Submitting a site

If your site meets the qualifications described below, it will be considered for inclusion in the Hardin MD, and for a Clean Bill of Health Award.

Factors considered in deciding what to include -

We are only interested in sites that have lists of links to other sites. A good way to think of different types of sites is -
-Primary sites - content sites, most links internal
-Secondary sites - List of pointers to primary sites
-Tertiary sites - Meta sites (like Hardin MD) with pointers to secondary sites
As a tertiary site, we list secondary sites in Hardin MD. If you have a good primary site that you want to let people know about, try submitting it to the appropriate secondary lists in Hardin MD.

Size of the list is obviously important.

Frequency of updating and maintenence is considered. We check all lists to see the percentage of links that's connecting, both using automated link checkers and manual spot checking/sampling of lists. Experience tells us that any list that hasn't been maintained in over six months is likely to have a high percentage of bad links.

The list should focus on the subject being covered. It seems obvious, but it's hard to resist the temptation to add "a few good links" in random subjects that you happen upon (speaking from experience!). Ask yourself in deciding what to put on a list - Are you really the best one to keep track of a subject that's peripheral to your specialty, or is there someone else who's specializing it that subject, and will likely do a better job?

We generally favor simple, fast-loading sites to ones that are heavy in graphics.

Sad to say ... all sites must be in English, or if in another language, must have an English version of all pages.

No sites that require user registration will be included.

Mirror sites - A mirror site is an exact copy of a list on a different server, that can be used as a back-up in case of hardware failure or poor connection. It's especially useful to have a transatlantic mirror site, since connections between North America and UK/Europe are often unsatisfactory. Existence of a mirror site is certainly not an overriding factor, since it's not always possible, but it is a strong positive factor. Obviously, in order for a mirror site to be useful, it must be updated frequently, so that it's close to the currency of the original site.