[DeKay]

[Aszfargoth]

The best thing about MA always were the extensive personal informations on Varg Vikernes, such as the exact time of his birth.

[Kojiri]

[Heirophant.326.AV]

Just sent them this message:


Hi,

I would like some feedback from the Mods regarding this issue please, as I feel its a serious question.

Put simply, I am uncomfortable having my date of birth listed as a band member, and I can see no reason why this should be listed here. It opens the door to serious identity theft - if this has been listed here the only way it could have been obtained is via a security breach from someone I know. DOB is commonly used as a security verification question for banks and government institutions and having it publicly accessible like this may violate several national sets of privacy legislation.

(currently unsubstantiated) feedback seems to indicate MA is only willing to take this down if it could be defined as "detrimental" (ie bands from Middle-eastern countries). But what about peoples right not to have employers see what they do in their spare time? Particularly if their bands are at best contrary to social mores (eg satanic bands in Bible-belt states) or at worst illegal (NS bands in Europe). What about all the bands trying to pull off tours without paying thousands in visa fees? If this remains online, its only a matter of time until its used as another tool in the security network. For instance: 3 metal-looking guys rock up at passport control. Que the usual questions - "are you in a band? are you here to play?". With the information you are making available it allows a DOB cross-check, resulting in instant expulsion, costing bands thousands of dollars in wasted airfares.

While the fact that I post on here indicates that I support MA's mission of making information available about the music we all love, I think this is a step too far and I would request a public response justifying how this information benefits anyone. Further to this, I would request that you make clear the methods for removing this data, and if you do not make this available a clear and succinct explanation of the reasons underlying your decision.
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"14 words: we must secure the depravation of the children and ruin the whole fucking world..."

[ypatingasisburys]

Yeah...this is bullshit. These mods who think they reserve the right to post others private information such as this deserve a boot to the face.

[Wraith]

@Heirophant.326.AV: Full support! Please keep us posted about the answer, if they even give you one.

I think this issue should be spreaded a bit further as it's something all musicians are concerned, sooner or later. Let's show this platform where its limits are, who they think they are anyway?

[Dodens Grav]

Well, Morrigan posts on the Metal Rules forum. If this really concerns people, I would suggest that they join that forum and raise the issue and your concerns there. She's always seemed reasonable to me based on her posts there.
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http://www.thehereticstorch.blogspot.com/

Reviews of: Dead Congregation, Faustcoven, Mgla, Portrait, Revelation, Against Nature, Ironsword, Valkyrie, Ogre, etc.

[Demoniarch]

What kind of fucking queer faggots care about the age or favourite food groups of the bands they listen to anyways ?

What the fuck kind of use is any of that irrelevant information ?


Everything important about a band that needs to be known is contained within the LP/CD package, between the recording and what the band prints on the sleeve, anything beyond that is irrelevant.

MA is a nerd empire anyways. The hosting and collecting of such gay information proves that.

[Mz412]

[Demoniarch]

More fucking dipshits support the spread and sharing of everything than there is of those who dislike the concept of spreading all this nonsense around.

Look at how people flock to facebook and services of the like, and then generally post every little retarded thing about their life on it all day.



It is a losing battle, the planet is infested with retards, and there is way more of them than there is of sane people. Sanity will lose here I wager.

[SWO]

Only a matter of time tell they whore out the main page to advertisers too, maybe?
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[ogmetal]

[Dodens Grav]

For fuck's sake, they only made donations an option because it was so frequently requested. There are a lot of things you can question about the site and how it's run, but from my observations, one of those things is not their motive behind the site.
_________________
http://www.thehereticstorch.blogspot.com/

Reviews of: Dead Congregation, Faustcoven, Mgla, Portrait, Revelation, Against Nature, Ironsword, Valkyrie, Ogre, etc.

[Heirophant.326.AV]

Response from site mods:


Scorntyrant wrote:
Put simply, I am uncomfortable having my date of birth listed as a band member, and I can see no reason why this should be listed here. It opens the door to serious identity theft - if this has been listed here the only way it could have been obtained is via a security breach from someone I know. DOB is commonly used as a security verification question for banks and government institutions and having it publicly accessible like this may violate several national sets of privacy legislation.


Well, I'd agree with all that if this "private" information was somehow divined through esoteric means and put online for the first time, but the fact that it's here rather shows that it's already publicly available in some form. Our users can't just guess that stuff, so I'd assume in the vast majority of cases it's available to anyone with access to Google already and reposting it on MA won't change that.

That said, I don't think it's a big deal to remove some sensitive data if asked politely through a report either. People seem most worried about their real name being indexed by search engines, and over the years I've complied with many requests to hide such details. Changing "John Smith" to "John S.", for instance, seems to satisfy most people. No doubt having the exact date of birth is not strictly necessary either - it could be only the year, if available, as the age of the person can be of interest to some visitors.

Quote:
If this remains online, its only a matter of time until its used as another tool in the security network. For instance: 3 metal-looking guys rock up at passport control. Que the usual questions - "are you in a band? are you here to play?". With the information you are making available it allows a DOB cross-check, resulting in instant expulsion, costing bands thousands of dollars in wasted airfares.


Are you suggesting that border controls are looking up people on MA? That's really pushing it. If that was the case they'd just google everyone "suspicious" that goes through and I really don't think that's the case.
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"14 words: we must secure the depravation of the children and ruin the whole fucking world..."

[Descension]