Site Specific Guidelines
- Adult Sites
- Kids and Teens Sites
- Deeplinking URLs
- Multiple Listings of an URL
- Multi-lingual Sites
- Non-English Sites
- Sites Requiring a Password
Below are guidelines that directly relate to adding specific types of sites. These guidelines will help ensure that material added to the ODP meets the directory's goals.
Adult Sites
The Adult category is designed for sites that present sexually explicit material in a manner that is inappropriate for children. It's a unique category, as it is not accessible from the front page of the ODP, and every page in the Adult hierarchy is labeled with a PICS tag to prevent appropriately configured browsers from accessing these links. The Adult category primarily (but not exclusively) contains a variety of erotica as well as sites which show, describe, or advertise explicit sex or sexual nudity with the intent to arouse, rather than solely inform or educate. See the official Adult Guidelines and the Adult FAQ for more details regarding adult content. The Adult vs. Other Categories section of the Adult Guidelines explains the distinction between adult listings and other areas of the ODP.
Kids and Teens Sites
The Kids and Teens category is an entirely separate directory with its own community structure and guidelines. Sites that appeal to people under the age of 18 may be listed in both directories.
Deeplinking URLs
Deeplinking is the process of adding links to sub-pages and sub-domains within a site.
General Rule: In the vast majority of categories and branches, deeplinking is the exception rather than the rule. Deeplinks should offer content that is unique and extremely useful to a particular category. There are no strict rules regarding the type of site that should or should not be deeplinked. Providing deeplinks, in a uniform way, to sites that offer extremely useful and unique content can add value to the directory in a few cases (e.g. categories with very limited content, and where the meat of the available web content is typically buried within larger sites). However, editors should be very judicious when adding deeplinks of a particular URL. If you are uncertain about adding deeplinks, ask an experienced editor, such as a meta or an editall, for advice or guidance. Ultimately, all deeplinking decisions are subject to staff approval.
Multiple Listings of an URL
Most sites will fit perfectly into one category. ODP categories are specialized enough so that in most cases you should not list a site more than once. If a site offers many different things, it should be listed in a more general category as opposed to listing it many specialized subcategories. A site must be directly relevant to the scope of the category in which you are listing a site. Consult category charters to determine a category's topical scope. For example, if you have a site on US History covering the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Presidents, you should not list it in each one of those subcategories, but rather list it in a general category such as Society: History: By_Region: North_America: United_States.
There are a few occasions in which a site could be listed in more than one category.
- Sites that are relevant to a subject category and a specific local geographic area. Many sites can be listed once in a topical branch of the ODP, and once in the Regional category.
- Sites aimed at people under 18 years of age may be listed once in the Kids and Teens Directory, and once in another topical area of the ODP.
- Sites that have true research value and/or cover a number of different subjects across the directory to such a degree that one category isn't sufficient in describing the site's contents.
However, multiple listings should be the exception, not the rule. Editors should never delete a listing from a topical category simply because it is already listed in Regional. Likewise, editors should not delete listings from the classic version of the ODP because they also appear in Kids_and_Teens.
Non-English Sites
Sites in languages other than English should be listed in the most precise equivalent category under World/<language>. A non-English listing in a category outside of World should be moved to the appropriate World category. For example, a Spanish language site in the Arts: Music: Bands_and_Artists Unreviewed category should be forwarded to the World: Español: Artes: Música: Bandas_y_Artistas Unreviewed category. If you can't determine which category a site should be sent to, you can send it to the appropriate top World/(Language) Unreviewed category with a note in the ODP Note field notifying the World editors of the move.
English language categories usually include links to a corresponding World category. To add links to an equivalent category in World, click on the "Edit Alternative Language" link on the category edit page. Input the category path in the text box, then click on the Update button. The link will appear as the name of the language on both the category's edit and public category pages.
Multi-lingual Sites
If a site's content is available in more than one language, the site may be listed in more than one language category. For example, if a site is in English, German, and French, the site may be listed in an English-only category, World/Deutsch, and World/Français. When listing a multi-lingual site,
- list the URL for the "doorway" page that provides links to all the language editions; OR
- list the language-specific URL only if the doorway links to the individual language editions are not obvious.
http://www.service-public.fr/ may be added to the appropriate category World/Français and to the appropriate category in the English-only part of the directory (e.g. Regional: Europe: France: Government).
Sites Requiring a Password
All sites must be reviewed before they are listed and those that require a password are no exception. You may wish to contact the site's owner for a password, explaining that without one, the site will not be listed. Some Adult sites use an Adult Verification Service to control access. If you come across such a site, then please contact one of the top-level Adult editors, or a meta editor, for help on how to deal with it.
Any password you get for reviewing a site, be that from a higher level editor or directly from the submitter, should be kept confidential, not listed in the editor notes, and in any case never disclosed outside the ODP community. Misuses of a password entrusted to you for the purpose of review may result in removal of your editing privileges.