Overview
Kids and Teens was added to the Open Directory Project as a new top-level category in November of 2000 by combining the categories Home/Kids and Society/People/Teens. The goal of this new hierarchy was to create a completely new directory that would be safe for both kids and teens in addition to catering to their specific needs. From the beginning, the Kids and Teens ODP was created as a directory within a directory, having its own set of guidelines, forums, and senior editorial staff. The project has since grown to become the most comprehensive human-selected guide to the Internet for kids and teens across the world.
The Kids and Teens ODP Guidelines are supplemental to the general ODP Guidelines and serve to address those issues that are unique to the Kids and Teens directory. All editors are expected to read and follow both sets of guidelines, using them as the basis for all editorial activity. Though these guidelines are to be taken seriously, they are meant only to guide you through the dilemmas that you will encounter when editing in Kids and Teens. Portions of the guidelines may not always apply, and you are encouraged to use good common sense when editing, always keeping the end-user in mind.
Again, these guidelines are to be used in conjunction with the general ODP Guidelines as well as category-specific charters. These two documents will provide you with enough guidance to edit with competence, but there are many nuances of the community culture that are not addressed here. More in depth information on a wider variety of ODP subjects can be found at the Editor Resource Zone and in the editor forums.
Editing Basics
- Site Selection Criteria - Covers sites to include and not to include.
- Site Specific Guidelines - Explains guidelines for specific types of sites and URLs.
- Describing Web Sites - Covers URLs, titles and descriptions, editor notes, sort date field, the cool site feature, and age tags.
- General Editing Guidelines† - The main Open Directory Editing Guidelines. Covers all aspects of editing not specifically related to the Kids and Teens ODP.
Category Basics
- Subcategories - Explains creating and naming subcategories, as well as regional subdivisions.
- Category Features - Covers alphabars, sort priorities, @links, related category links, and category-specific guidelines.
Additional Information
- Link Errors (Robozilla)† - Describes the automated link checker, and suggests methods of fixing erroneous URLs.
- Spamming† - Outlines policy on spam submissions.
- Types of Editors - Outlines the different types of Meta editors that can be found in Kids and Teens.
- Communication and Codes of Conduct† - Covers e-mail, editor forums, communications privacy, writing to submitters, and editor abuse.
- Conflicts of Interest - Explains how editors are required to be totally objective in their editing practices.
- Copyright Information and ODP Data Users† - Provides policy on copyright, and information on ODP data users.
† - links to portions of the main ODP Editorial Guidelines.