Inclusion Relativity

OK I termed a new phrase.
It applies to the hypocritical style of inclusion on the ODP. I am tired of submitting sites and getting rejections for no reason. For example you see many many examples of your type of site listed in ODP. You submit or submit a clients site and they reject you because they are not sure at the moment. Its all relative to the whims of the editors.
This is a flaw of the ODP. Attitudes, and yes I got one right now. These people are not fun to deal with.

Here is the resource-zone.com link.
http://www.resource-zone.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=status&Number=18767&page=0&view=&sb=&o=&fpart=1&vc=1&PHPSESSID=

Sometimes getting in the ODP is hard and I can sympathize with being rejected, it happens to pretty much all of us at one point or another.

Your blue segment to the right which highlights the "University of Phoenix Online" gives the impression that every page has similar content, which may be the reason. They may have thought that each page is very identical and there are only masses of pages in order to attract robots.

The links on the pages go through an affiliate, which is another thing the ODP doesn't like.

The impression is that each school listed is only promoting the school so that you get a click though on your affiliate links, and don't actually provide a unique review of the school.

Where did that PR6 come from as a matter of interest. I did a backlink search and found page from your site!?!

Darrin,

Whats you email, I have been meaning to email you with some questions. This site a project I am working on. The PR6, nice huh. Got some good friends with big websites. I really enjoy the forum you got started here. Been learning tons.

Anyway. Here is a new subject.
How is the ODP going to address websites in their listings that no longer conform to new quidelines. If you look at my resouce-zone.com post. The editor Motsa said that websites will be addressed that no longer conform to quidelines. Interesting. How are they going to do this.
Site owners are not going to be happy that there sites get lost in the listings in the next dump. Asking them to change their sites to conform to
quidelines is kinda "Big Brother" don't you think.

Anyhow, love it or hate it. ODP is still the best place to be. Its just grew to fast for its own good in my opinion.

Darrin,

You hit it on the nail with content on Online-Education. But when I did initial research into if it would be worth my time or effort to submit to ODP. I found many other sites like mine, very very similar in fact that got accepted. So I thought piece of cake, submit and I will get in. I was correct in research, but wrong in application I guess.
Oh well, not to worried, I can probably resubmit several months down the road once content builds and changes.

Ben P.

Phoenix,

You can email me through the system or at darrin@darrinward.com

Looking forward to hearing from you (or any poster)!

First of all, I think that if you have found many sites just like yours, then yours is not unique at all.

Second, yes there are some sites in the directory that probably no longer conform to the guidelines. Would you care to volunteer to go through all 4 million of them to make sure they conform each time a new guideline goes into effect?

All ODP editors are volunteers. It is hard enough just to keep up with the spam everyday. Actually, it is almost impossible. Add to that, submitters want them to go through every site every day to make sure the site still conforms to guidelines?

As far as your big brother comment goes....give me a break! Does greenguy requiring a recip link being big brother? No, it just means he won't list you. ODP just has certain rules to be listed in their directory. You don't get booted off the web for not following their rules, you just don't get listed, (for free with no recip) on their site.

Jenny,

Point taken, well put. The big brother comment all ways over generalizes everything but just makes people think.
In answer to question. No, I would rather not look through 6 million entries to find ones that are not longer valid. Who would? Thats why there are volunteers to do that and nifty programs people can write.
I personally have always been a fan of ODP, I tell people to submit there sites because its important (maybe thats a bad thing recently because yall are so busy), but its an important place to be nonetheless. It is the most complete record of unique content on the internet.
My site didn't get in, woopie. I have 3 others that have. I am not worried. It does have many affiliate links. Its a business like many others out there. A ton of sites in the ODP are all affiliate based. Sometimes its not evident but its there.

What I was really trying to get at is that. What really determines an affiliate site. Alot of business are set up this way. So what makes one website with affiliate links acceptable and one not. I think there needs to be more specific quidelines for that.
I didn't know for my site. I look at what was getting accepted and it fit my site so I submitted.
Now I know, you are going to say that in time that will be sorted out. But, with the recent huge growth of the directory, I think it should be a priority. So editors like yourself don't have to hassle with my site, because I will already know its not acceptable. It could be like cheap insurance for the directory to be more specific. We all need some insurance these days.
Thanks for your reply to post. Enjoyed your comments.
Ben

Easier said than done

I completely went through a small catagory, about 70 sites and brought it all up to current guidelines. Moved some sites that had changed, updated descriptions, titles, urls, deleted some and added some that weren't even submitted.

To properly do this, I had to go through each page of each website and it took two full days, morning to late night. Multiply that by the number of sites in the directory, consider that all this work is done by unpaid volunteers and try to look at it through our eyes.

A lot of cats don't even have active editors. We care and we do the best we can, really, but it's a huge job.

Anne

And we do appreciate the time you guys / gals spend doing this!!

Thank you!

Spoken directly from an editor on resource-zone.com in repsonse to my question.


>Any indication when there might be specific quidelines posted for affiliate sites?

The editor's guidelines. And they're very simple.

"Do. Not. List."

They do not have unique shopping content, and in the presence of the website of the REAL retailer, they do not add shopping value. They do not have unique directory content, and in the presence of the ODP they do not add navigation value.

Now a site that could be created and published and used without affiliate links, doesn't immediately get banned if it adds sufficiently inconspicuous links. But I have never seen a site that started out as an affiliate site successfully converted to a listable site. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the right hands: it just means the right hands almost certainly don't build affiliate sites first.