The MetalBC Account Manual

Everything you can do on metalbc.com, in one place. From signing up as a guest to running your chapter, this guide walks through every feature of your account, written for the people who actually use them.

1. Account Basics

Everything you need to get into MetalBC: signing up as a guest, activating your account, logging in, switching language, and finding your way around the top navigation.

Signing up

You'll almost always create your account in the moment — you find a Network Meeting or MetalBC Event you want to attend, click the signup button, and a "Welcome to MetalBC" modal appears. From there you choose between Log in (if you already have an account) and Register as Guest (if you don't).

Registering as a guest is free and intentionally light: we ask only for what we need to issue you a seat at the table for that specific event.

Step by step:

1. On an event page, you click the signup CTA. The Welcome to MetalBC modal opens.
2. Pick Register as Guest to open the registration form. (Already have an account? Pick Log in instead.)
3. Fill in the required fields:
   • First name and Last name (each minimum 2 characters)
   • Email address — this becomes your login and we send the verification link here
   • Company name — the company you're representing
   • Phone number (optional)
4. Open the About You section if you'd like to tell us a bit more — it's optional but useful:
   • What is your current business need or search question? (free text, max 500 characters)
   • Up to three Favorite Bands
5. Click Register. You'll see a "Registration Successful" confirmation showing the email address we just sent the verification message to.
6. Open your inbox, find the email titled "Verify your email address — MetalBC", and click Activate Account.

If you don't see the email after a minute or two, check your spam folder. The confirmation screen has a Resend Verification Email button — you can resend once every 5 minutes per email address.

Tips:

• The verification link is valid for 48 hours. After that you'll need to request a new one — the activation page itself offers a New verification email button if you arrive at an expired link.
• The same email address can only be used once. If you've registered before, log in instead of re-registering — we'll tell you the email is already in use.
• Already a member and want to bring someone along? Members have an Invite a friend option that sends the guest a personalised invitation email instead. (Members-only or paid events can't be invited to.)

Activating your account (first login)

When you click the link in the verification email you land on the Activate Account page. This is a one-time screen that does three things at once: confirms your email, sets your password, and finishes your event signup.

1. You arrive at the activation page. We validate the link automatically — if it's still good, you see "Set your password".
2. Enter a password of at least 8 characters. A strength meter gives you live feedback; we don't enforce special-character rules, but a longer passphrase is always better.
3. Re-enter the same password in Confirm password — the field turns green when they match.
4. Leave Remember me ticked if you want to stay logged in across browser sessions (recommended on your own device).
5. Click Activate account. We log you in right away and confirm your spot at the event you registered for.
6. You're redirected either back to the event page (so you can finish ticket purchase if it was paid) or to your personal Welcome screen at /account/welcome/.

Tips:

• The activation page is shown in the same language as the page where you signed up — sign up on the NL subsite, get a Dutch activation page. We remember this for your account so all future emails stay in that language too.
• If you see "Account already activated", your account is fine — just go to Log in instead, or use Forgot password? if you don't remember the password you chose.
• If you see "Invalid activation link" or "Link expired", click New verification email on that page and we'll send a fresh link.

Logging in and logging out

To sign in, click Login in the top-right corner of the menu bar and enter the email address and password you set when you activated your account. Once you're signed in, that same top-right spot shows your profile avatar instead — it links straight to your account.

• Log in — use your email address and the password you set during activation.
• Stay signed in — the "Remember me" checkbox keeps you logged in for two weeks on the device you're using.
• Log out — open Account → General, scroll to the Quick Links card, and click Log Out. (You can also use the Log out link in your account sidebar from anywhere in the account area.)

You stay logged in across all three language subsites (EN, NL, DE) — the network is shared, so once you're signed in on one, you're signed in on all.

Forgot your password? Reset it.

If you can't remember your password (or if you arrived at the activation page only to find the account is already active), use the Forgot password? link on the login screen.

1. Enter the email address you registered with.
2. We send a password reset email titled "Reset your password — MetalBC" with a button labeled Reset password.
3. Click the button to land on a page where you enter and confirm a new password.
4. Submit, then log in with the new password.

We'll also email you a confirmation once your password has been changed, so you know if someone else has done it.

Changing your email address

Your email is more than just a contact field — it's how you log in and how we deliver reminders and tickets. You can change it from Account → General:

1. Sign in and go to Account → General (the "Account Settings" page).
2. In the Email Address card you'll see your current email. Click Change Email.
3. Two fields appear: New Email and Confirm Email. Enter the new address in both — they must match exactly.
4. Click Update Email to save.

When the email address changes, we sign you out and back in in the background to refresh your session, and we send a confirmation to your previous address letting you know the change happened. If that wasn't you, contact support straight away.

