No site is guaranteed placement in the directory, and the project depends on editors using good judgment when adding content. The goal of DMOZ is to be most comprehensive directory of quality Web sites. This goal extends to the Adult branch. Given the broad scope of the directory, this section focuses mostly on what editors should not include.
Remember, this list is an addendum to the Sites To Include or Not To Include section of the general DMOZ Guidelines. Editors should use both sets of guidelines to drive their site listing decisions.
Note: When adding an URL, the link should resolve to the site's adult warning page when present.
Affiliate Sites
Sites that (for example) sell products or services provided by another company and make a small margin on the sale. These are sometimes called reseller or franchise sites. They may seem to have unique content, but the product descriptions and/or images come from elsewhere. In general do not list affiliate sites unless the affiliate has strong, high quality content of its own that end-users will find really useful.
Doorway Sites
Sites that do nothing more than link to another site and have absolutely no content of their own are doorway sites. Many Adult webmasters obtain multiple domains and use most of them simply to point or redirect to a single main site. Do not list these sites.
Redirects
A redirect is conceptually similar to a doorway site in that they link to a different site. The difference between the two is that the redirect link is automatic; the user is taken to the new site without having to click anything. It is easy to miss this. Never list redirects.
A unique type of redirect site is one that appears fine in DMOZ, but once a downstream data user like AOL picks it up, the site redirects to content that we would otherwise not list. These are also easy to miss, and in order to catch this kind of spam, Adult editors need to work as a team. Here is the procedure for handling these kinds of redirects when they are found:
- Post the link in the Adult forum so other editors can verify your findings
- Every one of these links requires second opinions. Do not delete these sites until you've had another editor verify the redirect on the downstream directory/search engine. If you are delete these sites without consulting with your fellow editors, you will risk losing your editing privileges
- A Meta, Editall, or CatMod has final say on what to do with these sites. Once any one of these editors has verified the redirect, you may remove the site. Send the site to Test: See Editors Notes Adult (DMOZ editor account required)
Mirror Sites
These have exactly the same content as another site (which we'll call the main site). They may exist to provide users with faster access to information (e.g. having a mirror of a US site on a server in Europe), or simply be much like doorway sites. In any case, they are not to be listed. If you can determine what the main site is, and it is not listed already, then list that, but delete any other mirrors that might be listed.
Advertising
Many Adult sites, particularly image galleries, can have a fair share of affiliate banner ads, full-page ads, and/or consoles. The guidelines for handling sites with advertising and affiliate links are as follows:
- Do not list sites where advertising and affiliate links overpower actual content. These include sites where console(s) appear on top of the actual window for the site being reviewed. Make this determination on a per site basis rather than per page basis. Many sites have banner intensive splash pages and full-page ads, but the actual content pages include few banner ads and affiliate links. These may be OK to list
- The link to a site's actual content should be easy to find on the site's main page, and appear obvious to the average, reasonable end-user. If you are having difficulty finding the content, then the average user will as well. So, there is no point listing the site
- Do not list sites that crash your browser. Re-check the sites if they are submitted again. The problem may have been fixed
- Do not list sites that repeatedly open a new banner, console or full page ad window (e.g. when you close a window a new one opens)
Image Gallery Sites
These are all listed in the Image Galleries categories. Listings in Image Galleries categories should further the DLOZ goal of having high-quality, content-rich categories for a wide variety of niche topics.
Taking the content as a whole for covering a niche topic, DMOZ strives to have:
- Images that are diverse and of high quality.
- A large number of images.
- Images from a wide variety of sources (rather than from only a few domains, or multiple listings from the same domain).
- Images of various types: membership, AVS, and free.
In selecting individual sites for a category, editors should look for ones in which:
- The site is rich in content and high in quality.
- The images on the site do not represent the same model(s) in the same photo set as other listings in the category.
- The images are not overwhelmed by advertisements, affiliate links, or other promotional material.
- There are not excessive or aggressive entrance/exit consoles.
- Links within the site contain link text and link graphics that do not mislead users about the content at the link's destination.
- When the user points a cursor over each link, the status bar (or mouse-over display, if provided) shows the destination url accurately.
- Each listing provides substantial unique material to the category. The same pictures may exist on more than one site (e.g. third party licensed/sponsored content) as long as each site contains substantial unique content that would not otherwise be represented the category.
- The URL listed resolves to a warning or entry page when one is present on the site. The URL should not bypass a warning/entry page, and editors should check to see if one is available if the submitted URL resolves directly to the actual content.
Other considerations:
- Acceptable content for a listing must include images, but may include adult stories, jokes, interactive games, links to other sites, and or other content deemed valuable by the editor reviewing the site.
- Sites with fewer than 20 images are not listed except in circumstances where the images offer something truly unusual and exceptional.
- Sites with 20 or more images, but whose content is minimal based on the standards given above, are not listed in categories where the goal of a high-quality, content-rich category can be achieved by listing only higher-quality material.
- Single Page Image Galleries: These are sites that consist of a single page, with direct links to a set of images. Sites of this type are not listed in the directory, because their content tends to be transient.
