De-listing from Directories

What is the Policy?

[McMohan]

I am an active editor of a directory and I got a request from a person to de-list the website he had submitted for whatever reason. The listing is a free one without any reciprocal linking obligation. What is the course of action in such cases? Should I remove his site as he requested since he is the one who had submitted the site? Am I obliged to carry out his request?

P.S: Apparently he is not the site owner, but may be an SEO who had submitted his client's site. Now perhaps his contract is over and doing the unethical thing by asking to remove the site.

[Genie]

Surely that will depend on the policy of each specific directory? If there is no guideline on this for the directory in question, why not ask the owner or someone senior? The Open Directory does not remove sites on request, but some other directories may do.

[windharp]

If it's a large directory, you should check that in the internal discussion groups of the directory you are editor in. If it's DMOZ, the answer is "No, please don't delist.", more information will surely be given on a request in the internal forums.

A lot of directories don't delist sites per Request, if they still have the original content. The main reason is very obvious when you have read enough about some SEO who think hurting the competition is easier than improving your own site.

My personal view: As long as someone puts content in the internet, he should be aware that other prople may link to that content. If he does not want others to find it, he should either not publish it or protect it with a password.

[PatrickDeese]

I would suggest that you request that an email be sent from the domain itself.

It might be, as you suggested, that the SEO is taking revenge on an ex-client, or it could be that your directory listing is beating the listed domain for its own name or somesuch.

[mrdch]

For whatever is worth, Gimpsy's policy is to ALWAYS de-list upon request, provided that the request is from a person who is a verified site owner (email from [e-mail] is good enough to prove ownership... ) Never mind the legality of the request. Why fight to keep the site listed? Just waste of time and energy, IMO.

[windharp]

email from [e-mail] is good enough to prove ownership...

Just a single e-mail without a confirmation system? I am sure some people will like to hear that. I regularly receive spam which has my own e-mail as the sender, so it surely won't be hard to fake the sender to be [e-mail] for any site.com...

[McMohan]

Thanks for the replies.

Surely that will depend on the policy of each specific directory

The directory has a policy to de-list/edit the site incase the nature of business has changed or site is expired, but no mention of de-listing based on the submitters' request.

If it's DMOZ, the answer is "No, please don't delist."

No, its not dmoz.

I would suggest that you request that an email be sent from the domain itself.

For whatever is worth, Gimpsy's policy is to ALWAYS de-list upon request, provided that the request is from a person who is a verified site owner

This makes for a good discussion, trying to understand the fundamentals of directories. Are the directories there for servicing the webmasters/site owners or for public? Aren't they suppose to be user suggested collection of websites for the public consumption?
Given that, there is no policy formulated and published towards this aspect, what are legal repurcussions of executing/not executing this particular request, even if it were requested by the site owner?

Thanks for putting in your thoughts.

[windharp]

Aren't they suppose to be user suggested collection of websites for the public consumption?

Not necessarily "user suggested", IMHO the source does not matter - but I agree to the rest. The primary target audience of a directory should be the visitors.

[hutcheson]

>what are legal repurcussions of executing/not executing this particular request, even if it were requested by the site owner?

None, and that's regardless of who requested it.

[McMohan]

Thought so hutcheson. Thanks for conforming it.

[CityTownInfo]

Person asked to be listed and then changed his mind. Listing is free. Well not really. You spent time to read submission request, check site in question, add site, read retraction request, and etc.

Personally would ignore request to remove link if link is pertinent, informative or belongs (would look odd to remove it).

If he really really wants to remove site ask him for financial compensation for wasting your time.

[dataguy]

We normally comply with such requests as long as they pass the smell test. After all, we're in business to serve, not to be served.

It seems that in the past month there has been a significant increase in these requests, so we started asking the webmasters why they wanted to be de-listed. The few who responded told us that they "heard" that getting too many links could get you penalized in Google, so they were reducing their in-bound links. Where do they come up with this stuff?

Our experience is that nearly 50% of the time the webmaster will be back to try to get re-listed.

[Andreals]

In three years of running a free directory with many thousands of links (more than 50K now) I have received exactly three delisting requests. These seemed to be people who mistakenly thought that being in my directory hurt them with Google. I immediately complied in each instance.

I have not gotten any delisting requests with this recent Bourbon commotion but if a spate of them arrive I will probably have better things to do than soothe the paranoia of deluded SEO's and site owners.

So sue me.

A.

[hutcheson]

If you envision the directory as a webmaster service, then obviously you'd want to remove listings as webmasters requested -- as you say, it is a small enough service but if it is what they want, that's good enough. And, of course, the only conceivable legal issue is -- did you do what you promised to do for your customers?

The ODP was conceived as a service for surfers, so we look almost anywhere, and take almost anybody's suggestion, for sites that might help surfers. That we only list suggested sites, and that only webmasters suggest sites, are both unfortunate myths focusing on tiny backwaters and ignoring the main currents of the project.)

So from our standpoint, once we find out about a site, all that matters to us is whether it's useful for surfers today. We don't care who wants us to list it, or delist it, or keep it listed, or keep it unlisted. So we don't care, or bother to try to find out, whether a suggestion comes from a webmaster. The only question is: is it a GOOD suggestion for OUR customers?

[Andreals]

So from our standpoint, once we find out about a site, all that matters to us is whether it's useful for surfers today. We don't care who wants us to list it, or delist it, or keep it listed, or keep it unlisted. So we don't care, or bother to try to find out, whether a suggestion comes from a webmaster. The only question is: is it a GOOD suggestion for OUR customers?

A fine way to do business. I wish I'd said that and if I get delisting requests (none yet) I will repeat some version of it (if I reply at all). Thanks!

A.