The password card right below works the same way: click Change Password, fill in the new password and its confirmation, and Update Password. Both fields must match.

Switching language (EN / NL / DE)

MetalBC runs on three subsites: English at the root domain (the default), Dutch at /nl/, and German at /de/. The same account works on all of them — you don't need to register again.

You'll find the language switcher in the top navigation menu. It lists the available languages for the page you're currently on, so clicking it takes you to the equivalent page in the chosen language whenever a translation exists.

The language you used when you first signed up is special: we store it on your profile so we know which language to send your emails in — verification, password reset, event reminders, and ticket confirmations all follow that setting. If you'd like to change the language of your emails later, contact support; switching browser language alone won't do it.

Becoming a Member

Guest accounts are perfect for trying things out: you can sign up for one event, see the public part of the directory, and get a feel for the community. To unlock the full experience — full member directory, member-only events, exclusive perks — you'll want to upgrade to a Member.

• The Become a Member call-to-action appears in a few places: at the top of the member directory (the "see X more profiles" banner for guests), on venue pages, and on any page where guest access is limited.
• It points to /join/ on the current language subsite. From there you'll go through our membership onboarding (a paid signup that creates your member profile and Moneybird invoice).
• During membership campaigns (for example our DE launch) you can also pre-register via Forge Members — an early-access flow with tiered pricing. See the next section for the full Presale walkthrough.

If you're already a guest and decide to upgrade later, your existing account and history come with you — you don't need a second email address.

Presale & Forge Members

Before MetalBC opens regular memberships in a new country, we run a presale: a limited early-access window where you can lock in your spot, get a discounted founding rate, and join as a Forge Member — the first 1,000 members of that market, who receive an exclusive patch, pin and MetalBC T-shirt as a thank-you for backing the club early.

The first market to use this flow is Germany. If you're in another country and we open a presale there later, the experience will look almost identical.

Where to find it

Each subsite has its own presale page at /presale/:

• German launch: https://metalbc.com/de/presale/
• Future markets: /nl/presale/, /presale/ (English), etc.

The page only appears when presale is switched on for that market. Outside the presale window — or in countries where it isn't running — the URL returns a normal 404.

What you'll see on the page

The presale landing page is built from a configurable set of sections: a hero ("Forge Members — Deutschland"), KPIs, a story about why MetalBC is launching here, a roadmap of upcoming events in that country, a benefits list, an FAQ and team, and finally the pricing cards and signup form.

The pricing tiers

There are typically two tiers, both giving you the same Forge Member perks but at different price points and term lengths:

• Tier 1 — €795 (excl. VAT)
• Tier 2 — €1,390 (excl. VAT)

The exact tier names, descriptions, included benefits and "spots remaining" counters are configured per market in the admin and shown live on the pricing cards — so you'll always see the current price, the included Forge Member perks (patch, pin, T-shirt), and how many spots are still available in your chosen tier. When a tier sells out, its card shows Ausverkauft ("Sold out") and the next available tier is highlighted as Empfohlen ("Recommended").

The live tier names and exact perks per market come from Presale Settings → Tier Configuration on each subsite. Check that page on the DE site for the current text before quoting prices to anyone in writing.

The signup form

Click "Jetzt Mitglied werden" on a tier card and you're taken to the form, which has three blocks:

1. Personal details — first name, last name, email.
2. Company details — company name, full address (street, postal code, city), industry, optional VAT number (USt-IdNr.), optional phone.
3. Forge Member pack — T-shirt fit (men's / women's) and size (S–3XL), since the welcome pack is shipped to you.

You also confirm three consents (terms of use, the legal cancellation notice, and the privacy policy) before you can submit.

If you're not ready to pay yet, you can use the "Interesse registrieren" button instead — that creates a guest account, sends you a verification email, and keeps you on the list without taking payment.

VAT, VIES and what the price becomes

Tier prices are shown excluding VAT. What gets added depends on your VAT number:

• No VAT number (private buyer / B2C): the standard rate is added. Currently 21% (MetalBC is a Dutch company, so the Dutch VAT rate applies for B2C across the EU). So a €795 tier becomes €961.95 gross.
• VAT number entered: as soon as the format looks right, the form shows the reverse-charge preview ("Reverse Charge: Die Steuerschuldnerschaft geht auf den Leistungsempfänger über"). On submit, your VAT number is checked live against the EU VIES database:
  • If VIES confirms it's valid, no VAT is charged — you pay the net amount (€795).
  • If VIES rejects it, or VIES is unreachable / times out, the full 21% VAT is applied as a safe fallback. (You can dispute and reclaim afterwards if VIES was simply down at that moment.)

