Hello, I submitted this site under environmental blogs if I am not mistaken...The site is purely informational and I would like to know whether or not it's "listable". Would like some feedback from editors if any. Many thanks in advance
You don't need a DMOZ editor for that. You can infer whether your site is listable or it's not by looking to the actual content published in DMOZ. The have a listability guideline alse but they ignore it most of the time. Knowing about sites listed in DMOZ and taking a look to your own site I don't see anything that makes your site not listable. BUT, you have to know that submitting your URL to DMOZ is useless most of the time. A large set of categories have no editor at all and they are abandoned. Other categories are moderated by people who's using they editor privileges for self promoting their own sites and won't list any site they may think is better than theirs. And there is a set of corrupt editors accepting money for listing only certain sites and let competitors out the the directory. All this stuff you can see discussed in this very forum over and over again. Submit your site as you will only spend a couple of minutes, nothing to loose. But don't even bother to come back to see if your are listed.
i not an editor. If I was I would not list it. I had a quick look at your site .... copied some text in one post - -- searched Google for that text ... found 5 other sites with the exact same article --> assume its not going to get listed.
Every single article in the site is unique! Except for the ones that from 2008...when the site was not owned by me. I got rid of as much old content I could from the site. I am still in the process of doing it!
Put yourself in an editors shoes that did what I just did. If its not unique, you not going to get listed. If I recall, the one article from your site I checked was also on ezine ... so any editor is possibly going to see that one and not waste their time checking any more. (please remember I not an editor, so do not assume what i say is what will happen)
I do understand where you're coming from. And had I been editor myself I'd think twice before listing it too...However, 85% of the site is unique! The rest is to be gotten rid of Soon!
alistair, I tried with several articles from your site. I didn't find other sites with the exact same article on them, except for one of them. And your article was already linking to the original source. My experience with your site was 90% original content. Let's hope DMOZ editor job isn't just copy pasting text to google looking for one coincidence. Or, if it is let's hope the editor reviewing your site in a couple of years has a little knowledge about statistics and tries with more than one article.
Let's also hope that they're able to distinguish or at least make a fair determination of who "owns" his unique content. After a couple of years no doubt his content will have been scraped and plastered a number of times over.
Creed, I came across this page. Do you really not think that the banner works at all!? What I am trying to say is that...is there really no way to legitimately prove the original source of content when it comes to web sites?
What Creed says is DMOZ editors will most probably fail in detecting original source. Detecting original content is not an easy task. No matter if you are working with web sites, books, papers, or whatever. The page you've found is funny, actually. It's true. That banner can't prevent your content being stolen. The only way of protecting your intellectual property is by registering your creation with a legal authority in your country. That, before publishing. Then, if someone stolen your work and you find out, you can sue him.
I do run a registered business in Illinois and most of my sites are property of that corporation. However is there really any viable recourse if the content is stolen by someone from another country...
I'm just concerned that after a significant amount of time it will be difficult for some one to make a determination as to who may be the originator of the unique content. Content is scraped and regurgitated regularly on the web, and the search engines don't always do a very good job of ranking the results in a manner which makes it easy to determine who may be the originator of the content. It is not necessary to register your copyright in order to enforce it, as copyright exists the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form. Without registering the works you cannot sue someone for infringement and collect damages. What does copyright protect? Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed. When is my work protected? Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Do I have to register with your office to be protected? No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section “Copyright Registration.†Why should I register my work if copyright protection is automatic? Registration is recommended for a number of reasons. Many choose to register their works because they wish to have the facts of their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration. Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation. Finally, if registration occurs within 5 years of publication, it is considered prima facie evidence in a court of law. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section “Copyright Registration†and Circular 38b, Highlights of Copyright Amendments Contained in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA), on non-U.S. works. More info @ Copyright.gov There are a few sites that I'm associated with where I find myself going through the motions to have the infringing content taken down. Time consuming. Had I not gone through the motions, I could very well imagine that those sites would not have gotten listed in DMOZ. I looked today and there are a few pages where you cannot determine from the search results that the content is associated with the originating site.
Most countries around the world have subscribed the Berne treaty. http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html http://www.wipo.int/members/en/