Skaffe Customer Support Services

 

Email support service is available 24/7 at teamsupport@skaffe.com

What types of websites will be added to the directory?

Quality sites with original content and value to the directory should be listed. We are building the best directory on the net. High-quality and original content are key factors.

What websites will not be listed?

• Any site offering to sell, or the sale of:
• Firearms, explosives, or weapons.
• Food that is not packaged or does not comply with all laws governing the sale of food to consumers by commercial merchants.
• Items which are indecent or obscene; that are hateful or racially, sexually, ethnically or otherwise objectionable; that contain child pornography; that are otherwise pornographic in nature; or that are harmful to minors.
• Controlled substances or pharmaceuticals. An exception to this rule is a company with a physical brick-and-mortar place of business, such as CVS, Eckerd, or Walgreens.
• Counterfeit or stolen items.
• Dangerous items.
• Goods or services that do not, in fact, exist.
• Any registered or unregistered securities.
• Items which violate or infringe upon the rights of other parties.
• Items which may not legally be sold.
• Items where paying Skaffe.com any of the required transactional or listing fees would cause Skaffe.com to violate laws in the United States.

 

• The site is a subURL

SubURLs, or pages which can be reached from their main page and pertain to the same topic as the main page, should not be listed separately. Exceptions will be approved on a case-by-case basis. See What is a proper URL? for more information.

• The site is an affiliate site.

Sites which contain an excessive number of affiliate links, with content provided by the associated or affiliate partner, should not be listed. Often, these sites can be recognized by their links and URLs which contain referral IDs.

If the site has no less than 70% original content on topic, and as the reviewing editor you consider it a valuable resource to the topic, then it’s acceptable to list it.

• On-Line Casinos, Gambling and Betting Sites

Being that on-line gambling is illegal in many U.S. states as well as in other countries, sites offering and containing advertising for on-line casinos, betting, lottery and other forms of on-line gambling will not be listed.

• Spam

Spamming is prohibited. Under Spam Committee direction, sites may be refused listing if they are being spammed in our directory. View What is Spam? for more information.

• Hate, Illegal, Pornographic and Sites Advocating Violence

Sites which advocate violence or illegal acts against a person or group of people will not be listed. Sites containing visual representation of extreme violence or lewdness should not be listed, unless such material in its context has been deemed appropriate by this community. Sites containing pornographic text or images should not be submitted. This includes those sites with links to such material on other sites via text links or banners.

The majority of sites with non-pornographic sexual content may be deemed acceptable. Sites may include adult nudity, IF the intent of the material is not to arouse the viewer. Such sites would include those which are educational or medical in nature. For instance, sites showing how to perform a breast exam or how to check for testicular cancer would be acceptable. Listing of sites with questionable content will be decided by the Skaffe Site Review Committee.

How many times may a site be listed in Skaffe.com?

Considering the wide variety of topics, most sites will easily fit into our directory. Each site is limited to one listing. Exceptions may be made by the Skaffe Site Review Committee. Note: Performing a key word search, plus reading topic descriptions will you help determine the best site placement.

What is a proper URL?

A proper URL will include the use of "http://", "www", and a trailing slash. The preferred method is to submit the 'short' version of a URL. For example, rather than submitting http://www.skaffe.com/index.html, just use http://www.skaffe.com/ and don't forget the trailing slash!

Do not use deep links if they are related to the same topic as the main URL, and can be reached from the website's front page. For example, http://www.boracayresorts.com/357boracay/ would not be approved as a site submission because this page is accessible from the shortened or main URL and is topic-related.

Where should I submit this site?

Deciding on the correct placement in the directory may be a challenging task. Performing a key word search, using the Topic Finder, and reading topic descriptions will help. If you feel the proper topic does not exist in the directory, please contact the Topics Committee.

How should I evaluate a site?

Evaluating and rating submissions will be done by Skaffe editors. If you are not a Skaffe editor, you do not add a rating. Skaffe editors will find rating criteria in the Q&A Section under Proper Editing > Rating Sites.

How to Write a Title:

·         Use the official title of the site. Usually, the title is obviously displayed on the site. If it is not, try looking at the source code for the page.

