Relevant Content: The page must have useful content or resource links that relate directly to Naval or Maritime topics, which also include Coast Guard; Marine Corps and Naval Infantry; Navy, Marine, Coast Guard and Air Force (Maritime Patrol only) aviation; Merchant Marine; Sea Scouts and Sea Cadets; and other topics directly relating to ocean-going vessels, maritime military forces and the maritime/shipping industry. We do not include naval architecture & ocean engineering (see World Wide Web Virtual Library: Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering), lighthouses or lifesaving stations (see World Wide Web Virtual Library: Lighthouses, Lightships & Lifesaving Stations), lifeguards, beaches, surfing, boating, canoeing, kayaking, sailboats, oceanography (except for naval tactical applications), oceanic ecology or marine biology. The only "off topic" material included in the site is college-level military schools, colleges and academies due to our relationship with Alumni of the United States Naval Academy.

Useful Content: The site content must, in our opinion, provide useful information to WWWVL users. This may eliminate some sites that are primarily intended as entertainment. While we may have some difficulty in evaluating both relevance and usefulness of the content of sites that are in a language we are not familiar with, we will do our best and there is no language requirement or barrier to listing of sites not in English. 

Credible Content: Content of sites must be credible and when dealing with historical fact or current naval/maritime affairs should provide adequately documentation as to the source of material on the site. Sites that do not clearly identify the author and/or maintainer of the site by both a given name and a family name or surname will not be listed, as sites maintained by persons unwilling to identify themselves publicly lack credibility. Adequate and independently verifiable documentation as to the site author or maintainer's qualifications may provide sufficient documentation as to the credibility of otherwise undocumented material. Association, organizational, and corporate sites may be listed without specific identification of the author and/or maintainer of the site if the legitimacy of the site can be independantly established, but even in these instances we would prefer to see the author and/or maintainer of the site identified by both a given name and a family name or surname.

Usable Content: Pages that may have otherwise useful content may be not listed if the formatting or display of of the site is such that the material is not usable. We will not eliminate a site just because it is ugly or poorly designed, but if ugliness or poor design directly impacts the usability of the site, it may not be listed. Music that plays when you enter the site, scrolling or blinking text, text against a background image that renders it unreadable, and large numbers of animated gif files may increase bandwidth and be sufficiently annoying as to render the site not usable; a combination of several will almost ensure that you are not listed. Please see "Elements of Effective Web Design" from about.com and Charlie Morris' "Amateur Web Sites - the Top Ten Signs" if this is not clear to you; if you need help learning to design pages effectively, please see my Web Design Fundamentals and Page Design Resources pages. Good design and attractive pages directly speak to the level of professionalism of your site.

No Duplicative Content or Plagiarism: Sites that substantively duplicate another site or reflect plagiarism of material will not be listed. Only one instance of any page in or derived from the Open Directory project will be listed.

Disclaimer: Naval and Maritime page of the World Wide Web Virtual Library is an independent entity that solely reflects the opinions and listing choices of the maintainers. It is not officially associated with nor does it represent or reflect the opinions of the United States Navy, the United States Naval Academy, the United States Naval Academy Alumni Association, Illinois Institute of Technology, or the World Wide Web Virtual Library.

Submit a Site: Please see our submissions page to submit a site for listing.