[thesite] What's appropriate for d.e.o.

[Simon Coggins]

> I would view links to agencies slightly differently. I'm not sure
> whether I can rationalise it (hey, I said I liked discussion... didn't
> say I was any good at it) but my gut feeling is that having links to
> companies that get paid for developing websites would not be in the
> spirit of evolt.

I agree. Evolt is for web developers, not for clients. I don't think
developers need links to other design shops, and I don't see that the
design shops would get a lot of business from being in the directory.

I don't think it is as simple as commercial vs. non-commercial. Atomz
for instance provides tools/services that *are* used by developers, so I
feel there is a place for them within the directory. Besides, somewhere
like webmonkey is technically commercial, but I don't think anyone would
argue that they should be excluded on those grounds.

I'm just finding it hard to quantify exactly how I'm making these gut
decisions. If atomz is worthwhile what about hosting companies? We all use
them, but my instinct is that a category for hosting is a bad idea.

> When I said 'crap' I meant hassle, aggravation etc. Simon would be
> laying himself open for all sorts of abuse from people who wanted to get
> their agency into the directory. I wasn't trying to pass judgement on
> the quality of the sites.

At present this really isn't a problem. The submission rate is very
managable at the moment and I don't think the raw traffic from d.e.o. is
high enough to make it worth anyone's while to give me hassle. 

In the long term I would like to find the time to rewrite the admin
section to allow multiple admins, each looking after there own
section. This would spread the load, as well as making it more of a
community affair. Unfortunately I've got this little thing called a day
job holding me back... ;)

Just to try to quantify thing a bit better, here's a yes/no list of
some of the borderline categories. Feel free to agree/disagree or add
anything I've missed.

Businesses offering tools for web developers		YES
(site search, trackers, surveys, HTML editors, etc.)

Businesses offering services that don't help 		NO
developers do their job (including design shops and
marketing companies).

Personal sites						YES
							(if web related)

Hosting companies / domain name sellers			NOT SURE


Thoughts? Ideas?

Simon