What it is, what it does.
We’re attempting to codify (further) the terms of service- what kind of links i’m to delete.
Yes, any legitimately broken links would fall under this heading. Keep reporting.
However, we have a pretty strict view of the DIY ethic here, and don’t want to become an advertising clearinghouse. Does this mean we don’t want you coming on to tell us about your new album on your underground label? Absolutely not! We love that! If we were to find out that your album label were an Atlantic offshoot hoping to hit the underground demographic with a gritty little website just for sales, though… that results in a nice letter from us offering to sell you advert space (and we delete your link.)
If you ever, ever, feel that it was deleted unfairly, contact us. We do evaluate these things on a case by case basis, and sometimes we are wrong. (We will discuss it with you. You must be the owner or the webmaster of the website.)
We like record labels. We like zines and underground publications. It’s hard to know where to draw the line, and for us, it’s always going to be fuzzy, but for the most part, it ought to be a homebrew. That means self-published stuff is great; if you’ve already been signed to Random House, you probably should be relying on them for their marketing. We’ll delete it. No ad brochures, no commercial press.
If you’re a band label that started as a DIY and is now making a profit, yes, that still counts as DIY, but after a certain threshhold you should contact us to talk about sponsored link options; you’re who we had in mind.
Things that are NOT allowed. This is a much easier, brighter line.
Violence, self-harm (we don’t mean song lyrics) and hate are going to get your links deleted. Every time. We mean it when we say we have a zero tolerance policy for harassment, hate speech, racism, sexism, the whole bleak spectrum of pain that people can inflict on each other. We don’t require that you be cheerful, happy people all of the time- but we are going to ruthlessly delete anything that actively hurts people, and we’d appreciate it if you’d report anything that falls into this category. We’ll be instituting changes in the reporting protocol to encompass a greater breadth of detail when telling us about a link. (Watch for this in the near future!)
No business opportunities, franchises, pyramid schemes, or catalogue stuff. There is a world of difference between Harley-Davidson bikes and a guy making chopper frames in his garage; that difference comes down to whether it’s considered a retail or wholesale item, most of the time. If you make one-of-a-kind gizmos that people need to make their gear, you’re who we’re here for. If you sell hammers that you got at the Hammer Store Down The Block, we will delete you (and possibly send you a ‘keep off our lawn,’ letter.) If you happened to find that the Hammer Store Down The Block has a huge DIY instruction site and ALSO sells hammers, yes, submit the link. We’ll evaluate it, and it may be something that proves very useful to us all.
Business advice is generally going to run up against the same screening process. Telling someone how to manage petty cash in a startup label is very different from offshoring advice; we’ll do our best to weed out everything that isn’t unique, relevant, and useful.
All this aside, i’ve spent a lot of time reviewing links today. I’m consistently blown away by just how unique, relevant, and useful some of your stuff really is out there. Keep it up, and we’ll keep connecting you.