I think a key question here is:
Do we want to link to URLs that cannot be verified by everybody/anybody (but only a subset of people)?
If we include private facebook URLs, that means the workflow is something like “Hey, I think Joe Rocker’s facebook is dead, can someone with a facebook account check on it to confirm?”
At the moment, I’d guess that the majority of MB editors have facebook accounts, so not much of a big deal, but, uh, slippery slope, or something.
Oh, another thought – the workflow becomes more complicated if an artist’s facebook page can only be viewed in certain countries.
We put in Spotify and iTunes links, so private facbook stuff is the same. Data is checked by people with accounts. And now we have dates \ expired options on the URLs they don’t need deleting and can be resurrected.
Yes, we do. Particularly “the majors” (Facebook, iTunes, etc). With 1/3 of the world’s population (over two billion users) on Facebook, it isn’t a ‘subset’.
Now, if you want to talk about some of the questionable sites, some of which I am too afraid to even click on…
Using me as an example - my browser doesn’t support Amazon Music. I can’t verify it, I get a splash page, therefore I don’t add it. Does that mean it shouldn’t exist?
*in my case, it isn’t about having an Amazon account or not. It is my old browser.