acceptance policies of ODP in different countries

[Alphons Ranner]

Dear moderator,

 

I have a problem that I suppose has not been dealt with in your guidelines. If I have overlooked it I apologize.

Some 3 months ago I started a new website, replacing a (still existing) other one for my consultancy firm.

The site is bilingual (Dutch and English) with an even make up.

As there can be only one first homepage and we operate from The Netherlands I choose the Dutch homepage the be the first and the English to be the second.

The homepage of our existing site (some 5 years old) was indexed by ODP in The Netherlands, but a request for indexation by ODP in the US (or UK) never led to a positive result. Explanations were never given.

 

I am afraid that a repetition is likely with our new site as request for indexation met with a positieve response from the Dutch moderator of ODP and no response has thusfar been obtained from the American operator.

Needless to say that our business is hurt by discriminatory policies.

What are the guidelines if any and what can we do about it?

 

Regards,

 

Alphons P.Ranner

[shadow575]

Sites in languages other than English are listed in World/, a regionally relvent site with an English content version would be considered in Regional/. So a site whose main relevance is the Netherlands (Version=Dutch) would be considered in the appropriate category of World/Nederlands/ and if an English version existed it could also be considered in the appropriate sub-category of Regional/Europe/Netherlands/. A business located in the Netherlands would not have their site listed in the UK or US because they had an English Version, they would still remain in the English Category for the Netherlands. Also depending on the topic of the site, it may be listable in the appropriate Topical Category but that determination would be up to the reviewing editor.

 

Hope that helps.

[shadow575]

I am afraid that a repetition is likely with our new site as request for indexation met with a positieve response from the Dutch moderator of ODP and no response has thusfar been obtained from the American operator.

Needless to say that our business is hurt by discriminatory policies.

What are the guidelines if any and what can we do about it?

Missed this section the first go round, but I think my previous post covers this. If your site is about the Netherlands and in English and Dutch it could be considered once in World/Nederlands and also in Regional/Europe/Netherlands. It would not be considered in the UK, US, Australia, Canda, or any other 'English' speaking country, so you are not going to see a response or a listing in the US. This is not a discriminatory policy and I fail to see how a business could possibly suffer from not having a link in any directory. Hopefully your business is not dependent on a third party directory listing to be successful?

There is information about listings in World found here: http://dmoz.org/world.html

and the Regional Guidelines are located at: http://dmoz.org/guidelines/regional/

 

Hope that helps.

[Eric-the-Bun]

You should be aware that there is not necessarily any correlation between the World areas and the nationality of the editors, particularly in the English sections.

 

Ik kan niet Nederlandse wel schrijven maar ik find het niet leuk wat U heeft gesegt dat de redacteurs onderscheiden over 'nationality'.

 

regards

[motsa]

I think his reference to "American editor" was just his way of referring to an English-language editor, not that he was submitting to a US category (at least, I hope it wasn't).

[shadow575]

The homepage of our existing site (some 5 years old) was indexed by ODP in The Netherlands, but a request for indexation by ODP in the US (or UK) never led to a positive result. Explanations were never given.

This is the part that lead me to believe there was some confusion with regards to World vs. Regional. It sounds to me as if the confusion was that if the site included an 'English' Version it needed listed in either the US or UK. I admit that I may have mis-interpretted it, but I believe (judging by the PM I received) that the response was received correctly and hopefully we have helped explain things better now.

 

Regards.

[motsa]

He's misunderstanding the scope of the Business section, thinking of it as "American" instead of "Global English-language".

[shadow575]

He's misunderstanding the scope of the Business section, thinking of it as "American" instead of "Global English-language".

Yes, I believe you are correct.

[pvgool]

Ik kan niet Nederlandse wel schrijven maar ik find het niet leuk wat U heeft gesegt dat de redacteurs onderscheiden over 'nationality'.

:confuse2:

As an editor from The Netherlands I can confirm that you can't write Dutch very well. It looks a little like Afrikaans, which is ofcourse a language with Dutch origins. But even with the small spelling mistakes it is very good to understand.

 

A little present for you :gift: :rose: :beer:

[Eric-the-Bun]

Well, I never learnt to write it :o but I've been told I speak it like a native

...though native of where is the question that puzzles most people !

[Alphons Ranner]

Acceptance policies

 

I owe a lot of thanks to members and the moderator who responded to my question. In particular the answer provided by Shadow concerning the different categories was clear. I was in error as I thought I also had to submit my site to a different i.e. English speaking moderator (no offense meant to Americans, South-Africans etc) in addition to submitting it to the moderator responsible for the dutch inclusions in the Dutch language.

 

It is also perfectly clear to me that if there are any differences in aceptance policies these will probably be minor and only have to do with personal interpretations of individual moderators (we are all human).

 

Anyhow, I have learned I have to submit my site to DMOZ regional/europe/netherlands which I will do shortly.

 

Regards,

 

Alphons Ranner