Sites on non-Adult Hosts
Avoid listing sites that will tend to be removed from a non-Adult host for Terms of Service violations. Many popular free web hosts have policies that apparently prohibit much Adult material, and the hosts are quick to remove these sites as soon as they notice the material. Adult photo, or Image Gallery sites are especially quick to be removed, and should not be listed. There are free web servers that allow Adult material.
However, there are popular Adult Literature sites on mainstream free web hosts that have been up for years. These sites tend not to violate their hosts' policies. In any case, the sites stay around. List those sites that you believe will not disappear from these non-Adult free servers.
Finally, not all sites in the Adult category violate even the most strictly enforced "no Adult sites" policy. Some sites that are suitable to non-Adult audiences have been placed under Adult because they are most useful to users of Adult categories (for example, a site on the care of latex clothing).
Link Pages
Add only those link pages (AKA Web directories) that offer an alphabetical or categorized list of links with some descriptive information. Since this is a directory, you should mine these pages for sites to add to DMOZ rather than publishing them. When mining link pages, the descriptions you create should not be copied from the site. Link pages and directories should be added to Adult: Computers: Internet: Searching: Link Sites and its subcategories. Do not add sites that contain links to banner farms. The requirements vary with the type of link site. The individual link site category standards can be found in each respective category charter. These have been agreed upon by editor discussion and consensus.
Link sites are not permitted to contain:
- More than one Full Page Advertisement.
- More than one pop-up console window.
- A combination of a Full Page Advertisement with a pop-up console window on the same website.
- Excessive text / banner / graphic advertisements.
- Any blind / misleading links.
- Any forms of deceptive traffic creation / manipulation.
- Any automatic downloads.
To ensure surfers find sites of value, listing criteria requires that editors only list to what is deemed sufficient, unique, and quality content. Webmasters must regularly maintain and update their link sites and be actively adding new links.
Non-English Sites
Sites in another language should be moved to the appropriate category under Adult: World. If you can't identify the language, move the site to Adult/World. Multi- lingual sites (English plus one or more other languages) may be listed in Adult and Adult/World. If the site belongs in your cat, add it, then make a copy to Adult/World. This can be done by half-adding the site (copy/paste the URL, title and description), and moving it to the appropriate category under Adult/World (or simply by using the "Copy Listing" feature).
Outside of Adult/World all descriptions must be in English. Within Adult/World descriptions should be in the language of the Adult/World category. Please refer to the documentation for the Adult/World category and the General Guidelines for more information.
Sites Requiring Membership/Password
All sites must be reviewed entirely in order to describe them correctly before they are listed, and those that require a password are no exception. This includes pay sites, dialer sites, and sites using an AVS.
Viewing AVS sites requires you have a user ID and/or password for that particular AVS. Many AVSs have provided DMOZ with special accounts for use with their services. If you require such a password then please contact one of the top-level Adult/ editors, a catmod or a meta editor, all of who have access to the password database. You may request one from the submitter only if there is no account available for DMOZ editors.
Viewing dialer site content requires you gain access to the actual content area. If a submitter has not supplied a means to access the membership content, you may request one from the submitter. Some dialer software offered for download on this kind of site all connect to the same central area of a dialer network, thus making all the "sites" affiliated to the network just doorways to the same content. You should be careful to list only those sites whole dialer software connects to a custom content area, and are therefore offering unique content. If any two dialers connect exactly to the same content area, then you should list the best site. If you are affiliated with one of the sites, then you may list your site. However you should also list the other site that is not yours.
Viewing membership sites requires you have a user ID and/or password for that particular site. If a submitter has not supplied a user ID with the URL submission, you may request one from the submitter, sign up for your own personal membership, or if you know an editor with a membership, ask him/her to look at it.
The way you go about getting legitimate access to a dialer or membership site for review purposes is completely up to you. However, if you decide to ask the submitter for a user ID, keep these points in mind:
- Let the submitter know that in order to get listed in the directory, we need to view the content of the site
- Kindly request a user ID for review purposes only. Request a temporary one at first, since we do not guarantee any site will be listed
- If you decide to list the site, you may consider requesting a permanent ID for review purposes. In order to keep the site listing up-to-date, let the submitter know you may want to visit the site again, and a permanent ID of some sort would be beneficial so you won't have to ask repeatedly for a temporary ID. Under no circumstances should you demand a user ID from a submitter, or you use your position as an DMOZ editor to trade a site listing for a free user ID. This is considered a conflict of interest, and will result in removal of editing privileges.
- If the submitter gave you a permanent user ID, and you decide not to list the site after viewing it, you should let the submitter know so they can cancel any IDs issued to you
- The username and password should never be placed in editor notes. This potential for abuse is too great.
In the above cases, if access to content cannot be obtained, do not list the site. Please note that the above requirements apply only to new submissions, and not to currently listed sites.
Please bear in mind that any password you will 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, not shared with other editors who don't need to review that site, and should never be disclosed outside the DMOZ community. Site or AVS passwords are given to editors for review purposes only. Use of these passwords for personal purposes, or sharing them with others, is grounds for removal of editing privileges.