Finnish: As discussed on this topic, the capitalization rules for band and release/track titles differ as well. Which I'm against. The practice of, quote from the aforementioned topic, "check how the band itself capitalizes the name and use that" is not a working system to me, as some obscure bands might not even have websites or much proof backing up their very existence, and in the internet you can never know which source to trust. Plus, some bands are so careless they might spell stuff with different rules, which is a nightmare in a wiki/archive site such as MA. There should be definite guidelines for everything, including band names.

Very much like with the other languages discussed here, Finnish band names such as "Hullun Miehen Seiväs" should be "Hullun miehen seiväs", unless they contain a proper noun. Wouldn't it look silly if that band had a self-titled song? It would be "Hullun Miehen Seiväs - Hullun miehen seiväs". Aaargh! Unfortunately I can't help with the Czech stuff, but there's my 2 cents. Maybe some kind enough moderator will notice this and changes will be made.

Native Czech speaker responded:

"When is it a band, is only the first word capitalized because it is the name of the band ."

@insAnum I suppose the common sense policy would be to, if it's hard to discern the band's preferred capitalisation due to a genuine lack of or conflicting evidence (such as would suggest that it's not important to them, rather than a decided part of their stylisation), then just use the language's standards.

Personal issues with there being differing capitalisations between band/album titles and song titles though I don't see as an inherent problem in the system. Like I don't really see anything aaargh worthy about "Hullun Miehen Seiväs - Hullun miehen seiväs", from a personal perspective (To me at least it makes it clear which is the song and which is the band, and you could say things like "Yeah I really like Hullun miehen seiväs" and it be clear you're talking about the song specifically. Not that that has any more bearing over this issue either)

And there's the obvious quip that if you want that then clearly your username should be "Insanum" as well

Would it be acceptable to credit artists for writing a foreword on a band's compilation/boxed set?

Hmm, maybe. I take it you have an example?

Yes. The Nuclear Death boxed set booklet comes with a ~1,000-word foreword written by Michele Toscan (it might be relevant that he already has an artist profile as a vocalist in a couple of bands).

Should be fine.

Parent Labels.

If a Label A is bought out by Label B and immediately closed, does Label B still get listed as a parent company?

Yes.

Since one can no longer see the additional notes when adding a line-up, is that to be interpreted as the additional notes no longer are considered a good enough source?

Not really our intention, it's only missing for (recent?) parent entries too. Looks like a bug. I'll let HB know.

Now that it works, it would also be good if one could see the recording info, since it contains alot of what used to be in the additional notes.

A question about hidden tracks after numerous silent tracks:
should they remain in the additional notes, or should all tracks (silent or not) be added to the tracklist?

Hrm, right... I'll talk to HellBlazer about that.

if an artist is listed on the archives only as a guest/session musician, there's no "add" button on his/her profile to add other bands... is there a trick, or I simply can't add any? :/

There are two ways to add other bands, one is what you wrote here, and the other is "Some bands are missing? Click here to add them (even if the bands are not featured on the site)." on the bottom of the artist's page. But it's strange that sometimes one of them disappears. For example: http://www.metal-archives.com/artists/D ... tto/569208

thanks I went back and did it with the "Some bands are missing? Click here to add them (even if the bands are not featured on the site)." like you said. could have sworn it wasn't there coupla hours ago tho :/

Is this seen as a valid release:
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Promotap ... se/5219348
Would be nice to add it.

The hell is this? So this band has a bogus link 'H5N1 Kult' and I've deleted it about a dozen times and mjollnir pointed out that it doesn't go away, which it apparently isn't. The update history shows that I have deleted it, but only once. Either way, it returns every time I refresh the page:

http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/H5N1/3540273604

If you go to edit the link it just shows blank fields, so it has somehow 'deleted' it in a certain sense, but it still remains as an active link...

Edit: Well I guess I dealt with it. I entered bogus test info in the blank fields, and it created a separate link. When I deleted the 'test' link I created the original one disappeared as well. Doubt this would be a common occurrence, but worth noting.

^Maybe clearing the cache could've helped with that as well. Just a guess, I've no clue how that process works for you mods.

So I know that band names and album/song titles should always be in the original script (Japanese, Cyrillic, etc.), with transliterations provided in the additional notes field...but what about lyrics? Should the lyrics for a release contain...

1) ...only the romanized lyrics? http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ve ... thy/172560
2) ...only the original script lyrics? http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ju ... ent/402575
3) ...both the original script and romanized lyrics? http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ve ... ail/304751 (not the best example since the romanizations have a few errors and one track is missing the kanji for some reason, but it was the first album that came to mind with this format)

I don't think putting full lyrics in an album's additional notes would be very practical, so I'm assuming that's out.

Yeah, don't clutter the additional notes. The original script should be the default, but having a romanized script following it is nice too, if available.

Bear with my ignorance here but I've never added a band before. Would a two song promo given out for free at a concert qualify as a valid release or should I just wait until they put out an actual demo or EP?

That's valid. But we require proof of its existence (ex. photos or the band talking about/offering it online) and distribution in sufficient quantities (i.e. not just 5-10 blank CD-Rs or something).

Yeah I know all that I guess the main thing I'm not sure about is because it is just a CDr with a cover sheet and honestly I have no idea how many copies they had. I just asked if they had anything for sale and the singer told me they had a bunch of free promos for the event. If I had to guess I would say there were around 100 or more because there was two full boxes of them. This is what is looks like:

Yeah, that's okay.

Awesome! Thanks I'll get on submitting them then.

The additional notes for this band, http://www.metal-archives.com/band/view/id/50461, is just a bloated disaster and sounds like it was copied off a facebook page or something. What's the policy on cleaning something like this up?

Yeah I notified legacy4 about that. Not only was the formatting a mess, it contained self-promotion and did nothing but redundantly gloss over the lineup history. You can amend/remove similar instances in the future, but do realize that some larger bands warrant a detailed history in the additional notes.

Say a band goes on hiatus in 2008, but never reforms, and announces their disbandment in 2011. Which year do we use in year ranges for the band and the final lineup?

Use 2011 as the split-up/line-up terminal date. But give the information about the hiatus in the additional notes.

^You sure about that, Derigin? I'd say since there has been no activity since 2008, the "years active" should end there. The announcement from 2011 can be mentioned in the notes. Precedent.

My thought is that if it's an official notice by the band that they are split-up at that point, then that is when the band was officially terminated. Whether or not they were on hiatus or if their status is unknown, that shouldn't be used as the judgement if it is known exactly when the band decided to call it quits (especially if they make it known that's the case). I imagine there is less guesswork involved on our end if we just simply go with what the band considers the date of its termination. In which case, the precedent set by Ishitrobots ought to be changed.

That's not to say that we shouldn't include information in the additional notes for when the band has gone on hiatus, of course.

http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/~L ... oid/377888
the additional notes appear to be a bit excessive.
Bin the stuff?

Very excessive, leave the mention of the bonus track.

are single-song unofficial youtube links legit/ok if the band has no other links?

I'm sure this has come up before, but what is the stance on crediting writers of covered songs? I wanna say we were told to not credit them in the line-up tab, but is it acceptable to list them in the additional notes field?

What to do when a label have changed name? If I simply change the name of the present label, then i suppose it will mess up for those who search for releases under the old name?

You select "changed name" as the status. If the new name already has an entry (i.e. album/artists connected), mention it in the description.