FAQ - Dmoz/Adult/Shopping

Archive-name: dmoz.org/Adult/Shopping
Posting-Frequency: none
Last-modified: 2006-01-13 23:00:33
URL: http://dmoz.org/Adult/Shopping/faq.html
Category: Adult/Shopping

1	What is Adult/Shopping?

1.1	What defines "primary focus"?

1.2	What about sites that only list prices in local currency?

1.3	What goes to Adult/Regional?

1.4	What goes to Adult/Business?

1.5	What goes to topical categories?

1.6	Can sites be listed multiple times?

1.7	What about chain stores with multiple physical locations?

1.8	What about computer software?

1.9	Where do non-English language sites go?

2	Ontology Issues

2.1	What about sites that sell more than one kind of product?

3	Affiliate, Mirror and Redirect, MLM and Distributor, and Template Shopping Sites

3.1	What is an Affiliate?

3.2	What are mirror and redirect sites?

3.3	What are template shopping sites?

What is Adult/Shopping?

Adult/Shopping/ contains sites of which the primary focus is to allow the consumer to select and obtain adult oriented goods and services over the Web. Common examples include:

Integrated online shopping-cart systems that allow the user to order directly over the Web
Online shopping-cart systems that allow the user to generate an order form to be sent to the merchant via fax or snail-mail
Simple directories of products and prices that the user can order via mail or phone.

The key is that the site contains three elements: lists of products for sale, prices, and information on how the consumer can obtain the product from their own home.

1.1

What defines "primary focus"?

Sometimes it is obvious that the main focus of a site is to sell merchandise, and that informational content, if any, is only present to draw consumers to the web site, or to provide support and education to users of the product.

Sometimes it is clear that sales are only a sidebar to the informational content of the site, for example a music band's home page with tour dates, discography, etc., that also provides sales of their CD, and no other merchandise.

A good question to ask yourself is, "would this organization take the time and effort to make this web site available if they were not profiting off of the sales portion." - for the overwhelming majority of sites that have a shopping component, the answer would be "no."

by sidjf at 2005-12-30 00:32:19

1.2	Q:	What about sites that only list prices in local currency?
	A:	It doesn't matter whether prices are quoted in US dollars, English pounds, or any other currency. Unless a merchant is only willing to ship to a limited area, the site should be listed in Adult/Shopping/ if it meets the criteria in item #1.

by sidjf at 2005-12-29 22:57:59

1.3	Q:	What goes to Adult/Regional?
	A:	Delivery areas: A US-based site which meets the other Adult/Shopping/ criteria as given in sections 1 and 1.1 is eligible for listing in Adult/Shopping/ if it delivers to most of the US. A non-US based site which meets the other criteria is eligible for listing in Adult/Shopping/ unless the site delivers only within the boundaries of one country. In that case, the site should be submitted to the appropriate Adult/Regional/[Region]/[Country]/Business category. A site which has a physical location but does NOT offer online shopping should also be submitted to the appropriate Adult/Regional/ category.

by sidjf at 2005-12-30 00:32:38

1.4	Q:	What goes to Adult/Business?
	A:	See the Home: Consumer Information FAQ for information about corporate websites and brand name sites.

by sidjf at 2005-12-29 23:07:45

1.5	Q:	What goes to topical categories?
	A:	Sites that have a substantial informational component of value to those interested in the topic, can be listed in a topical area (i.e. Adult/Society or Adult/Recreation.) Simply the fact that a site sells merchandise of interest solely to those interested in the topic is not sufficient reason.

by sidjf at 2005-12-29 23:09:01

1.6

Can sites be listed multiple times?

A site for a physical store that also offers online ordering can be double-listed in Adult/Shopping and in the Adult/Regional category for the Locality that it serves. In addition, for countries other than the United States, a country-level category may also contain distance-shopping sites if the prices are quoted in the local currency and the products are shipped from that country.

