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Thanks
ArturX
Sorry your question has gone unanswered for so long. I haven't had any personal experience with this, but have heard that in fact Yahoo doesn't like sites like the one you're describing.
Has anyone had any experiences with this? Any information would be appreciated.
And welcome to WmW ArturX.
I've personally had a site hosted at a free provider accepted within 5 days (free submit) and a friend has 2 incredible information sites at a free provider (a *very* stable one) that I'll be submitting for her. Will they be accepted? Because of the content, most likely - but ONLY if we double-check that all of Yahoo's other criteria are met prior to doing the initial submission.
I can understand possible reluctance on Yahoo's part, because of the instability of some sites on free hosts, as well as the instability of some free hosts themselves. I've seen sites start on free hosts and move to domain sites -requiring Yahoo to make a change. I've also come across many sites that had been hosted with free providers - graphics site, for example - that totally disappeared, when looking for them from my bookmarks, and then they showed up at some other free provider. More Yahoo changes.
Also, some free providers disappear altogether, or start charging, causing a lot of people to flee to other free providers. More Yahoo changes.
Yahoo listings are permanent (for the most part) and the staffing they would have to do to accommodate the volume of changes that occur with free hosting would be mind-boggling. They'd have to charge $1000, not $199 for Business Express then, and still, they would never be compensated for the enormous number of changes necessary for sites where Biz Exp is not necessary. If they did not exercise caution, it could end up that every single site submitted would have to be charged for, right down to cat-lovers hobby sites. This would not only be prohibitive to consumers, but deprive the public of many fine sites that are now included in the Yahoo directory at no charge to the submitter.
In a sense, the Business Express people are now financially subsidizing the people who submit at no charge, and it's my personal belief that Yahoo is being completely responsible and more than fair with their policies.
It's also easier for them to deal with any possible bait_and_switch tactics if used, since there's literally no way to track down the site owner with free providers without taking legal recourse. Again, more correspondence and more editor changes required, incurring more staffing costs. I imagine they might feel they're more likely to deal with responsible, serious webmasters if they favor domain-hosted sites.
Another factor is that sometimes people violate Terms of Service at free providers, perhaps unaware, and it's unlikely those would be included at Yahoo directory, even if the people use Biz Express. I'm only guessing on this, but I know of individuals who have done free commercial sites at Geocities. Those are not legal according to Geocities' TOS. Would they get accepted, even through Businesss Express? I seriously doubt it.
If we want to do a free submission, we need to follow their guidelines to the letter, read thoroughly at a forum such as this one to ensure we're doing everything possible to have our site acceptable, and choose the free provider very prudently, always keeping Yahoo's guidelines in mind, as well as choosing a provider with a proven history of stability.
I'm familiar with the provider you're currently using, and while yours may be non-commercial, that provider is known to be mostly for commercial sites. In addition, the sites are enclosed within a top frame, the content of which is VERY commercial. That, imho, is no help to you. In your place, I'd move one of the sites elsewhere, double check for meeting Yahoo requirements, and see if you have any better luck with it.
"Effective August 15, 2001, the WebJump site and all sites hosted by WebJump are no longer available."
This is why imho it's understandable if it's true that they're at all reluctant to list sites at free hosts. That would be an awful lot of dead links in the directory to have to remove or change now.
