Note: this is the interview posted "as is", unedited from the email communication (which occurred during May/June 2005). The interview appearing in the Miasma magazine was translated (accurately, we hope ;)) to Finnish, and thus some answers may differ ever so slightly.
Morrigan: Yes, as a matter of fact we are a couple and have been for 5 years now. We went to college together. I'll let HellBlazer talk about the beginning of Metal Archives as it was his original idea.
HellBlazer: Well, back then I was rather annoyed at the lack of centralized ressources for heavy metal on the Net, it was pretty hard to find info about the less known bands. There were a few encyclopedia-type sites, but they were still very much incomplete, so basically I decided to start my own. My first attempt was a failure as I was writing each band entry by hand and got sick of it after about 6 bands. After gaining more experience in web development, I envisioned the site's current incarnation: fully automated and with contributions from people all over the world. Up to 25896 bands now... I guess it was a decent idea.
Morrigan: The site launched officially on July 17th, 2002. It was already online shortly before that, as a "beta" of sorts, but we had shown it only to a few friends to test it around a bit. If you look at the archived bands by date (you can click "More..." below the newly added bands), you can see the floodgate was opened on the 17th. This happened when one of our (now former) staff moderator plugged the website on the Metal-rules.com webzine. Word of mouth spread, and new submissions have not relented to this day.
Our feedback was tremendous, in both ways. A great number of metal fans using the Internet were excited with the website, many participated and some still claim to use it daily. On the other hands, we alienated various kinds of people, and not just those who are irritated at Led Zeppelin being excluded. Don't get me started on those who want their bands removed from the archives to maintain a "kvlt" status!
HellBlazer: The goal then was the same as it is now: keeping track of every metal band that ever existed. 3 years ago I thought that would be maybe 5000 bands, at most 10000 and that seemed completely unattainable. Turns out there are a lot more than I thought... submissions keep coming in infinitely to this day with no sign of stopping, so many that the staff can't even manage them in a reasonable timeframe anymore.
Morrigan: We indeed pay everything for the site out of our own pocket. It's not excessively expensive at the moment, so unless hosting costs become a problem that cannot be remedied by donations, we will host it for who knows how long. We have no plans on shutting it down, though our motivation to actively participate in the actual moderating process has greatly diminished overtime, and we usually let our staff do the work with the occasional decision on ambiguous issues thrown in... hehe. Our main goal, at the moment, is to actually produce a second version of the website. We want to change just about everything about it: the layout, the software engine running it, the database structure, and so on. There are tons of features we want to add. Unfortunately that is a lot of work and we are nowhere close to being done. I thus cannot offer a "release" date of this Metal Archives v2.0, but we are not giving up on it yet.
* The Database: What kind of challenges has there been with programming the database from day one?
Morrigan: We were beginner programmers when we built the website application, so the code is pretty embarassing to look at today. There are some bugs still left unresolved, because right now the software is practically unmaintainable. Fortunately we both acquired a lot of experience as full-time software developpers, so we know exactly what mistakes not to repeat, and we have good ideas of how to fix many problems.
HellBlazer: Please don't look at my code. It was our first time writing a web application of this scale back then, there were many difficulties involved in getting things to work and most of it is not done "the right way". Database design posed problems at times, and some early decisions continue to plague the site today, as evidenced by the buggy handling of split releases. Code structure and maintainability were also notably absent from our consideration, resulting in a hellish time trying to modify anything today. The new version will be much better.
Morrigan: Tons! We have had many suggestions, some of which are simply unfeasable (sorry, but unless bandwidth ever becomes a non-issue there will never be mp3s hosted on Metal-Archives), some of which are simply unecessary fluff, and some of which are so cool that we slap our heads wondering why we didn't think of them sooner.
HellBlazer: Some features that will hopefully see the light of day at some point in the future are: individual pages for every band members, featuring which bands s/he has been in, which album s/he appears on, some info about the person, etc.; improved search functions; a label section; improved collections functions, various bug fixes and usability improvements.
