Skip to main content

View Post [edit]

Poster: TheGreenLama Date: Jan 24, 2013 4:26pm
Forum: faqs Subject: How can I contact the person / group who uploaded an item?

Above, within the body of FAQ info, under "Rights," this question is posed,

"How can I contact the person / group who uploaded an item?"

The answer states,

"Internet Archive is unable to release any contact information for patrons. However, it may be worth your while to post a review for the item in question - this automatically contacts the uploader's account, notifying them that their upload has been reviewed. You could pose queries/requests for information therein."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe this is entirely true, particularly for items uploaded to the Community Audio collection. If anyone clicks to open the Metadata file, buried within that file is a field called "uploader," which IS the uploader's email address. To make matters more confusing, this address, or even parts of this address, is searchable using the IA search engine. Are people who upload files onto the IA site generally aware of this?

And what is the point of a "screen name"? This seems to me to be superfluous and misleading. Why not just have the uploader's email address as the screen name?

Reply [edit]

Poster: appreciativexoxo Date: Dec 2, 2021 6:50pm
Forum: faqs Subject: Re: How can I contact the person / group who uploaded an item?

the email address is still shown in uploader metadata in 2021. seems like something that should be known before uploading

Reply [edit]

Poster: PDpolice Date: Jan 24, 2013 4:56pm
Forum: faqs Subject: Re: How can I contact the person / group who uploaded an item?

A screen name can be very useful to trolls such as this account. I always keep my upload activities separate from my forum postings. It is a good policy to keep your personal email address off open forums.
I only check my own upload account every few weeks, unless an items downloads have passed a few hundred a week. Then I try and figure out who these bored people are. I still do not understand why some things are popular. Contacting me would take some time.
The entities who upload and those who look to contact them have varying understanding of the IA site’s data. As a user becomes more familiar with the capabilities of the IA they can find many new and useful things. For instance as an advanced user, I can see you right now! No, not that way, I’m over there! Or am I?
Was there someone you wanted to contact or are you supplying informaation?

Reply [edit]

Poster: TheGreenLama Date: Jan 26, 2013 9:03am
Forum: faqs Subject: Re: How can I contact the person / group who uploaded an item?

I was not trying to contact anyone. My question here is rhetorical. Of course a screen name is useful, I'd say essential.

It does seem like good policy to have several accounts on this site. I can see having one for posting to forums and reviewing items, another for uploading material you spent time on and are seeking credit or self-promotion, and yet another for all of that other stuff humans do when drunk, angry, bored, etc. I was informed by one of the Internet Archive Team that this practice is discouraged. If an uploaders privacy was protected in a better way I would agree, but looking through just some of the metadata files I see names and addresses everywhere.