·         If the site is a business or organization, use the official name, such as Mary Kay, Inc.

·         Some titles may need abbreviations in order to fit in the allotted space. In that case, use the proper abbreviations.

·         Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title and all main words, but not conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor, so, and yet), short prepositions (such as to, on, at, and in), or articles (a, an, and the).

·         Do not use "The, A, An or similar words" to start a title. If the title is a proper name, such as a newspaper, the title should be entered as American Heritage Dictionary, The or New York Times, The. If the title is not a proper name, such as The Best of Mallard Ducks, it would be entered as Best of Mallard Ducks.

·         Do not use all CAPITAL LETTERS.

·         Do not use unnecessary punctuation marks, symbols or letters, company slogans or promotional language in the title.

·         Do not use "Welcome to", "Homepage of" or "Website" as part of the title.

·         Use concise anchor text (e.g. use Web Design & Hosting Service instead of Best Web Design and Super Hosting Service). Do not repeat company name in the anchor text. Optimal anchor text should be 3-5 words.

How to Write a Description:

·         Write one to two sentences which are informative and objective, and tell a searcher what can be found at the site.

·         Describe the unique features of the site.

·         Try to use a minimum of ten words, thereby avoiding descriptions such as; "An informational site."; and "A clinical report". These are not useful to our end users.

·         Start the description with a logical sentence, and use correct grammar, spelling and punctuation.

·         Write out the meaning of acronyms used in the title.

·         Do not start your description with "This site" or "Site includes", or end it with "etc." or "and more".

·         Do not repeat the title in the description.

·         Do not repeat key words in the description.

·         Do not use all CAPITAL LETTERS.

·         Capitalize the first word of a sentence and use a period at the end.

·         Do not capitalize the first letter of each word.

·         Do not use emphatic punctuation such as "!!!" ampersands "&" or ellipses "…"

·         Do not use first or second person pronouns such as; "we", "I", "you", "our", "you", "us", or "me".

·         Do not use information that is liable to change, such as dates, quantities, and prices.

·         Do not use sales and advertising pitches such as "best", "most", "cheap" and "cheapest".

·         Do not include details such as street addresses, directions, phone numbers or other URLs.

·         When a City, State format is used, spell out the state; i.e., Oakland, CA, should be Oakland, California.

·         Be original and use your own words. Copying is plagiarism and is illegal. If you must use short phrases copied from the site, enclose the phrase in quotation marks.

·         If sites are written in a foreign language, write the description in English with a notation that the site is multilingual or in what language the site is written.

·         Always proofread your description, making any required correction(s).

What is Spam?

Most affiliate sites; multiple or mirror links to the same site; porn sites or websites that links to porn; hate sites; sites which promote violence; and sites which violate the laws of the United States and/or Great Britain are classified as spam.

Below is a more comprehensive list of what is considered spam by Skaffe standards.

·         Multiple links to the same site, porn sites or websites which link to porn.

·         Multiple submissions using different URLs, whether unique or variations of one URL.

·         Redirected sites, including sites that redirect the main page and sites that redirect by clicking links on the main page.

·         Affiliate, associate and authorized vendor or distributor websites.

·         Hidden service website, i.e., the links will display totally different results than the main page.

·         Cloaked pages: Uniquely different websites with unique URLs, but offering the same links or services. These are getting very popular and are hard to detect.

·         Sites with an excessive number of banners or popup advertising; over 1/3 of a page displayed has banners or more than two popups on a single page. This includes the now frequently used load behind pages.

·         Java bomb pages: Sites that load a different page or pages when another page is closed. Java bomb pages are mostly used in adult sites.

·         Sites that offer little or no original content. One example is a chat website that has no chatrooms of its own and redirects to other chat services. Usually, the purpose of a site like this is just to collect banner hits.

·         Sites that promote violence or hate, whether towards a person or group, a country, or an ideology.

·         Websites that automatically change or try to change the user's computer settings. "Auto download," "make this your home page," and "dial a phone number" are some examples.

Skaffe.com reserves the right to delete, without notice, any website it deems objectionable.

Useful References:

·         Merriam-Webster Dictionary

·         Language Translation

·         Guide to Grammar and Style