Encyclopaedia Metallum FAQ - READ THIS before emailing us!

The frequently asked questions... we nicely ask that you read all of this before emailing us or asking on the forums! Otherwise, should you ask us something that is answered here, we will either send you the link to that page, or ignore you. Not because we're rude, but we just don't have the time to always answer the same questions over and over again to individuals. There is no specific order of questions for now, sorry about that. And we apologize in advance if some answers seem rude, but even our patience has limits. ;)
Thank you.

Why was band X rejected or deleted?

Please don't e-mail the webmasters or individual mods about this, chances are they are not the ones who rejected the band in question. There's a sticky thread dedicated specifically to this question in the suggestions and complaints forum, please post your queries there.

Can you make the following changes to band X's page?

E-mails are not the correct way to ask for changes that you can't make by yourself. There's a "Report a mistake or additional information for this page" link on each band page that can be used to report information that needs changing. You can also provide links to new pictures, see the question about images further down for more info.

I have heard that a version 2 of the site is in the works. Can you elaborate?

It is indeed in the works... but with us lazy programmers, that could mean anything. There is no release date yet, not even an approximative one. Sorry. However, v2 will be a complete overhaul of the code and layout, and it will feature many improvements (and bug fixes) as well new functionalities, such as individual artist pages, lineups for albums, label sections, Unicode texts for Cyrillic, Asian, etc. album and song titles, multiple album versions, and a lot more (suggestions keep coming up all the time). Obviously, all that is a lot (and we do mean a lot) of work, and since we are not currently accepting any help (what can we say, it's our project ;)) and only work on it when we feel like it, we can't guarantee any time frame except to say that it's long-term. So while we appreciate your enthusiasm, we unfortunately have to tell you to not hold your breath.

Can you please delete my account?

No, sorry. The best you can do is hide your email address. However, if you have never participated (e.g. you have no points or submissions), nothing will link to your profile page, so it's just as if your account didn't exist. It really changes nothing.

I found a mistake/some false info on a band page. What should I do?

Use the "Report a mistake on this page" link on the appropriate band page, then describe the error AND what changes need to be made. If at all possible PLEASE provide a source (website, link to an image scan or mp3, etc), especially if you claim the genre is wrong. And make sure the priority is accurate, or the mods will hate you, and possibly ignore your report.

And whatever you do, please do NOT email us or post it on the forums, unless you are not sure about what the correction entails and prefer to discuss it with others first. Otherwise we'll just refer you to the report page.

But I submitted the report a long time ago and nothing has been done!

If it's a serious report, you were not ignored - we just have many, many reports in the queue. Some can stay in there for several weeks, unfortunately. We do our best to take care of them, but it gets difficult with so many reports, often false or with misplaced priorities. Please be patient. If it's been more than six weeks, and nothing has been done and you are SURE the report is accurate, you may resubmit it (and mention it's a re-submit).

I want to change a picture/logo/covert art for a better one, but I don't have the veteran status yet. What should I do?

See the question above. Use this to submit the picture (this is considered LOW priority, unless the current picture is fake or completely wrong). You should upload the picture to a website such as ImageShack (free, no registration required), and then send us the direct link to the image in your report. Make sure the picture meets the size requirements.

I updated an picture/logo/cover art, but my changes are not appearing, I still see the old image. Is there a bug?

Try to empty your browser's cache and refresh, or close the browser and look it up again later. That usually fixes the problem for most of the time. If the problem persists, contact us on the forum or by email.

The band submission is current locked. When will it be open again?

I don't know, sorry.

I signed up but didn't receive my activation email /
I can't login with my username pass, so I tried to get the system to email me my password, but it said the email was not in the database. So I tried to sign up, but it says the email is already taken. What gives?

You did sign up, but never received the activation email. First, check your junk/bulk mail folder, some email networks are particularly harsh. If you are on hotmail, please give it up (there is a news post from November 2004 with the details) and don't email us about it, and just try with another email address.
Update 2007: the server is currently having some problems with sending emails. Some users report getting all their email notifications, while others (not on hotmail) receive only a few, or none. We apologize for that, but unfortunately that's beyond our control (though we are constantly pestering our host about it). Please contact us for a manual account activation, and make sure you email us with the same email you used to register (also specify the username you signed up with).

Please delete my band(s) from your site. I don't want this information to appear on your website.

No. Get lost.

Seriously, if you feel that there are too many errors or inaccuracies on the page, we will be more than happy to correct them. Just use the "report a mistake on this page" link with the corrections and a moderator will take care of it.

But unless your band(s) don't follow our rules, we will not delete it just to please you. If you don't want your presence to be on the Internet, there is a very simple solution: don't form a band, don't release any album or demo! Chances are that if you do, someone will hear about it, and might mention you to someone else, and so on, until someone with an Internet connection decides to add your band information to the Archives. Tough luck. If you don't want your real name to be published, you can always use an alias (exceptions are made for those of you who live in backward countries where heavy metal is against the law; we will gladly help you make the information more anonymous if necessary). But there is no copyright on information, so you will have to grin and bear it.

Also, we can't help but wonder what kind of no-life kids want to be so badly kvlt and tr00 as to pretend they don't exist... Please get a life.

Where can I see the submission queue? I want to add a band but I don't know if it's already being submitted...

