incrediBILL - 3:09 am on Feb 10, 2007 (gmt 0)

I forgot one thing...

The only TRUE signal of quality, IMO, is if they intend to spam you or not.

Many directories are just fronts to collect email addresses and you should always use a different email address when you register per directory so you can quickly filter out the bad ones. Although I run a directory, I'm not naive to what others do, and it's certainly easier to get rid of spam by just setting "xyzdirectory@mydomain.com" to bounce than it is to change your primary email address.

no directory needs your email on a long term basis (except periodical pay for entry directories).

That would be an opinion and incorrect.

My site uses the email address in several ways, starting with validate the submission and as the user ID in order to edit the submission latter. Additionally, the email address is also another method to determine if the site is still active many months later.

By sending out a quarterly email to confirm a valid email account works well when used in tandem with link checking scripts. Considering how many domains end up in domain parks or porn sites, and my link checker can't detect them all, a bouncing email is another signal the site is no longer used by the original owner. If the email bounces, the account is deactivated for manual review, as the account owner can no longer maintain the account since the email address is used to edit and validate the submission.

Besides, we add new features a couple of times a year, and some features require people to upgrade their submissions in order to participate in new features. It's kind of hard to notify them that they need to update their submission without an email address.

Like I said in my previous post, there are LOTS of reasons why many directories do many things with a lot of misinformation about why certain practices are bad. You can't lump any single practice into a signal of poor quality unless you understand why sites do these things in the first place.

Just protect yourself from bad sites and let good sites do what needs to be done without stigmatizing them needlessly.

Back to running my crap site...