• Purpose of the List
• How to Use the List
• Maintaining the List
• Enforcing Use of the List
• Preferred Term Index
  • Academic Departments
  • Articles
  • Chats and Forums
  • Conferences
  • Directories
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Events
  • FAQs, Help, and Tutorials
  • Fan Art
  • Fan Fiction
  • Fan Pages
  • Fan Works
  • Guides
  • History
  • Image Galleries
  • Internet Service Providers
  • Journals
  • Magazines and E-zines

  • Mailing Lists
  • Maps
  • News and Media
  • Newspapers
  • Opposing Views
  • Organizations
  • Personal Pages
  • Recordings
  • Research
  • Resources
  • Reviews
  • Schools and Instruction
  • Search Engines
  • Software
  • Travel
  • Trivia
  • Web Rings
  • Webcams

Purpose of the List

The purpose of this list is two-fold. First, it was created to help editors decide on the appropriate terms to use when grouping sites that are related to one another by their form (e.g., Chat Rooms and Message Boards, News, Directories). This supports an DMOZ Guideline for choosing subcategory names:

"Where a category's resources are related to one another by their form (e.g., Chat Rooms and Message Boards, News sites, Directories), a good subcategory name usually uses the word that is used most frequently in other areas in pertinent top category."

This Preferred Term List saves the editor a significant amount of time and labor wading through categories to find the "most frequently" used term. It centralizes the most appropriate and frequently used terms for categories of sites that are grouped together based on their form. Secondly, this list was created to help editors interested in standardizing their subcategories to identify what terms need to be replaced and what terms to use as replacements.

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How to Use the List

For each term, there is a "Preferred Term" listed in bold face. Underneath you'll see a brief description and information about the scope of the term. Below that, you'll see a list of "Use ___ instead of:" terms. These terms actually come from the directory, and although some might be outdated, they should give editors an idea of what type of terms need to be replaced. This means that if you are using any of these terms in your category, you are encouraged to change the category name to the Preferred term. Changes should be made in the appropriate Rename/Move/Delete/Sort Requests thread in each forum.

Also, remember the guideline which suggests that "Helpful subcategory names do not repeat the name of the parent category". Thus, when applying these preferred terms, it is generally best to avoid prefixing the preferred term with all or part of the parent category name. Thus, use Sports: Events rather than Sports/Sporting_Events.

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Maintaining the List

While staff has established this list, it is expected that the community will be responsible for its future growth, development and management. Admins will maintain that list in its current form, but changes will not be made without agreement from the community. Editors should start and maintain a running Ontology thread about the maintenance and development of this list. Admins will monitor the forum and update the list as necessary.

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Enforcing the Use of Preferred Terms

While editors are not required to use the terms on this list for category names, they are highly recommended in order to create a consistent, predictable, and standardized taxonomy. Editors are encouraged to use this list, in the interest of uniform searching across the directory, but it's up to the editors as to when it's appropriate to use a variation of a term or phrase when that makes sense for a particular category. Category editors should consult top level, editall, meta, or even admin editors if they have a question about when a term is appropriate. Upper level editors should also promote the use of the Preferred Term list within their categories.

In addition, editors in some large Directory branches have agreed to use branch-specific preferred terms for their categories. In the case of disagreement between terms in this list and those in branch guidelines, editors are encouraged to use the branch specific term. For example, the Regional template uses Maps_and_Views and Guides_and_Directories rather than the terms in this list. It is recommended that editors become aware of any category naming conventions in areas where they edit.

Branch-specific Preferred Terms:

• Regional Template Topical Subcategories
• Regional Template Topical Subcategories - British English
• Shopping">Shopping - Preferred Categories

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Term Index

Academic Departments

See Education

Articles

See News and Media

Chats and Forums

Scope: Use for groups of sites that include links for interactive, real-time online chat rooms, bulletin boards, discussion groups, and message boards.

See Also: Mailing Lists

Conferences

Scope: Use for formal and informal conferences, meetings, trade shows, workshops, and associated events. Use Events for sporting, social recreational, or entertainment gatherings only.

See Also: Events

Directories

Scope: Use for sites containing alphabetical or classified lists of resources covering a particular subject area. Directories is used in place of Guides for sites which provide a straight list of sites, sometimes with a brief description and not, generally, including additional information.

See Also: Guides | Resources | Search Engines

Education

Scope: Use as a broad term covering all educational aspects of a topical area, including lists of schools, curricula, courses, syllabi; as well as sites intended for students. The narrower term may be used as a subcategory or it may stand alone. If they are stand alone categories there should not be an Education category.

Academic Departments

Scope: Use for lists of Academic departments.

Use Academic Departments instead of:

• Academia

Schools and Instruction

Scope: Use for lists of schools; as well as training and instructional programs in applied and non-academic areas. Schools and Instruction can be a stand alone category or it may be a subcategory under Education.

Use Schools and Instruction instead of:

• Courses and Schools
• Major Schools
• Schools
• Schools and Training Centers

• Schools and Training Institutions
• Training
• Training and Schools

Employment

Scope: Use to list all career and employment sites for the topical area, including job listings.

Events

Scope: Use for sporting, social, recreational, or entertainment gatherings only. For organized meetings, Use Conferences.

See Also: Conferences

FAQs, Help, and Tutorials

Scope: Includes collections of FAQ, Help and Tutorial sites on a particular topic.