Apparently that link is difficult to find, possibly because it's not directly in the left menu? Well anyway, you can click here to view the band submission queue, but the link is actually printed clearly above the form for adding a band... Not sure why people don't notice it. ;)

Can you give me your address so that I can send you my band's demo/album?

Some people seem to think that because we host an heavy metal website, we are automatically a metal webzine. Yes there are reviews, but these reviews are contributed by members who sign up and submit them, not us! Though we of course could write our own if we wanted to, after all some of our moderating staff have written their reviews, but neither HellBlazer nor Morrigan are really good or interested in writing reviews, so please ask elsewhere for sending your demo.

Unless, of course, you just want to send us your album for free, because you like us or just want us to hear it, go ahead, and we thank you for the offer. ;) But don't expect us to review it, sorry, we're just not very good reviewers anyway. ;)

Can you tell me why I suddenly lost X points? I didn't even submit any band/review recently!

No. Get lost.

Actually, we probably don't remember. We don't have time to remember every little transgression by our members. Chances are, if your score apparently dropped out of the blue, it's because a moderator caught you breaking the rules even if you were inconspicuous at it, i.e. you added a bootleg album, a worthless re-release, worthless links, etc. Or perhaps you were point-whoring, or didn't respect the reporting priority rules.

Also, you shouldn't email us about your points. Quite frankly, you shouldn't worry about your score so much. If you lost Veteran status and strongly feel like there has been a mistake, please ask on the Suggestion and Complains forum.

Do you have plans for adding tour dates, interviews, mp3s, sampler/various artist CDs, etc?

No, sorry. At least not at the moment, things might change, but don't hold your breath.

My rank recently changed to that of Veteran, but I don't have more access than before, how come?

If it doesn't work, try logging out and relogging in. Try to clear your cookies if that doesn't help.

It won't allow me to log out! What's going on?

Sorry about that... this is a glitch that we still can't figure out, and seems completely random. :( If you use cookies, delete it. Close the browser, and re-open it. You should be logged out. With the new login system we have since April 2003, however, it shouldn't happen anymore.

How come I just lost all/X number of my points?! My submission wasn't that bad!

Probably because you did something that angered the Metal Lord who was reviewing your submissions.
What pisses off the moderators include, but are not limited to, writing lame-ass reviews of a few lines and/or little to no content, writing reviews that insult other members or the moderators, submitting a non-metal band and put in a valid metal subgenre (e.g. "traditional metal", "progressive metal", "death metal"...), writing all the info in CAPS, all in lowercase, all in alternate caps, wasting the mod's time by not providing a link for an obscure band with minimum info and an ambiguous subgenre...

I.e., respect the guidelines and you'll keep your score. :) Here's a tip: the more you repeat the same offense, the more you piss off the moderator.

Why am I still shown as a "metal newbie" on the forums, I have over 500 points!

The ranking system from the phpBB forums are independent on the ones on the Encyclopaedia. You could have the highest possible rank on the actual site, and still be a "mallcore kid" on the forums. On the site, your rank grows with your submissions and the points you accumulate: on the forums, by your number of posts.

I'm older than you and I'm a "metal newbie", and you're a "Metal God/Goddess"? What's up with that?

Don't take silly rank on an Internet site so seriously. It's meant to monitor user activity and their level of access, and we thought it'd be more fun with rank names like that instead of just "Admin", "New user", etc. Nothing more than that.

Why not Led Zeppelin? System of a Down? Mudvayne? Blue Oyster Cult?

(Sorry, couldn't resist... :p)

I submitted a band/bands X days ago, and still nothing. What's going on? Did you reject it? I didn't get the email!

Please be patient, the band submissions list can grow very quickly, faster than the moderating staff can keep up (up to 200+ bands in queue in only a few days!).

So chances are, your submission isn't lost (though it HAS happened before, but very rarely), just pending. Don't worry, some band submissions have been pending for over a month, for diverse reasons (we can't find info, samples, etc). Usually though, if your submission is not ambiguous and even provides samples, it will be accepted/rejected on the first review.

Band X's page isn't loading up! Is it a server problem?

Probably, as the bug that used to cause this on some pages has been fixed (it was due to an infinite loop when the {\link } syntax was incorrectly used - see the help section for more details). When you get a "server timeout error" or something similar, or if the band page just refuses to load no matter how long you wait, it's probably something on the server, so just wait until it becomes more stable. If every other page loads fine except this one you've been trying to look, please let us know and we'll look into it. However, it shouldn't happen anymore.

I can't add bands/albums! Everytime I try, I get an error message.

First, please tell us the message error in details, so that we can figure out what caused it. Second, tell us what your user agent is (browser and OS). Please note that these pages have been tested successfully with IE5.x and up, Opera 6.x and up, and the latest Mozilla. It should theorically work well with NS6-7 too. If you are using a different browser and get errors, try one of these instead. Note that Javascript must be enabled.

I can't login to the board, it says my password is wrong.

If this happens, try to reset your password using the "edit profile" link in the left menu of the main page. Just put in a new password, or the same one if you want, but make sure you update your profile with a new password. It should work on the board also. If not, please let us know. And, try to avoid using the forums' "send me a new password" functionality, as this password will not be the same as the one on the site.