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The first aspect has been the elimination of the Business/Industries hierarchy, involving the promotion of some branches and the merging or subordination of others. The business sectors now represented at the second level are based loosely on classifications provided in NAICS [census.gov] and other standards. Second, editors are adopting standardization of certain terminology and taxonomy for business functions, types, and resources.
The focus of the new Business/ plan is the higher-level organization of the branch; the reorganization does not entail major changes to specific lower-level categories. I posted this here in case anyone had bookmarked a category to check on listings and received an error because it had been deleted and its contents moved elsewhere. Additionally, these changes have not yet been reflected on the dmoz.org internal search engine; hopefully, it will reindex the directory in the next few days.
As always when submitting a site to the Business/ branch, please search for the most specific category applicable to your site, and read and follow [dmoz.org...] and category-specific submission guidelines.
Just to clarify: we will see a shuffling around of categories only? Or will cats be merged, listings be moved to new cats etc?
Will be interesting to see what effects on the listings this is going to have.
Will be interesting to see what effects on the listings this is going to have.
PR too - not to steal any wind from ODP of course! Those cats seen on the home page of DMOZ have high PR. No doubt any change from there on in will change the way PR is filtered through to all those bottom level cats especially.
will cats be merged, listings be moved to new cats etc?
Most of the involved categories were moved en masse, and mostly upwards in the hierarchy. In a handful of cases, categories were merged, requiring the moving of individual listings. Please remember that work is very much ongoing, so the structure may be additionally refined moving forward, especially at deeper levels.
Here is a mapping of the old second-level categories and @links to the new (as of today):
Business_Software@ => renamed Software@
Economics@ => changed to related category
Industries => eliminated
Training_and_Schools => renamed Education_and_Training
Venture_Capital => moved to Bus/FinServ/Venture_Capital
Advertising => category merged into new Bus/Marketing_and_Advertising
Agriculture_and_Forestry@ => category promoted to Agriculture_and_Forestry
Arts_and_Entertainment@ => category promoted to Arts_and_Entertainment
Consulting => category moved to Bus/BusServ/Consulting
Energy_and_Utilities@ => link removed, category promoted to Energy_and_Environment
Environmental_and_Safety => category moved to Bus/Energy_and_Environment/Environment
Insurance => category moved to Bus/FinServ/Insurance
Internet@ => link removed
Law@ => link removed
Manufacturing@ => link removed, category promoted to Industrial_Goods_and_Services
Marketing => category merged into new Bus/Marketing_and_Advertising
Mining_and_Drilling@ => link removed, category promoted to Mining_and_Drilling
Music@ => link removed
Printing@ => link removed, category merged into new Printing_and_Publishing
Publishing@ => link removed, category merged into new Printing_and_Publishing
Retail@ => category promoted to Retail_Trade
Security@ => link removed, category moved to Bus/Business_Services/Security
Telecommunications@ => category promoted to Telecommunications
Transportation@ => category promoted to Transportation_and_Logistics
The other new second-levels are virtually all promoted from former subcategories of Business/Industries or Business/Industries/Manufacturing: Aerospace_and_Defense, Automotive, Biotechnology_and_Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals,
Construction_and_Maintenance, Consumer_Goods_and_Services, Electronics_and_Electrical, Food_and_Related_Products, Healthcare, Hospitality, Information_Technology, Mining_and_Drilling, and Wholesale_Trade.
There is a new Labor@ link to Society/Work . The other categories remain as they were before, although their position on the page may have moved.
Is this reorganization causing delays in getting new sites listed to Business subcategories?
I have noticed that the area I am trying to get into has been cleaned up, but I still am not listed. I have politely emailed three editors in the last couple of months, but I haven't seen anything happen on my listing.
I am thinking that maybe the editors are cleaning up the categories first, before adding new listings.
Is this reorganization causing delays in getting new sites listed to Business subcategories?
Just about any change of this magnitude entails some kind of delay. In the near term, editors may require more research to send a mis-directed submission to the correct destination. Senior editors who may have been looking after lonely branches will be taking time to conduct the moves-- and just as important, reviewing the category charters and submission notices to make sure they are correct.
In the long run, however, having a more consistent structure will expedite listing, as has been the case elsewhere in the directory. Also, following the submission instructions carefully helps mitigate the need to shuffle of urls from one category to another or to re-write titles and descriptions.
Overall the "delay due to volume" is the larger concern, particularly in the Business and Shopping branches. An extra pair of honest eyes and hands would be quite welcome :).
