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STYLE
GUIDE FOR INDEXERS AND EDITORS
PAGE SELECTION
Pages To Index
THE SPECIFIC URL
ACCEPTED URLS
Accepted |
Not Accepted
FRAMES
PAGE TITLES
Effective
Titles
PAGE DESCRIPTIONS
Effective
Short Descriptions | Effective
Longer Descriptions
MANAGING CATEGORIES
Category Content
|
Categories
| Classifying
Pages | Category
Style | Deleting
Categories | Apply
To Edit A Category
STYLE GUIDE
FOR INDEXERS AND EDITORS
This Style Guide is “required reading” for, and addressed to,
Zenome category editors, but we urge indexers to also read the Guide because
it will ensure that searchers find the Pages they have indexed.
The goal of our Style Guide is to make it as easy and logical for a searcher
to find the information they need.
As such, when indexing a Page, Indexers and Editors should anticipate
how a user would search for information.
Indexers are invited to Index Pages in the Zenome directory. We
encourage this because we believe that individuals often have considerable
expertise about the contents of one or many subjects.
It is absolutely critical that editors be objective, avoid any hyperbole,
marketing pitches, superlatives, and superfluous information.
PAGE SELECTION
Zenome favors relevance over popularity and quality over quantity. Our
goal is to organically grow as a repository of knowledge.
Zenome’s mandate is not to determine the validity, viability, morality,
or legality of content. Therefore, the Zenome directory will exclude only
content that is deemed illegal. Examples of this include, hate speech,
Pages that sell illegal material, and Pages that portray children (under
18), in an abusive or derogatory manner.
Zenome is particularly vigilant about Pages that may be harmful to children.
Pages To Index
Zenome encourages the inclusion of Pages that provide unique insight into
a topic. We also encourage respectful contrasting points of view.
Do NOT index Pages that…
• Mirror an existing Page: Pages that largely copy existing
material from another Page.
• Are incomplete or replete with broken links.
• Deal with timely information, but are outdated.
• Do not load properly or consistently.
• Are affiliate marketing schemes: Pages where compensation
is largely performance based. Or, Pages that exchange links simply to
increase click-throughs.
• Redirect Pages.
• “Cloaked” URLs: Pages where the real URL
of a displayed Page remains invisible because it is another URLs full-size
frame.
• Search Results Pages: Pages that are simply results
from another search tool.
• Product Listings: Pages that simply list products.
• Pyramid Schemes: The World Federation of Direct Selling
Associations defines a pyramid scheme as being a "scheme in which a recruit
pays (an entry fee) for the opportunity to receive future benefits (money
or privileges) which are primarily derived from that recruit's (and/or
subsequent recruits') introduction of additional participants in the scheme,
rather than from the sale of products to consumer." Please see the WFDSA
Page for more details. Pages for "chain letters," or "money games" should
not be listed as they may violate the U.S. Postal Lottery Statute (18
U.S.C. § 1302).
• Illegal Pages: In most jurisdictions this includes
child pornography; contravention of intellectual property rights; material
that advocates, solicits or abets illegal activity (such as fraud or violence)
in specific instances; and material that is libelous. If listing a specific
type of Page in your jurisdiction could be considered illegal, then you
should not list it.
If in doubt about the veracity or legality of a Page consult us at: ManagingEditor-AT-Zenome.com.
THE SPECIFIC URL
It is important that the URL is as specific as possible.
It is generally useful to remove unnecessary information from the end
of the URL, such as "index.html," if this information is not required
for the correct Page to load.
Verify the functionality of the URL. Ensure that it contains working links.
Enter the URL of the Page that brings the user to the main, home, or splash
page.
Remove unnecessary segments of the URL after a slash.
Include ‘www’ in the URLs unless, of course, the URL does not
work with the ‘www’.
Include subdomains in the URL. For example, in the URL http://www.montreal.cbc.ca,
‘montreal’ is a subdomain. The ‘montreal’ should be
included as relevant.
Dynamically generated segments of URLs should be omitted. For example,
after entering http://ebay.com the URL may actually appear with an extension
like http://ebay.com/fbstne/nftxns
Search strings should be removed. A "?" in a URL generally denotes that
a Page was accessed via a search query.
Affiliate codes should be removed form URLs. This will usually be done
by deleting any segment after “ rf_id ” .
Capture main Pages when you want to link to the entrance of a main Page.
Capture the sub-page only if it what is most appropriate to your indexing.
ACCEPTED URLS
Pages with some prefixes should not be indexed. Examples of each are below.
Accepted
HTTP:
HTTPS:
FTP:
GOPHER:
Not Accepted
FILE:
JAR:
MAILTO:
NETDOC:
SYSTEMRESOURCE:
VERBATIM:
FRAMES
If you want to add a sub-page of a Page that uses frames, you'll need
to capture the URL for that particular frame. To do that, follow these
steps:
1. Click the panel you want to capture.
2. Right-click the panel.
3. Select "open frame in new window".
Enter the URL from that frame only.
Pop-up windows should not be indexed. This can be avoided by closing a
popup window before capturing the URL.
PAGE TITLES
Page titles should be as concise as possible, and generally be the official
title of the organization.
Effective Titles
Do consist of the official name of the Page as the title. Generally,
the title will be obvious and prominently displayed on the Page. (i.e.:
The Library Of Congress)
Do consist of the official name of the business or entity as the
title, if the Page is about the business, organization, or other entity
(i.e.: ZENOME Inc.).
Do contain the full form and acronym if the business, organization
or other entity is generally known by either, and both are used on the
Page. (i.e.: Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI).
Do contain the acronym alone if the organization is universally
known by that acronym. (i.e.: UNICEF).