Fan Art

See Fan Works

Fan Fiction

See Fan Works

Fan Pages

Scope: Use for sites that were created by and for enthusiasts of a particular topic, person, organization, etc.

See Also: Fan Works

Fan Works

Scope: Use as an umbrella category, which may include the narrower terms as subcategories. Fan Fiction and Fan Art can also stand on their own as categories if Fan Works is not being used.

Guides

Scope: Use for web sites that provide guiding information on a subject or about a place, example, travel, dining, buyer's, price, etc. Guides is used in place of Directories when the sites in the categories provide information beyond a simple listing and description. For example, a travel guide would include information on the best places to go in a location in addition to links.

See Also: Directories

History

Scope: Use for sites which provide historical information on a topic.

Image Galleries

Scope: Sites which are only or predominantly pictures and images. Often used in Celebrity categories.

Internet Service Providers

Scope: Use for categories that list Internet Service Providers.

Journals

See News and Media

Magazines and E-zines

See News and Media

Mailing Lists

Scope: Use for sites about electronic discussion groups whose communications are transmitted over email.

See Also: Chats and Forums

Maps

Scope: Used to classify sites that contain maps of places.

News and Media

Scope: Use as an umbrella category for news services, newspapers, books, magazines and e-zines, and journals. The narrower terms may be used as subcategories or may be stand alone categories. If they stand alone, there should be no News and Media category.

See Also: Journals | Magazines and E-zines | Research | Reviews

Articles

Scope: For collections of listings which are, in general, single non-scientific articles (as opposed to large sites). Articles which focus on reviewing a product or service belong in a Reviews category. Collections of scientific articles fall under either Research or Journals categories.

See Also: Journals | Magazines and E-zines | Research | Reviews

Use Articles instead of:

• Articles and Essays
• Articles and Interviews
• Articles and Papers
• Articles and Reports
• Columns and Articles

• Essays
• Essays and Articles
• Online Articles

Journals

Scope: Regularly issued scholarly publications that deal with a particular subject or professional activity. Can be placed at the same level as News and Media if the editor prefers. Use Magazines and E-zines for non-scholarly publications.

Use Journals instead of:

• Academic Journals
• Books, Magazines and Journals
• Full text journals
• Journals and Forums
• Journals and Preprints

• Journals and Publishers
• Newsletters-Journals-Magazines
• Publications and Journals
• Search engines, journals, links, descriptions etc.

Magazines and E-zines

Scope: Regularly issued publications containing articles and illustrations, typically covering a particular subject or area of interest. Use Journals for professional and scholarly periodicals.

Use Magazines and E-zines instead of:

• Books and Magazines
• Books, Magazines and Articles
• Clips and Magazines
• E-zines
• E-zines and Magazines
• Magazines
• Magazines - Online and Paper
• Magazines and Periodicals
• Magazines, Newsletters, and E-Zines
• News and Magazines

• Newsletters
• Newspapers and Magazines
• Newspapers, Magazines, Newsletters, Etc.
• Periodicals and Magazines
• Publications and Magazines
• Trade Magazines
• Zines
• Zines and Magazines

Newspapers

Scope: Use for sites offering online versions of newspapers or information about print versions.

Use Newspapers instead of:

• Press

Newspapers

See News and Media

Opposing Views

Scope: Used for collections of sites which offer alternative or contrary opinions to those in another ODP category.

Organizations

Scope: Either of the above terms may be used depending on the types of sites the category contains. Organizations are generally any organized body of people such as the Boy Scouts. Associations are used more in industry. Use to classify sites for organizations, associations, clubs, and any other organized body of people with a particular purpose, especially a business, government department or charity.

Personal Pages

Scope: Collection of web pages about an individual or group and their interests.

Recordings

Scope: Use only for sites containing audio files and resources that pertain to the parent category. Use as subcategory for commercial sites selling audio recordings.

Research

Scope: Use for sites which present research results, or describe formal research programs or organizations. Organizations/departments which offer educational programs are better listed under Education or Academic Departments.

Resources

Scope: Use to classify sites whose purpose is to provide a comprehensive overview of a particular subject area. Resource sites typically include general information about a topic, and provide directories, FAQs, chats and forums, publications etc. Generally, the sites that could be placed in a Resources category should reside at the top level. A Resources category should only be created if there is a significant number of sites to list and there is a compelling reason to do so, for example, a top level category. In general, most categories will not need a Resources subcategory as the general sites *should* be at the top level.

See Also: Directories | Guides

Reviews

Scope: Used for sites giving product, movie, television, music, literary, and theatrical reviews and evaluations.

Schools and Instruction

See Education

Search Engines

Scope: Used for sites that offer a subject specific search engine. This category should be used for sites where the primary focus is to search the internet broadly (e.g. Aol Search) for a particular topic as opposed to being a Directory of sites.

See Also: Directory

Software

Scope: Use for sites which offer software in any of its forms, whether it be compiled programs, source code, scripts, machine code, etc.

Travel

Scope: Use as an umbrella category for collections of travel resources, including travel agents, tour operators, and other travel providers; lodging; travel advice; travelogues; or other resources.

Trivia

Scope: Used for sites that offer topical trivia.

Web Rings

Scope: Used for sites that represent collections of related web sites.

Webcams

Scope: Use for sites displaying live video through cameras which are connected to the web.