How to get a new ODP category added

[Marcia]

A site I work with has an ODP listing for a business type in a geographic location, but the category is completely incorrect. It's like having a listing for widget sellers in the widget category of Carrot_Town, when it's actually a widget site in Cabbage_Town. In this case the first is a tiny little suburb that happens to have a category, and the second is a huge, thriving region with a dynamically growing population and economy - that has no category, and neither do the many cities within it.

The site in question has a listing in the category that's close geographically but completely inaccurate - it doesn't even serve that little town, has no intention of doing so, and isn't located there. The ODP listing is totally irrelevant to the site itself.

The editor obviously knows the area and put it in the closest geographically, which is understandable and logical, but in actual fact the correct one is far more deserving of a category of its own - it's the equivalent of a major city, even though it's comprised of a number of incorporated cities

How can a new category be added when it's fitting and appropriate and would meet user demand?

[choster]

There are many rules and geographically-specific conventions which determine where and when sites are listed in the Regional branch of the ODP.

Sites for businesses in the US, Canada, and Australia are typically placed in the most specific category, regardless of the scope or area of service. IBM is listed in Regional/.../New_York/.../Armonk alongside local seafood shops and real estate agents. A site for a whole chain of restaurants or other establishment with multiple physical locations across cities but within one state might be placed at the state level.

That said, areas such as you describe might fall under two basic types of headings. In the U.S., "Metro_Areas" are defined according to listings for "micropolitan" and "metropolitan" areas defined by the Census Bureau, whereas "Regions" are rather looser and may be based on classifications created by historians, tourism promoters, or development agencies.

But in either case, some editor must take the initiative to create the category. For Regional/.../United_States one is best off contacting the editors listed for the state in question with the case for creating the new category, citing sites suitable for listing in the region itself (such as a chapter civic organization or government agency) whether new or already listed.

In some cases, editors have already discussed the merits and demerits of subregionalization and decided against it. For example, a neighborhood in New York City which might have its own postal code and the population and gross economic output of a hundred small towns upstate will still not be organized as a separate "locality" because the effort to locate a physical addresses on a map to determine if a business were south of some street or had a view of some landmark would not be worth the added benefit.

Competing visions for the Regional branch constitute some of the longest-running feuds within ODP. In the long run, most editors have pinned their hopes on a very experimental geo-coding system being added to the database.

[motsa]

Keep in mind, though, that if the area you're talking is similar to the Metro Area categories that choster mentions (where the region covers a number of suburbs or incorporated cities) and the business you are talking about in particular only has one office/location in that "metro area", it will only be listed in the appropriate locality category, not in the metro area category. If the locality category where it is listed now is not the place where the business is physically located, then you can always submit an Update URL request (when the system is available again after July 21) asking that the site be moved to the correct locality (if the correct locality doesn't exist yet, then mention what that new locality should be) -- don't slip in any other changes to the listing's title or description with the same update request.

[John_Caius]

In addition, if the town doesn't yet have a category then sites located in that town are often listed at the next level up. When enough sites within the town have accumulated, some editor hopefully will get around to creating the town subcategory. It's unusual for a site to be listed in a neighbouring town just because the correct one doesn't have a listing - how obvious is the location on the site?

[RFranzen]

Good answers! I'd like to add a couple of general comments.

Regional listing logic is awkward -- that's not a criticism, just fallout from the messy way humans overlap their geography. In the US and Canada there are states or provinces, regions, counties or parishes, metro areas, and localities. Add to the mix districts, islands, reservations, townships, etc., and it's a wonder anyone knows where anything should be. Hence the "feuds" mentioned by Choster. There is no One Right Answer.

A fuzzy answer will likely be available one day. With an enhanced database and search function, Regional will not be restricted to a web of static pages. A user could visit a given county and, say, access the Education link. The static Education page for that county might only have 2 listings. Imagine an [Expand] button at the top of the page. Clicking it would perform a search, and a dynamic page would be displayed of all education listings of every locality within that county (including the listings actually at the county level).

That's just one possibility of what geo-coding might accomplish. As far as I know, a formal design has not yet been completed. But now you know why many editors have "pinned their hopes" on such a capability.

Marcia, if you don't get a response from the editors Choster suggested, you can post a suggestion on the "Bugs and Features" forum at Resourze-Zone. (I'd post a link, but you'd just have to delete it. :)

-- Rich

[artson]

Just to add further information to the working methods of (one) ODP Regional editor.

I like to add localities. It enhances the area's web presence and in creating the locality, a good description of the locality's industry, location including highways and landmarks such as rivers and lakes, history and the pronounciation of its name adds to total knowledge on the 'net.

That being said, I hate to add one-website-localities and will spend a great deal of time searching for four or five more sites to add to the locality. I'm very particular about the type of site I'll use to create a one-website-locality. From experience I've a fair idea about the permanence of websites and am pessimistic about many that might surprise you.

It's a sad fact that rural localities are withering and fading away, while large urban areas keep expanding and absorbing surrounding communities. Urban sprawl and rural blight keep us busy re-configuring locality categories.