FreeDB Moderation
Prior to the 2004-10-10 server update, releases that met certain criteria were automatically imported from FreeDB by the MusicBrainz FreeDB bot as a method of growing the database when the MusicBrainz project was just starting out. This feature was eventually disabled after some mailing list discussion because the poor quality of raw freeDB data and the frequency of duplicated entries were felt to outweigh the benefits of additional data for MusicBrainz.
Nonetheless, even though the automatic addition of releases was disabled, certain elements of the implementation still remain in MusicBrainz. For example, the concept of adding disc IDs to existing releases was kept, although since the addition of disc IDs to a release happens automatically, without voting, the FreeDB editor is not used for these additions.
Additionally, the MusicBrainz search page still retains special support for running queries that include or exclude the FreeDB editor.
Should the FreeDB Match Be Auto-Inserted?
The following rules are applied in order. Processing stops at the first rule to "match":
- If there are fewer than 5 tracks, the release will NOT be auto-inserted.
- If the release's artist is either "Various" or "Various Artists", the release will NOT be auto-inserted (but the determination of the release's artist is itself an inexact science).
- If at least 70% of tracks contain " - ", or at least 70% of tracks contain " / ", or at least 85% of tracks contain "-", or at least 85% of tracks contain "/", then the release will NOT be auto-inserted.
- If the release's name or artist fail the "Style Check", the release will NOT be auto-inserted.
- Otherwise the release WILL be auto-inserted.
The Auto-Insertion
This is in two parts:
- If the FreeDB release matches an existing release in MB, then the disc ID will be added to that release.
- To "match", we look for an artist where the name matches (by name or sortname),
- and where the release name matches exactly (case-insensitive),
- and where the number of tracks matches.
- If we find such an release, we attempt to add the disc ID to that release. Any errors encountered while doing so are silently ignored.
- Otherwise, a new release will be created, as the "FreeDB" moderator
- All these auto-insertions are done as the "FreeDB" moderator. This is because, since the original web service request which started all this is not authenticated, we have no idea to whom we might otherwise attribute this change.
- All releases inserted as a result of FreeDB moderations should have exactly one discid (but due to bug #898903 some don't).
This page is referenced from the FreeDB editor profile page; if you are moving, renaming, or redirecting this page, please ask a MusicBrainz administrator to update that as well.
