Forum Moderators: open
1 category has PR8 and 203 entries
1 category has PR6 and 29 entries
Both categories are applicable to the site.
Which should I post to? Any advice?
Based on SERP (theming) topic relevancy -- 203 is the favorite.
Based on DMOZ listing organization "alphabetical" order either or depending on the link anchor text.
Based on Google Directory listing organization "PR" order how many PR5's or above, either or.
Personally if you are a perfect match for both -- submit to both.
Personally if you are a perfect match for both -- submit to both.
If they are part of the same branch of DMOZ, for example Regional/California and Regional/California/San Francisco, then you are ill advised to submit to both. You can get tagged as a spammer
If you submit to too high a level, then the editor will only send it down to a lower level for review, and that, on the current state of DMOZ, could put your entry eventually getting in, back by months, some may say years)
Only submit to two categories if one is Regional and one Topical - read "The Guidelines"
[edited by: fathom at 5:16 am (utc) on Oct. 17, 2002]
Huh? Not so. It's not likely to be placed in both categories, but 2 submissions is NOT spam.
You can get tagged as a spammer
What does this really mean?
Nasa.gov 1160 listings
Microsoft 948 listings
Noaa.gov 858 listings
Amazon.com 440 listings
Google.com 92 listings
Macromedia 49 listings
and my little old self 30 listings
It would seem I am spamming with the best of them, if somewhat less capable.
Forgeting for the moment; DMOZ.org specific guidelines, TOS and policies and all the individual opinions -- I really can't see how having precisely what the visitor to that category is looking for, can be somehow interpreted as spam. Not having what they want is "spam".
Manufacturing widgets, widget research, making a widget from household products, and selling widgets are competely different topics. If these were all different categories, three of these are informative and this is one of the primary purposes of DMOZ "INFORMATION", one is purely commercial. If you approach DMOZ from a purely commercial stance (I need more listings to sell) without thought to informative content -- yes I agree you are spam.
IMO if a person looking to "make a widget" needs to look in a selling category "this would be spam" and an inferior directory.
I didn't do an exact count, but including all subcategories, I have editing power myself over roughly 70 categories. Of those, at least 60 show the "needs an editor" sign. Any on-topic submission that is reasonably straightforward to write a description for will get listed within one or two days in any of them.
>You can get tagged as a spammer
What does this really mean?
nasa.gov includes hundreds of completely independent sites. Google.com has many listings like [google.com...] which is equivalent to [google.tr...] and qualifies as a seperate turkish language site, links to usenet FAQs on Google groups, etc. The list above also doesn't only include sites from those domains, but any listing that mentions them in the description (which may be the majority).
You are advised to submit to the single most relevant category. That neither means that multiple listings are by definition impossible or wrong, nor that submitting to two seperate categories will get you tagged as a spammer. It may slightly annoy an editor who needs to move one of them to the appropriate place (where it then will get deleted as a duplicate), but the real spammers are a lot more obnoxious than that.
Any on-topic submission that is reasonably straightforward to write a description for will get listed within one or two days in any of them.
bird
Whilst I am sure that, in the case of the categories you edit, this is true....but...
I would also say that in the majority of cases for submissions it takes considerably longer than "one or two days" to get listed.
The backlog is, as I understand it 1.4 million sites waiting for a review. I would guess a lot of these are straightforward submissions.
If a submitter tries for the "wrong" category, on average, it must double the waiting time for a listing if it is then sent to another category for review.
The submitter surely must be advised to try to "get it right" first time in deciding where to submit
This may be the case with the submissions you hear about. I'm afraid there are no figures available what the average time of acceptance is, but it's certainly much shorter than the ever so popular nightmare stories might make you believe. More than 4000 sites do get listed each and every day. It's also worth to understand that the vast majority of the submissions currently clogging the unreviewed queues don't qualify for a listing at all.
Anyway, the real point I was trying to make is that the presence of the "needs an editor" sign in a category is no indicator at all as to how long it might take. Neither is the presence of a listed editor any conclusive indicator that it will go faster, of course.
The submitter surely must be advised to try to "get it right" first time in deciding where to submit
Well yes, that was my other point... ;)
the real point I was trying to make is that the presence of the "needs an editor" sign in a category is no indicator at all as to how long it might take. Neither is the presence of a listed editor any conclusive indicator that it will go faster, of course.
and...we can agree on that too. Amazing what harmony these forum discussions can tease out ;)
Microsoft 948 listings
Noaa.gov 858 listings
Another twist to this, is that of those listed above, the vast majority will not have been submitted by the webmaster, or even someone who works there. In many cases it will have been the category editor who went out and searched for useful sites on particular topics and added them in. Some sites are useful resources covering a vast subjust area, so Science/Astronomy does not just list NASAs front page, the category contains a rich sub-category structure and within this some sites are naturally deep-linked in many places. This is the exception rather then the rule.
And again, it is permissible to have one listing in Topical (by Subject) and one listing in Regional (By Location). Foreign language sites (non-English, that is) are not listed in Topical, they go in the appropriate /World category instead.
Amazon.com 440 listingsGoogle.com 92 listings
Macromedia 49 listings
and my little old self 30 listings
It would seem I am spamming with the best of them, if somewhat less capable.
You have not found 440 Amazon listings; just 440 mentions in a search; few of these are listings, and the first is an "AntiAmazon" site.
You have not found 92 Google listings, just 92 mentions; including a couple of language variations.
I agree that Macromedia has way over the top, but I suspect that is 'fan club' rather than spamming (Not that that makes it all right, it doesn't).
But, having said that, I wonder if your self-confessed spam is as useful to searchers as 49 macromedia pages?
Difference is, once you are rumbled, you'll be banned - Macromedia will simply be cut back to civilized levels.
