip apart my site. The only true reason I can find is that since it is not MLM or an Affiliate site, and I have been wrongly accused and abused, you are now looking to rip apart its uniqueness. All these are just excuses, would somebody official at ODP please admit here that my site is not MLM or an Affiliate site. Could somebody please be mature and admit this. Thank for continuing to explore, learn, and look into this matter. Doug
Guest Posted December 19, 2002 Posted December 19, 2002 Re: Editor tries to claim $1000 reward All I can say is that after visiting the site I am unable to tell it apart from any standard, normal e-shop out there. While I find the replies from the site owner to be on the lengthy side - I can see why he is frustrated. Now, for a bit of fun, let's throw some wood to the flame: If original content is required, how come ODP lists 297 sites in this category: http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/Open_Directory_Project/Sites_Using_ODP_Data/ It seems to me that - almost by definition - they do NOT have original content <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> Just a thought.... <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" alt="" />
old_crone Posted December 19, 2002 Posted December 19, 2002 Re: Editor tries to claim $1000 reward Now, for a bit of fun, let's throw some wood to the flame: If original content is required, how come ODP lists 297 sites in this category: http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/Open_Directory_Project/Sites_Using_ODP_Data/ That piece of wood was too wet to do anything except let off a lot of smokey hot air. <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" /> You could have at least found a category that sold something to fuel the fire with. The original issue was about unique content regarding affiliate/MLM/partners/distributor sites selling the same products. All I can say is that after visiting the site I am unable to tell it apart from any standard, normal e-shop out there. In my opinion it looks like the standard hype site, the kind I stay as far away from as possible. And it looks nothing like a standard e-shop unless you think hype is a standard one strives towards. Just for clarity, I'm not an ODP editor and I'm not putting the owner of this site down. I'm sure he has worked very hard on his site but it looks like he has taken some of the Internet marketing gurus bad advice when he designed his site. It looks like a MLM/affiliate/distributor site. Most of the products come from one company and that company sells their products on their own site for the same amount of money. Well, not exactly the same, they round out the amount. Instead of $24.95 they sell it for $25.00. Not enough of a difference to make it different. The real problem with sites like this one is that the content is the product. All the text on this site and sites like it are centered around the product, which leaves little to no room for unique content. There are many other things this owner could do to optimize his site other than getting frustrated over an ODP listing, or getting his site listed in any directory for that matter. His site could do just as well without an ODP listing. Of course, this is just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions ...
Guest Posted December 19, 2002 Posted December 19, 2002 Re: Assuming no response = admitting the truth Since no editors have replied to my past post, I am assuming they are finally realizing that my site is not MLM or an Affiliate site. Let this be a lesson, so that other sites don't get wrongly accused like me. In response to the last post. I buy my products from 5 different manufacuturers. Yes you are right several of my products are from Nuetrecuetics. The reason for this is I believe they are the most researched supplements on the market. As far as hype, yes there is some, but if you look at the actually explanations of the products, you will find they are much more in depth than you will find on the standard site. If lenghty explanations = hype so be it. $1000 reward still stands. If you still think my site is MLM or an Affiliate site, prove it, and claim the money. Would any ODP editor at least be brave enough to admit publically that you were wrong in accusing my site of being MLM, and of accusing my site of being an Affiliate site. Thank you for further looking into this matter. Doug Gordon
dstanovic Posted December 19, 2002 Posted December 19, 2002 Re: Assuming no response = admitting the truth Editor hat is removed Todd, Doug, or Judd (whatever your real name is) You are correct it would be very hard for anyone to prove anything since your whois data is false and there isn't any sort of contact information on your site (not even on your privacy policy). Whois lists one name, telephone number from whois lists another, and yet you are going by another name on this site. I don't think this site should be listed for these reasons alone (false information, no contact info). How would this site benefit a user or add value to the ODP ? There is no way for anyone to contact you on your site that I have found - scary. The ODP reserves the right not to include any site at its discretion and this may be one of the few times I agree with that 100%. I would never give my Credit Card info to a company like this. My 2-cents edited: I just noticed the title of this message Assuming no response = admitting the truth it's very ironic you would title as such.
Guest Posted December 20, 2002 Posted December 20, 2002 Why this site won't be listed There's no clear evidence that this site is a MLM affiliate, if you are looking for a smoking gun, simply because there's no possibility to check what it's declared on the pages of the site. Your 1.000 $ reward will therefore probably remain unclaimed, but looking at the site there are different issues aside from the MLM thing, as other editors clearly said. a) there's no contact info, not even on the privacy policy) - really scary for a site selling online. This alone, would be a reason to wonder whether this site adds value to our directory. b) Whois on your domain lists one name,address, and phone no. claiming that you're in Brisbane, CA , while the phone number corresponds to another person in San Francisco, CA. This doesn't allow us to check anything about the site, as well as putting any user visiting the site in the same position. c) you have copied content from other sites, thus your claim that your site "is totaly unique and offers a different product offering and content from any other site" is untrue. Fact is that you do not offer unique content, as evidenced in the following quick search in Google: Randomly taken from your page www.amazing-hgh.com/pro-hgh.htm: Pro Hgh is the original secretagogue formula, recommended by doctors and leading anti-aging therapists: 27 results cancer patients should not take amino acid based secretagogues such as Pro Hgh : 133 results Randomly taken from your page www.amazing-hgh.com/ghr15.htm GHR 15 is destined to become one of the most significant medical discoveries of our time : 29 results Take Ghr15 at bedtime, 3 to 4 hours after the evening meal on an empty stomach: 16 results During the 5 days on Ghr15 it For optimal effectiveness take for 3 months, skip 3 weeks and then repeat cycle: 16 results Taken from your page www.amazing-hgh.com/human_growth_hormone_scams.htm "There is no such thing as high potency non-prescription Hgh": 4 results Taken from www.amazing-hgh.com/what_is_hgh.htm IGF 1 elicits most of the effects associated with hgh and is measured in the blood to determine the level of growth hormone secretion: 46 results these cutting edge natural secretagogues may have the ability to more closely mimic the body's youthful hgh secretion : 94 results For all the reasons in a, b, and c combined, and apart from the MLM/notMLM issue, this site cannot and will not be listed. Please notice that 3 metas (myself included), 2 editalls, and 4 regular editors have already expressed their opinion in this thread. While we are all human beings and won't pretend to hold The Final Truth in our hands, it's enough for an answer to your questions about the possibility to see your site listed in ODP.
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