A Warning to the Behind-the-Scenes File Traders

[Secret Squirrel]

I've been getting an increasing number of complaints about the activities of some of you who are trading files using VGMdb's private message system, so it's time to address this before it becomes more pervasive. In particular, I'd like the lossless traders to take notice, because I've received the most complaints about you, and there is evidence that it's a coordinated effort.

1.) Please don't send unsolicited messages to members asking them for lossless rips of their albums.

It's apparent that some of you are "spamming" everyone who owns an album, begging them to share a lossless rip. This must stop now. VGMdb's collection feature is for everyone to use, and I don't want anybody to feel like they have to start hiding their collections to keep from being harassed.

2.) Please don't take advantage of the "Show Collections" page to advertise your file-trading.

This is an example of the Show Collections page. For each user who has the album in their collection, the user name and the title of the immediate containing folder is displayed. I have caught a couple of people clearly using this to solicit trades, with folder titles such as "Lossless (with cue) for Trade."

• If you have digital albums in your collection, please set them to private, or use folder titles that aren't such a glaring advertisement for file trading.

While I've always supported the use of the Collection feature for purposes beyond simply cataloging albums you physically own, we must remember that our collections are only two clicks away from the album pages. We don't want a VGM artist stumbling onto a list of obvious filesharers.

In addition to any of this, depending on the response and discussion that follow, there may be other actions taken, such as filtering out certain keywords (Mp3, Lossless, cue, etc.) on the "Show Collections" page.