[mb-users] RE: HowToWriteEditNotes

[Lauri Watts]

On 11/8/06, Trong Trongersoll <trongersoll at yahoo.com> wrote:
> So, What i'm getting from reading this is that if it
> isn't on the internet somewhere it doesn't exist? How
> short sighted. I'm ripping my vinyl record collection
> which i started in 1965. For one thing, an album cover
> won't fit on a scanner, for another, i don't have a
> working scanner. If i say i'm adding information to
> musicbrainz from the album, are you going to call me a
> liar?

Not if you add catalog information, and other supporting information,
and mention what research you've done and why you think it's not
documented anywhere.

If you tell me you have X disc, on vinyl, it's from Y label, the
catalog on it is ABC1234, and you have a history of providing
researched edits and evidence when it's available, I'd probably vote
yes.  If you were a new user, did a freedb import, with no note, my
own research turns up no documentation, and when asked for one replied
"trust me" (or unfortunately nearly as common, reply with a torrent of
vitriol impugning my parentage), it's hard to vote yes to.

Reliable URL sources just happen to make _easy_ evidence to provide.
They aren't the only kind acceptable.  Documenting which sources are
more reliable than others, doesn't change that.

> Sure there may be some info entered by less that
> reputable people, but eventually this gets fixed. A
> database is a living thing, it will always change, and
> never be perfect, it is the nature of the beast.

Who do you think fixes it? The musicbrainz fairies?  That may be the
truth, in fact, the heaviest voters, are mostly the people who are
doing the most work cleaning out the cruft too.   Why give them more
work, when the person entering the disc _has it in their hands_ and
can provide more information already.

> Instead of worrying about what constitues proof, worry
> about what constitues disproof.

It's harder to disprove a negative, and remove bad data, than it is to
stop it getting in n the first place.

I've managed to come up with proofs for some very obscure releases, in
fact I just the other day entered a vinyl single pressed in 1938,
which by anyone's standards is going to be harder to find info about
than one from 1965.

Regards,
-- 
Lauri Watts