Morrigan: The site is visually simple for one major reason: we are both awful designers! Heh. We are programmers, not ergonomists or graphic designers. My skills in HTML have improved over time and I know I could do better today (I designed most of the interfaces and layout), though. But the site will never be graphic intensive, it drains enough bandwidth as it is now. Still, I fully realize it could really use a new look, perhaps similar to the current one but just more user-friendly and professional-looking.
HellBlazer: Purposefully or not, I much prefer simple designs over bloated ones. The site will always stay "basic" in that sense, though hopefully we can make the new version slightly more pleasing to the eye.
Morrigan: As of today (May 12th, 2005), only around 9000 users out of some 26000 have actually contributed something. Many register only for the forums, but apparently many more still never use their account at all so who knows why they bother. Anyway, I don't know the exact proportions, but unfortunately there are many frustrating members who mean well but don't read our rules and end up throwing drama by email or through the forums after things don't work their ways, and even if there are not that many of them they tend to spoil the genuine efforts by the good contributors. There are also a few idiots who just want to sabotage pages of bands they don't like (for example), and those always get banned on sight. But it's obvious that without a tremendous amount of solid contributors who just want to help with the database, the website would not have come this far. So we cheer for those enthusiastic metalheads who made the Encyclopaedia what it is today.
HellBlazer: The site is certainly more popular than I ever imagined and it has grown unbelievably fast. Obviously we wouldn't be anything without our huge number of contributors, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of them. It's great to see so many people working towards a unified purpose and I hope you appreciate what the site has become.
Morrigan: Yes, absolutely frustrating, because too many don't read them! Proportionally I don't think there are that many idiots, but the staff cannot help but to notice them more. Even our initially enthusiastic staff members become jaded after a while. Many have begged us to be moderators, but I am convinced that they do not realize it's really not so cool and fun after all.
HellBlazer: Yes, it is rather hard work for the moderators, much more than people realize. Not only is there an insane number of submissions coming in, but a considerable number of them turn out to be a bit of a waste of time for whatever reason (lack of info, breaking the rules, etc.). We have a reputation for being harsh I guess, which is a bit true but there really is no way to treat each user individually in such an environment, explaining what s/he has done wrong and such, so we take swift action to remove the problem and move on, often receiving complaints for it. It all gets very tedious. Overall though, the fact remains that the site has made exceptional progress and the system works well for the most part.
Morrigan: Indeed we are, and we thank you for your kind comments. No matter the problems we can have, the site's success always makes up for all of them in the end.
* You had to come up with some kind of boundaries what kind of music to include and exclude. Has it been hard because people have so different views of what is heavy, rock or metal?
Morrigan: At times it was, but the truth is, what else can we do? It's our site, we have our opinions, so we must be the ones to decide and draw the line. But truly we are not as adamant as some may think. Some bands were previously off limits, such as The Scorpions or Def Leppard, because I always considered them as rock bands and had never heard their more metal material. When I did, I changed my mind - so it's not an issue of disliking the bands or being spiteful as some have suggested. But words to the wise: that does not mean you should start trying to convince me to accept bands that have been debated times and times again. Sorry, no Zeppelin or AC/DC!
Note that using "democratic" votes or popular opinions on controversial, borderline bands has never once crossed our minds. Sorry, but we just don't trust people enough, and besides, that might mean Slipknot or Dillinger Escape Plan would get in... *shudders*
HellBlazer: You can never please everyone, so we just try to do what we feel is best, which can be unpopular at times. Life is unfortunate like that.
Morrigan: Well, we will see many of you Finns at Wacken this year. I heard stories of how Finns are crazy and fun to be around, so this should be a memorable experience!
HellBlazer: Finland has a lot of great bands... and that's about all I know about it. Cheers to the metalheads over there. \m/