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

[Jamie Hari]

Let's call a spade, a spade here.
Wikia is doing the right thing; legally and morally.

Anyone who is dissuaded by DOB field wasn't likely to be a major contributor
anyway.
Most folks who find this intrusive usually fill it out with bogus info, as
do young children who know they must be over 13 to participate.

I know this from years upon years of experience in many widely-varied online
communities.
I don't see this as a major (or minor) roadblock for Wikia's continued
success.

Perhaps a more prominent link as to why exactly this is being asked wouldn't
hurt; it certainly won't appease privacy fanatics, however.
Nothing will. Ever. No sense investing more time / money in working around a
non-issue.


Kind regards,

-- 
Jamie Hari
Editor-in-Chief
Marvel & DC Database Projects



On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 8:08 PM, John Beckett <johnb.beckett at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> 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
>
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