How man sub-domains/dmoz categories is right?

Hello, how many sub-domains are allowed per domain in dmoz? In many cases such as with PR, sub-domains such as nfl.mysite.com and mysite.com are regarded as two different domains, does dmoz consider them as two different domains as well?

Can a web-site be listed in the sports news category (sports news site) and in the sports forums (forum.mysite.com)? I saw some respectable sites listed in the business category, as well some-are some-are not listed in 'regional', 'investors in early stage firms' and similar, so some PR5 PR6 sites/domains are submitted and listed in several categories. I read here at DP that 'Websites should only be listed once' and those sites with multiply listings are not some small PR0 sites trying to play tricks.

 

A more experienced editor will probably have to jump in on this because I'm not very knowledgeble about types of urls, but I'll try to guess at what your asking and give you an answer.

If by subdomain, you mean a deeplink like mysite.com/page, we always try to list the main url mysite.com. Listing mysite.com/page would be an editor decision based on the category and the usefulness of the information in the editors opinion, but it is the exception, not the rule.

If you mean two different urls for the same site, no, it is not allowed, one would be considered a mirror (identical content) of the other and deleted. Only one of them would be listed.

I'm not familiar with the Sports section of the Directory, or how forums are generally handled. I edit a watergarden category and it has a seperate subcategory for forums. It's possible that I would list the main site in the main category, and list the forum as a deeplink in that subcategory, but personally speaking, it would have to get a heck of a lot of traffic before I would do that, in this particular instance.

Editors can use their discretion in some cases, that's why we have Guidelines and not hard and fast Rules, .

Generally, we list a site only once, but there are exceptions to that rule. If a site qualifies to be listed in a topical category, like Sports, Business, Society, and if it also has a physical, brick and mortar walkin facility, it can also be listed in the Regional section of the Directory. (usually in it's locality/city)

Once in a Topical category and once in a Regional category.

If you look on a category page, up in the right hand corner you will see "Description", which means it is the Category Description. Clicking on that will tell you what the scope of that particular category is, what type of sites are accepted there, and it will probably point you to other categories where the site suggestion might go, if it doesn't belong in that one.

It's not only allowed, but editors are encouraged to send a copy of a site that's listed in a Topical area of the Directory to the Regional section, and vice versa, if the site qualifies to be in both. It's perfectly OK to be listed in both areas.

Additionally, there may be times when categories may overlap in scope, and an editor may feel that a site should (for the benefit of the web surfer) need to be listed twice within a Topical category, but those are usually rare occurances and an editor might want to get opinions from other editors if they aren't sure about it.

If a site owner has a site that qualifies to be listed in both Regional and a Topical category, and it's only listed in one, it's perfectly ok to go to the category where it is currently listed, and hit the "Update Listing" button and politely ask if a copy of the site could also be sent to Regional, or to suggest the site directly to the locality(city) in Regional for consideration.

And vice versa, if the site is listed in Regional and you believe it might qualify for a Topical listing. Only make one site suggestion to each of those areas though, don't flood the Directory with multiple submissions. If the category is incorrect, the editor will send it to the correct one. In both areas of the Directory, the editor will make the decision, so only submit once to a Topical and once to Regional.

 

Most of crowbar's post seems fine to me with perhaps a small exception

I don't think going the route of an update is the most efficient route for a topical listing to get into Regional or vice versa. That involves two editors many times ,one to look at the update and send to Regional or Topical and one to list in the opposite category. It may be that an editall plus looks at the update and can actually do the other listing. But if not that means a wait in one Q to be sent to another Q. Waste of time and, when two editors involved, waste of editor time. But to the webmaster that could mean quite a long wait for the second listing.

Better that if you are listed in topical and have a bricks and mortor base, go to the Regional town/city in which you are based, find the most appropriate sub category, and offer the site there. Likewise with Topical, if you have a Regional list but think you might also belong in a Topical category, go and offer the site to what you think is the best category for your site. Just a reminder that non-English sites go in the World section.

Hope that helps.

 

You're right, Anonymously, thanks for correcting that, you're more familiar with that aspect, .

 

As has already been said, we have guidelines, not hard an fast algorithmic rules.

In the main, we're trying to list websites, not domain names.

Websites that spread themselves over multiple domains or multiple subdomains of the same domain (for whatever reason) aren't then automatically eligible for multiple listings. Contrariwise, domains such as geocities.com host many websites and they're considered to be independent.

