[rant] About a week ago, i publically advertised my new general directory Looks Like phpLD. The aim behind the promotion was to obviously attract submissions but also to raise initial awareness of a new directory skin (based on the original phpLD website). In the ongoing step to create something unique and accurate i imposed some pretty strict guidelines however easily understandable if people had taken the time to read them. One of the main guidelines and features of this new directory was the description length which has to be between 300-600 characters, hence potentially generating more unique content (compared to other directories that have the same description submitted over and over). Despite this limitation many submissions have simply copied and pasted their usual description to make up their character limit... even more suprising though is the fact that a well promoted directory (with a PS7) submitted their listing in this way (having also failed to conform to the title guidelines). The end result, a rejection email! [/rant]
People dont like change... People are creatures of habit... You might want to lower your standards a bit Or rewrite their description edit: I just submitted my dir and I followed the submission guidelines
The ultimate truth is - no matter how much you rant, nothing is going to change. Many people don't even read what is written in a post announcing a directory. They just click on the link, submit and move on to find the next directory. .
i guess submission service people! if you own a directory yourself, then you realise the importance of those 15 lines! M. PS: just submitted my site
The problem is the submission services people and others will have only 250-300 characters description rather than 600 characters description!
My favorite submissions on my directory Crafty Tips, which as the name implies requires a crafty tip; are the ones where the tip is N/A. Makes it easier for me to manage - straight to the bin with those. lol
So you think they can read? Yep, I've seen many directories submitted with total disregard for any guidelines, even pasting in their description multiple times to get the minimum length. Same goes for "professional" submission companies, the vast majority submitted to us never make it past initial review, we won't list a submission company that can't submit their own site correctly. Your guidelines don't look that bad at all, although you might want to check them as there's a couple of minor typos.
I can appreciate your attention to detail and want for a new quality web directory - From reading your posts in the past you have always seemed to try and raise "the bar" in everything that you do - The sad fact is that most of us act like we are lab rats hitting a "feeder bar" at the end of a maze. For some reason I think that people feel a great sense of accomplishment just getting their information copied and pasted into the fields and hitting the submit button. Sadly those submissions get sent straight to supplemental listing "hell" for the duration and no one profits from it. Your high standards will keep you out of the sub-mediocrity muck - but you will still have to shake it off your shoes from time to time. Keep up the great work.
I just submitted a site, might of double submitted as it timed out on me sorry, but one thing that might help is changing the character counter. Currently it is telling the submitter how many characters they have left to use but might it not be better to tell them how many they have written? Just a thought as it saves them having to do the maths.
if you really want to enforce this, i guess the best way is to validate the length of the description when user tries to submit the form.
Ok, ill have a play around with the submit page tpl and see if i can sort something out, i also want to make the error messages a bit more prominant! Im also going to change it to paid (but still allow free submission where categories haven't met the 10 listing limit).
300-600 description are very rare Sincerly i don't bother with this dirs 200-300 is the standard Regards
Just submitted my Denver Real Estate site to your real estate section. No listings there yet. I believe I followed the guidelines. There is a typo in the first sentence of your submission guidelines. I think that "as" is supposed to be a "has" Thanks!
And good for you too. All too often you have link hungry hunters just doing what they always do. Submit with no creativity and the directries that often accept these type of submissions asre the crappy directories too. We have strict guidelines - they follow through to a page that say 'Reason why we may reject your submission'. If these are not followed - The end result, a rejection email!
They chances are they probably hired someone to do all the submissions for them. That person was sitting in front of his comp for hours like a zombie and just kept on doing the same thing over and over again. So he had to get your directory out of the way and he obviously did not care about the quality nor the final result.
Well i've managed, ive cleared all pending listings... There are still quite a considerable number of categories without 10 listings, so if you have a suitable site get yourself listed! EDIT: Oh and to whoever gave me the red rep with the comment: Please learn to leave your name when posting bad rep as when people leave stupid negative rep its always nice to return the favour. Thanks