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[Jean_Manco]

It's been calculated that the ODP adds 1,000 listings a day. So what kind of sites are editors eager to list? I thought I'd pick out a few as I add them.

What we like are unique and completed sites. They might not be the super-swishest things you've ever seen, but we don't worry about that, if they do the job of presenting the information.

Here's one that fits in http://dmoz.org/Regional/ , but wasn't submitted there, so it is a big help to an editor that it gives a full address.

http://www.smyrnamainstreet.org/ spells out that this is Smyrna in Delaware. That saves confusion, because there are other Smyrnas in the US, quite apart from the original Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey).

The webmaster gives 'Delaware' in full on the front and contact pages, rather than just using 'De' everywhere. That is a help to those of us who might not easily recognise state codes. If a code is used, it helps to add 'USA'. Some other countries use similar codes.

[bragadocchio]

Thanks, Jean.

Great suggestion. I think more like that would probably really be helpful.

As an aside, I almost made it to Smyrna this morning. My travel itinerary had me about five miles away (Delaware is a small place).

The webmaster for the Smyrnamainstreet page did an outstanding job of making the city look attractive.

[Jean_Manco]

Small world Bill.

[Jean_Manco]

Here's a lost lamb that has returned to the fold.

The Pub History Society was listed until early October, when the link went dead on us. All my efforts to find a new URL for the society failed. Then last night I happened to be looking at links to my own site and I found - http://www.pubhistory.freeserve.co.uk/ . Welcome back to Dmoz!

A good society site should say more than 'give us your money'. The PHS tells us what its aims are and what the members are up to. (So it's not just an excuse to go on pub crawls then.) Though it doesn't forget to give a membership form to print out and all the practical details that go with it.

[totalXSive]

I think we're closer to 1500 sites per day now, if I remember correctly. I might be wrong though.

[Jean_Manco]

There is a growing feeling in Dmoz that blogs should not be treated as a separate species of web-site to be segregated from all others in their own little corner of the directory. If a blog focuses on a specific topic then why not list it under that topic?

So in that spirit I have just listed Casa do Futuro in
http://dmoz.org/World/Portugu%eas/Ci%eanci...cia/Tecnologia/ . Students at the University of Aveiro are using it to speculate about the 'intelligent homes' we may have one day, automated to the hilt. This is part of a university project: Casa do Futuro Projecto.

[Jean_Manco]

Fancy staying in a lighthouse or a miniature castle? The Irish Landmark Trust is a charity aiming to save smaller historic buildings at risk by restoration and conversion into self-catering holiday homes.

Also getting into restoration tourism is the The Mihai Eminescu Trust in Romania.

It's an idea taken from the UK's Landmark Trust, which has been listed for some time in the ODP. It has rescued some delightful little oddities. It now has

178 Landmarks spread across Britain, four in Italy and two in Vermont, USA. They include follies, forts, manor houses, mills, cottages, castles, gatehouses and towers.

I just happened to be researching a Landmark Trust building and came across the two new links, which had never been submitted. A lot of editors find new links themselves.

[Jean_Manco]

This morning's pleasant surprise was The Traditional Paint Forum, a non-profit group with an interest in historic decorative schemes (not an online forum.)

It was submitted just a few clicks away from the category it best fits, which caused nearly a month's delay in listing. I didn't spot it earlier.

I don't blame the submitter at all. Normally I would recommend searching ODP for keywords related to the site being submitted. Relevant categories should pop up. But if there is nothing already listed that is a close match, that won't work.

[dragonlady7]

That's really cool. I hadn't really thought of how editors go about finding sites.

I have a better idea now of why editors volunteer to edit-- to make sure that cool websites get found by people looking for them! If you're interested in historic decorating schemes and come to the ODP looking for inspiration, that site you just added would be pretty good to find!

Hmm... it's given me a lot of ideas of websites I want to *make*, now. Too bad I've no time.

I should see if I can find a category to fit my website. I've been lazy and haven't even considered DMOZ. Don't know that it would fit anywhere, but there's no harm in poking around and having a look at what's in there.

[Jean_Manco]

The paint site is an attractive one too. We don't judge design of course, but good design does make a site a pleasure to review.

[Jean_Manco]

Listing sites is only half the story. The other half is sorting them - creating themed packages of listings. Here a few of the categories I've created over the last couple of weeks.

Portuguese-speaking bikers now have a virtual gathering-place (vroom, vroom): Motocicletas.

So do Lusophones who like to fly, or leap out of aircraft, or walk on their wings or just admire them from a safe distance: Aviação.

A handful of dedicated Portuguese-speaking editors have been beavering away for months to sort thousands of listings by location. I have been doing my small bit by creating categories like this one for my ex-husband's home town of Bombarral.

Don't I do anything for English-speakers? Of course I do.

A shake-up over in the history section has given Romanists
Roman Towns and Cities.
Roman Daily Life.

And as of this morning Australia's longest-serving PM has his own showcase:
Menzies, Sir Robert Gordon.

[DianeV]

Those look interesting, Jean. I'm bookmarking in my "interesting" folder.

I agree that the paint forum site is gorgeous.

[Jean_Manco]

I was tempted to showcase here only the loveliest sites I come across, but that wouldn't be a representative sample of what we list.

Some of the techniques used now are impressive to one of my limited site-building skills.

[DianeV]

I like seeing these, Jean. It's nice to see the types of sites and topics that one wouldn't normally run across.

[Jean_Manco]

I can't resist showing off this design. It's the site of the local council of Ponte de Lima, a place in the northern tip of Portugal. It grew up around a river crossing and its name means 'Bridge of [the river] Lima'.

I like the way the bridge has been worked into the logo and its backdrop. The latest council news scrolls along the top - an effect that may not work in every browser, but is fine in IE 6, Mozilla Firebird and Opera 7.11 (the only ones I have currently.) I also like the clear, simple and attractive navigation.

My only complaint is that the pictures of the town's architectural treasures are small and cannot be enlarged. But then I do have specialist interests. :wink:

[yapuka]

It is indeed a nice site, but it lacks a search function on the homepage.

Whenever I find a site for a city, I want to know about the bridge clubs in that town. Very hard to find without a search box.

[Jean_Manco]

Welcome to Cre8asite Yapuka!

Good point. I never noticed the lack of a search box. You won't find any bridge clubs listed on the site though. It's a fairly standard local council site in content. It has pages on the local museum, theatre, arts centre, festivals, etc. It even supplies a couple of local recipes! But it's not a directory of the town and its hinterland.

[Jean_Manco]

Every now and then I ferret through the wonderful range of sites made possible by the lottery-funded project Enrich UK. My latest choice of goodies to list:

Resources for Learning in Scotland pulls together over 107 thousand records, 650 resource packs and 26 websites on Scotland's social, cultural and industrial heritage.

PeoplePlay UK brings online a mass of images from the Theatre Museum's collection.

[Emancipator]

I am really enjoying this thread Jean. Nicely done, look forward to reading it daily since you have started posting it. All be it I have only started posting recently Cheers.

[bragadocchio]

I hope that you do keep on adding to this thread, Jean.

It is pretty neat to see the thoughts of an editor on different sites being added to the directory.