Terms of use

Bandcestry (bandcestry.cc) is a place to document the history of music scenes: bands, venues, people, shows and the memories around them. It is run by Broad Strokes Lab LLC. By using it, you agree to these terms. Our privacy policy says what we store and who can see it.

• You sign in with Google or GitHub, and you’re responsible for what’s done with your account. Your username is set once.
• You must be at least 18 to make an account.
• One person, one account, and you don’t pretend to be someone else.
• For help with your account, email [email protected].

You keep ownership of what you post. You give us permission to host and show it on Bandcestry and to promote Bandcestry. We won’t sell your photos or memories, license them to anyone else, or put them in ads without asking you first.

In legal terms, that permission is a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to store, copy, display and format your memories and contributions for those purposes, at the visibility you choose, and to keep them in our backups.

Shared history. Facts you add or correct on shared records (a band’s members, a show’s lineup, a venue’s address) become part of the community’s record, so others can build on them and the history stays whole. For those contributions, the licence continues after you leave, so the record isn’t left with holes; the licence for your own memories ends when you delete them, apart from the backups described in the privacy policy. If your account is deleted, your memories and photos are deleted, and your contributions to shared records (that a show happened, who was in a band, “I was there”) stay, shown as “a former member”.

• Post only words, photos and scans that you made, or that you have permission to share. When uploading goes live, each upload will ask you to confirm this, and to name the photographer and choose a licence where you can.
• Don’t post someone’s private information (a home address, a phone number, contact details, anything they wouldn’t expect to see public).
• Be careful with photos of children, and of anyone who might not want to be identified.

If something on Bandcestry infringes your copyright, tell us and we’ll take it down. A dedicated copyright page naming our designated agent will be at /legal/copyright. Until it’s live, send notices to [email protected], with the work, where it appears on Bandcestry, and how to reach you. We remove content from the live site promptly; see the privacy policy for how long backup copies last.

• Tell the truth as you remember it, and say when you’re unsure. Disagree with the record, not with people.
• No harassment, threats, hate, or doxxing.
• No spam, fake accounts, or bulk automated scraping or posting.
• Don’t try to get around who-can-see-what, or to reach data that isn’t yours.
• Use disputes, corroboration and evidence to correct the record. Don’t vandalise it.

Moderators can hide or remove content that breaks these rules. Decisions about the record (disputes, merges, sanctions) are made by people: moderators, or the community’s votes on a dispute. Anyone can see a dispute’s vote totals; who voted, how, and the reasoning they wrote are seen only by moderators.

Scene history is about real people, many of them alive. We commit to this:

• Former names. A person’s former names and other names are not shown publicly or searchable unless the person has said they may be. Today, every person’s other names are hidden from the public and never searched.
• “Don’t feature me.” A person can ask not to be featured. Their name stays in the historical record, but it won’t be linked, featured or used to notify anyone. (Coming soon; until then, ask us at [email protected].)
• No face recognition. We don’t use face recognition, ever. Any tag of a person in a photo is added by hand, and the person tagged can remove it.
• Photos lose their location. When uploading goes live, location and other embedded data will be stripped from photos by default.

Bandcestry has no AI features. No AI writes, edits, merges or decides anything in the historical record, and none moderates or sanctions accounts. Every fact on the site was entered by a person, or brought in from a cited source by a person. If AI features are ever added, they will never write the record by themselves, and we’ll update these terms first.

• You can stop using Bandcestry at any time, and ask us to delete your account at [email protected].
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, or that puts other people at risk. Where it’s safe to, we’ll tell you why. To appeal, email [email protected].
• We may change or stop the service. If we shut it down, we’ll give notice first where we can.

Bandcestry is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties, and the record is only as accurate as its contributors.

To the extent the law allows, Broad Strokes Lab LLC isn’t liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages arising from your use of Bandcestry. Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the greater of $100 or what you paid Bandcestry in the 12 months before the claim.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Oregon, USA.

If we change these terms, we’ll update this page and its date first. We’re reachable by email only: general questions to [email protected]; account help and appeals to [email protected]; privacy, data requests and copyright to [email protected].