Subdomains come down to editorial judgement and shouldn't really be suggested. We might want to list widgets.com but we wouldn't want to additionally list blue.widgets.com and green.widgets.com . Bottom line is that we think it's the website owner's job to provide adequate navigation between the various 'sections' of a website, not ours.

If the sections are truly independent though, each might be considered separately. An example might be a farm offering B&B and mail order asparagus; we don't have a category for those . On a larger scale, we have umbrella organisations such as Virgin selling entertainment, air travel, finance and condoms (or did they dispose of the Mates brand?). We don't have a category for that combination either so it too gets multiple listings.

 

So if, lets say somesite.com is about educational tools and the likes, but it has a different area like somesite.com/something/ which is dedicated not to educational tools but to (random thought here) Internal Combustion Engines of the late 1890's to 1950's, and is a completely different site (own forums, people, news, and unrelated to educational tools) would that be considered different? Furthermore if said site had that exact same thing, not it a subfolder, but rather in a subdomain (tractorfans.somesite.com) would it still be considered seperate if the previous is true (as in the previous being seperate)? Kind of like if someone had a site (somesite) and then hosted a bunch of other friends and such's sites on his space ex. tractorfans.somesite.com summerfeildhistory.somesite.com and jacksonswar.somesite.com randomgame.somesite.com - and each site is basically not related to the original site nor is it linked but once between them all as a courtesy. just figure I'd give the most complex and detailed example I could think of and see what answer gets posted >.>

 

You can also get extra listing for different language.

I have multitopic multilanguage website which had 11 deeplinks until quality control robot (which never seems to visit adult section) delisted two.

But then those 9 deeplinks got listed before 2004 and two I've added myself while I was editor and no other deeplink got listed after 2004 in other categories which I've submitted them to or even any other unique content website!

So getting multiple listing today in DMOZ for content rich website might be very difficult unless you become at lest editall.

 

I'd deeplink to those if they were really independent, quite different (so the deeplinks were not in or around one category area or sub cats) with unique and very rich content. Sometimes happens with a skilled web builder who say adds to his business site the local scouts he runs and his wife's Brownie pack and makes them function as though they are independent sites.

 

I have seen a case where a perfectly normal company website added a completely independent MFA garbage website - their business must have gone really bad.

 

I get confused with a different kind of url like that, Jackuul, because I don't understand the difference between somesite.com/page and page.somesite.com and what it accomplishes, but those are good examples.

I, personally, don't pay too much attention to the url, except to make sure it doesn't redirect to another site when I click on it, and to check out the main url if it's somesite.com/another entity/ to see if the main url is hosting something entirely different, or if it's just one of its related pages.

Many times, you might see a webmaster hosting individual business sites he's built from his main webmaster site webmaster.com/joesbar type thing. Maybe they charge a monthly rental and maintainance fee, offer a cheaper option for having a site, or maybe it's just a way to draw in new business, I don't know.

Other than that, I would be ignoring the main url, and looking at the content on webmaster.com/joesbar to see if Joes Bar has the unique content that I'm looking for. If it does, I'll list the webmaster.com/joesbar url.

If it's nothing more than a business card type one page ad, then no, I won't list it because it doesn't have enough content.

The url is something that might cause my ears to perk up and trigger some investigation, but, it's mainly the content of that kind of deeplink that I'm interested in.

Now, a deeplink to a related page on a site, is a different animal. If somesite.com/morestuff were suggested, I would perhaps list the main url somesite.com/ (if it has what I'm looking for, and it belonged in that category) instead of the deeplink somesite.com/morestuff.

The url somesite.com/morestuff would only be listed at the editors discretion, and only for a very good reason, like the information is so good and plentiful, that it would be to the websurfers benefit to draw attention to it, in perhaps a totally different category. That would be the exception, rather than the rule, and totally up to the editor for his own purposes.

For instance, if a site is mainly a shopping site listed in Shopping, but it also has a lot of really good how-to information and lots of it, I might want to list the deeplink to that information in a hobby category located in a completely different area of the Directory, like Arts. When we see an obvious benefit to the web surfer looking for specific information, we'll list a deeplink of that type.

It has nothing to do with the site itself or it's owner, it has everything to do with the web surfer whom we serve. We're saying, "Here's the information you're searching for."