Because of the potential for abuse, multiple listings should be the exception, not the rule. Descriptions for shopping sites cross-listed in a topical area outside of Adult/Shopping should highlight the informational content of the site. For a site that offers shopping services to be listed outside of the Adult/Shopping/ category it must have a substantial informational component of value to surfers whether or not they purchase from that site.

Multiple listings within Adult/Shopping/, for multiple kinds of products, for example, are actively discouraged and will be very rare. See also 2.1

by sidjf at 2006-01-01 14:50:23

1.7	Q:	What about chain stores with multiple physical locations?
	A:	If the main site for the chain offers online shopping as defined in item #1, it can be listed in Adult/Shopping/ . Sites for the individual stores can be listed in Adult/Regional/ .

by sidjf at 2005-12-29 23:15:48

1.8	Q:	What about computer software?
	A:	Computer software is an explicit exception to the rule that shopping sites go to Adult/Shopping/. Sites selling these items reside in the Adult/Computers/ category. You can create subcategories for software as a temporary measure.

by sidjf at 2006-01-05 23:23:06

1.9	Q:	Where do non-English language sites go?
	A:	Sites that are not in the English language should be submitted to the appropriate Adult/World/ category. If a site is multi-lingual, and its languages include English, it can be listed in Adult/Shopping. For a multi-lingual site to be included, it should have enough English content for an English-only shopper to use the site. It should not, for example, only include an English language description of the store.

by sidjf at 2005-12-29 23:44:59

2	Ontology Issues

2.1	Q:	What about sites that sell more than one kind of product?
	A:	A company should be listed under its primary line of business - so a site that sells 75 kinds of sex toy, and 2 books, would go under sex toys. Generally a sites primary line of business can be determined by a quick scan of the contents being sold. Whatever they sell the most of is the site's primary line of business.

by sidjf at 2006-01-13 22:58:26

3	Affiliate, Mirror and Redirect, MLM and Distributor, and Template Shopping Sites
	Guidelines about the inclusion of these types of sites are covered in the "To Include or Not to Include" section of the Directory Guidelines at http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html#affiliate

3.1	Q:	What is an Affiliate?
	A:	An affiliate site gets a commission for referrals to another site. They can often be identified by the affiliate tag in the URL, AffiliateID=19555&ProductID=508. Affiliate sites, as a general rule, should not be listed. Some sites include affiliate links, often to online book or music stores. For a site with affiliate links to be listed it should offer unique content. The example given in the guidelines is a site about a band that also offers an affiliate link to purchase their CDs.

by sidjf at 2005-12-30 00:22:15

3.2	Q:	What are mirror and redirect sites?
	A:	Mirror sites contain the same content as another site, but have a different URL. As an example, John Smith has a store so he sets up johnsmith.mystore.com. To get more traffic, he then puts the same content on johnsmith.anotherstore.com. The sites are identical except for the URL. Only one URL should be listed. Redirect sites are URLs which take you to another URL. They are similar to a mirror, except that you go through the site to get to the information. As an example, when you go to johnsmith.anotherstore.com, you get taken to johnsmith.mystore.com. Only johnsmith.mystore.com should be listed. This applies to all kinds of redirects, independent of which of several redirect methods has been used.

by sidjf at 2005-12-30 00:21:44

3.3	Q:	What are template shopping sites?
	A:	There are a number of companies that offer online stores using templates and selected merchandise. These stores look very similar to one another and often sell variations of the same products. Template-based sites are permitted to be listed in Adult/Shopping/ if they contain substantial unique product content.

by sidjf at 2005-12-30 00:29:29

Help build the largest human-edited directory of the web!
Open Directory Home: http://dmoz.org/
About the Open Directory: http://dmoz.org/about.html
This FAQ: http://dmoz.org/Adult/Shopping/faq.html
Open Directory Category: Adult/Shopping

Copyright © 1998-2006 Netscape Terms of Use

FAQ - Dmoz/Adult/Shopping

Table of Contents