[Wikia-l] Why is DOB required for registration?

[John Beckett]

sannse wrote:
> It's a legal thing.
>
> As we have universal login for 9000+ wikis, it's considered
> safest for us to ask for a real date of birth.  That way we
> ensure we do the right thing for all our varied communities
> while complying with federal regulations.

You'll need to do something about this if you want to build up the community!

I suppose that many under-twenties are used to being asked DOB and don't think about
it. But if I may speak for the older-but-wiser crowd, being asked for sensitive
personal info is a BIG turn off.

I'm not talking about some hesitation to reveal my age. It's the WTF/MYOB factor:
Why is Wikia asking that? What will they do with my info? Where is the privacy
policy promising to protect my info? What about identify theft implications? It's
just creepy!

I know Wikia people are busy, but even a brief explanation on the registration page
would help reduce the "creepy" factor. You would need a bit more than "legal
requirement" -- an explanation should make sense. Are you saying there may be adult
content on some wikis? Does your system block a young user from accessing that adult
content? Does the software block all young people from logging on?  It sounds like
collecting DOB will just compound any liability.

If it is inexplicable but a genuine requirement as per Gil's enigmatic comment, you
need a link to a page explaining that.

Sorry for being argumentative, but I think it's important for the community, and if
I can't understand the explanation, many users won't.

John