Do have the first letter of each word in the title capitalized,
except for articles, prepositions or conjunctions unless they begin the
Page title or a new part of a compound title. (i.e.: The Unbearable Lightness
of Being).
Never use superlatives, hype, or sales pitches.
Never include superfluous keywords, unnecessary symbols and letters,
company slogans or promotional language as part of the title.
Never include words and phrases such as "welcome to," "online"
and "homepage of" or "website" at the beginning or end of a title –
it is redundant.
Never include punctuation marks or unnecessary symbols and letters,
or special characters at the beginning of the title. Listings are, in
some cases, sorted alphabetically and sometimes people try to get to the
top of the list unfairly. If "aaa web page" is the submitted title, but
the website is really called "web page," the best title is "web page."
Never capitalize titles in their entirety.
Never end with an exclamation mark or any other unnecessary punctuation.
PAGE DESCRIPTIONS
The title should provide clear, concise, objective, information that identifies
the content of the Page. The description should be a stand-alone summary
of the Page.
The Page description provides specific information about the content and/or
subject matter of the Page. It should be informative and concise. The
basic formula for an effective description is: Subject + Content = Description.
Effective Short Descriptions
(Short descriptions appear in the Search Results with the Page Title,
and URL)
• Are concise, informative, and objective, alerting searchers
to what they will find when they visit a Web Page.
• Highlight the unique subjects and contents of the Page,
thus allowing the searcher to appropriately determine relevancy.
• Include relevant and specific terms that will make
it easier for the searcher to determine a Page's relevancy to their query.
• Use formal sentence or phrase structure and proper
punctuation and capitalization.
• Use third person pronouns, and avoid first and second
person pronouns (i.e.: "you", "your", "we", "us", "our", "I", or "me")
because they are too subjective.
• Are free of spelling and grammatical errors.
• Avoid acronyms or abbreviations unless they are commonly
understood by potential users of the category. If an acronym is in doubt,
use the entire name.
• Must never read like advertisements, sales pitches,
opinions, or editorial reviews.
• Avoid superlatives such as "best", "most", "greatest",
or "cheapest."
• Avoid emphatic punctuation (i.e.: "!!!"), all caps
to denote emphasis, ampersands ("&") or ellipses ("...").
• Avoid subjective or personal reviews of any aspect
of the Web Page.
• Do not repeat the entire Page title.
• Do not excessively repeat the category name, keywords,
phrases, or overuse adjectives.
• Avoid specific dates, prices, time-sensitive numbers,
or similar information that is subject to change.
• Avoid phrases that state the obvious: "this Page is...",
"Page includes ..." or ending with "etc.", "and more".
• Avoid: street/mailing and e-mail addresses, nearest
intersection/highway exit, telephone/fax numbers, instructions for use
of answering systems, hours of operation, prices, or other URLs.
• Never make reference to illegally obtained content
(e.g. Pirated versions of software and music).
• May include limited quotations from a Page (such as
a brief quotation from a Page's about page or similar informational areas)
if paraphrasing proves too difficult.
Effective Longer Descriptions
(Zenome indexers are invited to submit “ longer ” descriptions
of Pages. These longer descriptions do not appear in the general Search
Results page. But, user conducting an “ Advanced Search ” can
determine the appropriateness of a Page by reading its “ longer description
” ).
• May consist of a Page’s Summary, Synopsis, or
Abstract.
• May be written entirely by the indexer.
• Should provide a concise, informative, stand-alone
summary of the content of the Page.
For specific details about writing style please consult Garbl's
Writing Center.
MANAGING CATEGORIES
Category Content
Any Page (URL) may be placed in as many categories as relevant. This is
to allow searchers to find material from their desired perspective.
If an editor revises the indexing information of a URL, that change is
made to all the versions of the URL. This allows editors to fine-tune
the information until it reaches a mutually agreed upon version.
The sources of Pages in any given category should be as diverse as possible.
Categories
The Zenome directory is made up of categories that form a navigable structure.
Zenome encourages users to suggest new sub-categories. Members can suggest
new sub-categories by selecting: “ Community ” > “ Suggest
a Category ” .
At the end of the indexing process indexers are prompted to suggest a
new sub-category. Zenome’s unique algorithm evaluates the validity
of a new-subcategory.
We use the following terms for the basic parts of the directory and the
relationships between categories.
Top-level Category: There is no other category above this level. The bolded
headings on our home page are the only top-level categories.
Parent Category: A category that contains other categories.
Bottom–Level Category (BLC): A category that contains only Pages.
AKA: Child, or Sibling category
Child Category: The sub-category of a given parent category. AKA: BLC,
or Sibling category
Sibling Category: A category that has the same parent as another category.
AKA: BLC, or Child category
Category Path: the string of categories, moving down the directory in
parent-to-child order.
SymLinks (also known as "@ links"): SymLinks have the “ @ ”
sign at the end of the category name (i.e.: Languages@). This indicates
that the sub-category’s ‘home’ may be in another category.
Clicking a SymLink delivers the searcher to its actual category in its
home path.
Classifying Pages
Always index a Page for the most specific Bottom-Level Category (BLC).
If you think that a Page would also be relevant in another category recommend
it for that category during the indexing process.
Category Style
All Page lists must contain at least five live, relevant Pages before
they may be created.
Page lists should not contain more than 55 Pages.
New sub-categories may be created before a Page list reaches 55 Pages.
Parent categories must contain at least 3 relevant, published child categories,
but no more than 55.
Deleting Categories
Only a Managing Editor may remove a category. But, editors are encouraged
to suggest that a category be removed from the directory.
Apply To Edit A Category
• I agree to respect and abide by the Editor’s
Guide,
• I have read the Style Guide,
• I have Indexed 5 URL(s) in the sub-category to which I’m applying,
• I want to apply to be an
Editor
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