Not in the list

Why this shelf exists

Every catalogue that files software into categories eventually meets a product that does not fit any of them. Most directories solve that by forcing the closest match, which makes one category dishonest and the listing hard to find.

This shelf is the alternative. A product can be listed while the right home for it is worked out, rather than being pushed onto a page where nobody looking for it would think to look.

Anything here has been read by a person and judged genuinely unusual, not simply hard to label.

How categories get created

Categories describe a job somebody is trying to do, and they are added when the evidence says the job is common.

The threshold is repetition. When several unrelated products describe the same work, and nothing on the existing shelves covers it, a category is warranted. One product describing something unusual is a special case, and a category built around a single listing is a page with one item on it forever.

The opposite rule applies too. Names that duplicate an existing shelf in different marketing language are merged rather than added, because two pages competing to describe the same thing make both harder to find.

What happens to a listing filed here

• It is read by a person rather than sorted by keyword.
• It stays visible while the right category is decided.
• It moves once a suitable shelf exists, keeping its address working.
• It appears once, never in several categories at the same time.
• It is never ranked by payment, here or anywhere else on the site.

Moving a listing does not break links. The old address redirects to the new one, so anything pointing at the page continues to work.

Describing an unusual product

The description is what decides where a listing ends up, so it is worth writing carefully.

Say what the software does in the words a buyer would use. Name the job it replaces, the people who use it and the problem it removes. Avoid category language borrowed from adjacent markets, since a description dressed up as something familiar gets filed as that familiar thing.

Concrete detail helps most. What a person does in the first ten minutes, what data goes in, what comes out. That paragraph is more useful than any list of features, and it is what a human reviewer reads first.

What we do not accept

A few things are turned away consistently.

Products that do not exist yet, where the site is a waiting list and the software is a plan. Duplicate submissions of a listing that already exists under another name. Descriptions written to match search phrases rather than to explain the product, which are obvious to read and unhelpful to everyone.

Listings are also removed when a product shuts down, though the page usually stays with its status changed rather than disappearing, because people search for software that no longer exists and deserve an answer.

Adding a product

Submission is free, and so is everything else here: listing, verification and any change you make later. The catalogue is funded by voluntary contributions rather than by placement, which is why position in a list cannot be bought.

If your product belongs somewhere obvious, use that category. If it does not, submit it here with a plain description and it will be filed properly. How directories generally work, and what a listing is actually worth, is covered in how software directories work.

Where a listing goes next

Nothing stays on this shelf permanently. Each entry sits here while the pattern around it becomes clearer.

Three outcomes are usual. A new category is created because several products turned out to describe the same job. The listing joins an existing category once the description made its purpose obvious. Or the product turns out to belong to a neighbouring shelf that nobody thought of at first glance.

All three keep the original address working, so links, bookmarks and anything pointing at the page continue to resolve.

If you list a product here and later think it belongs somewhere specific, say so. A short note from the people who built the software is usually more accurate than a decision made from the outside, and it takes a minute to send.