Guest Posted July 21, 2002 Posted July 21, 2002 <blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>There's one big flaw in your argument. All the businesses you listed sell, handle, and ship the products. All but amazon have physical stores and amazon was the first to do what it does, thereby making it unique by definition. The others merely have website to support their physical locations and of course, take advantage of the net. They already have a targeted audience, no need for them to vie for placement anywhere! <p><hr></blockquote> That is not entirely true and again, must be based upon an assumption and not on research. Amazon has a relationship with one of the world's largest distributors of electronic products to handle the fulfillment of their electronics and computer products. As do many sites. So if the definition of a legitimate site is one that handles and ships their own product, then that eliminates probably 50-75% of the websites on the net as many of them do use third party fulfillment of some kind. [edited to add] So Amazon doesn't stock all it's own product. In fact, in the beginning most of their stock was drop-shipped direct from large distributors. I'm not sure how much of it still is now. [end of added portion] Even many brick and mortar stores that have websites do not handle and ship their own products. Matter of fact: Sport Chalet Dunham's Sports The Sports Authority DicksSportingGoods.com Athlete's Foot Fogdog Sports All these companie above are listed in ODP. All these websites are operated by the same company, GSI Commerce, that has made arrangements with the companies to build and market websites under their brands, in turn giving these companies a share of revenue. Now please don't go and remove them from the directory as they are great sites and should be in there, they do provide value. But it further illustrates my point about how my site was unfairly beig singled out because of the overlap in products of what I carry and what others carry. There are many more commerce segments in which this type of thing is common-- electronics and computers being another where the majority of the merchants are not stocking, handling and shipping their own product. But again, that, in and of itself, has no bearing upon that site's suitability for inclusion in such a directory.
old_crone Posted July 21, 2002 Posted July 21, 2002 Okay, I'll concede to many companies using other companies to ship their products but that doesn't change the fact that they have an affiliation with the companies. So, tell me, do those sites have unique content? Your site was singled out because you had three site that looked similar and appeared to sell similar products. That's a red flag for most editors. At least, that's what grabbed my attention. I also realize that this is a mistake new webmasters make, maybe because they have gotten bad advice, or because they just didn't know that it could look like spam. The single most problematic thing on the net is spam and it's growing by leaps and bounds! Just for the record, I see no problem with the layout of your site, in fact, it's better than most. The redirect to a shopping cart is not a problem either. The three submissions, the user name and password, the authorization number were all red flags. But I did learn something from all of this. I learned that my perception has become stilted with my experience of spammers and affiliate webmasters willing to do anything needed to get a listing. I automatically assume the worst instead of assuming the best. This will, in the future, help me to become a more understanding editor and remember to walk a bit more softly. I apologize for the role I played in making you feel like you had to jump through hoops in order to get your site approved. I stand behind the advice I offered you, it is good advice. What the editors on the ODP do with your submission is up to them. Peace
Guest Posted July 21, 2002 Posted July 21, 2002 <blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>the user name and password, the authorization number were all red flags.<p><hr></blockquote> I understand the reference to the username/password for the cart, but I don't know what you mean by authorization number
Guest Posted July 21, 2002 Posted July 21, 2002 This is ridiculous. The thread title was/is "submission status for nalasgallery.com" The answer is "it is still waiting." The END.
Guest Posted July 21, 2002 Posted July 21, 2002 <blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr><p>So, tell me, do those sites have unique content? <p><hr></blockquote> No, they really do not. But they are all listed in ODP. This is not at all related to the topic of my submission, but there is an argument for having similar sites in the directory and that is to offer the end user choice. Here's a very specific category of which I am familiar. We collect movie posters. Nearly all the movie poster sites have a 90% overlap in inventory. Most have identical pricing. There is value in being able to find all these sites in the same directory and that is choice. I may prefer one site over another for an arbitrary reason that makes no sense to anyone but me. Same with many consumers. Maybe I like the one with 24 hour ordering, maybe I want faster shipping, maybe I want a company closer to me so i can get my product faster, maybe I want a company out of state so that I don't have to pay sales tax. All things being considered, there is value in choice, even if that means that some sites do not have unique content.
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