The VAT breakdown — net, VAT amount, total — is shown live in the form before you confirm, so you always know what you'll be charged.

Paying via Mollie

After you submit, your tier spot is reserved for you (atomic reservation: you can't lose it to another buyer mid-checkout) and you're forwarded to Mollie's secure checkout to pay with iDEAL, credit card, SEPA, PayPal or another method Mollie supports in your country.

If the payment fails, is cancelled, or expires, your reserved spot is released so someone else can take it — and you can re-try via a retry link.

After payment

Once Mollie confirms your payment:

1. You land back on /presale/confirmation/, which shows a green checkmark, your tier name, and the next steps. If your account was created in time, you're already logged in.
2. You receive a payment confirmation email in your subsite's language. It lists the tier, the date, and either the full VAT breakdown or the reverse-charge note (with the legal references to Art. 44 EU VAT Directive / § 13b UStG).
3. A welcome email arrives separately, with a link to set your password and a three-step "what happens next" timeline ending in your official membership start date.
4. Your data is pushed to HubSpot (so the team knows you've joined) and a Moneybird invoice is issued for your records.

You now have a pre-member account: you can log in, set up your profile, and start exploring. On your membership start date — set per market, e.g. when the country fully launches — your account upgrades automatically to a full member with access to all events, tickets and member benefits.

A payment confirmation is not the same as the official invoice. The invoice is sent separately from Moneybird.

If you already have a guest account

If you previously registered interest (or were a guest from another flow) and used the same email address, you're not creating a second account — your existing user is upgraded to pre-member, your details and history stay intact, and you get the upgrade confirmation email instead of a fresh welcome email.

Finding your way around (top navigation)

The top menu is your map of MetalBC. It's identical in structure across EN / NL / DE — only the labels are translated. From left to right:

• Events — a dropdown grouping all things you can attend:
  • Network Meetings — the regional chapter meetings (what used to live under /events/ and /agenda/; old links 301-redirect here)
  • MetalBC Events — our own organised events
  • Partner Events — events hosted by our partners
  • Concert Calendar — the Europe-wide concert agenda
• Network — the member directory, with Partners tucked underneath (festivals, community partners, media partners — marked with a handshake icon). See Chapter 3 for the full directory walkthrough.
• Concert agenda — quick link to the concert calendar (also reachable via Events)
• Account — when you're signed in, your avatar appears here as a small profile badge. Click it to open your account area (Overview / Profile / General / My Concerts / Tickets / Meetups / Events / Guests).
• Language switcher — at the end of the menu, lets you flip between EN, NL, and DE.

When you're signed out, Account is replaced by a Log in / Sign up entry. Once you've completed signup and activation, the avatar takes over and you have everything you need within one click of the header.

2. Your Profile

Your profile is the heart of your MetalBC presence. It's how other members find you, how we know what kind of music and events to surface for you, and how we keep your inbox useful instead of noisy. This chapter walks through everything inside Account → Profile, Account → Preferences, and the email/communication settings under Account → General.

If you haven't logged in yet or you're looking for password/email-address changes, see Chapter 1 — Account Basics first; this one assumes you're signed in.

What other members see (your public profile)

Curious how you look from the outside? Click View Public Profile at the top of the Profile tab. Other logged-in members see:

• Your cover image, photo, name, job title and summary line
• Your biography (in the language they're browsing in)
• Your work experience, volunteering, skills, bands and the chapters you belong to
• The countries you're active in and your favourite bands
• Contact details (email, phone, website) and social media links
• Upcoming MetalBC events you're attending — so people can plan to meet you there

If your profile is set to Private, none of this is shown to other members — they'll see a "Private mode" notice instead.

Quick wins

• Fill in your favourite bands. Two minutes, and your concert digest plus on-site recommendations start working for you instead of being generic.
• Write a proper bio. Even three sentences beats an empty card — and write a separate one per language if you can.
• Pick the right countries under "Active in". It's what powers the Concerts near you card and a lot of behind-the-scenes matching.
• Turn the concert digest on if you ever think "I wish someone would tell me when good shows are coming up". That's literally what it's for.
• Use Private mode during quiet stretches — toggling back to public is one click.
• Check your public profile after editing. Inline edits are easy to miss; a quick preview catches typos.

3. The Member Directory & Network

At MetalBC, the people are the product. Bands, labels, festivals, venues, agencies, journalists, promoters, photographers — every member of the club brings a piece of the European metal industry with them. The Member Directory is where you find them.

This chapter walks you through how the directory works, how to search and filter for the right people, and what changes once you log in as a member.

Where to find it

Open the top navigation and look for Network. Underneath you'll find:

• Members — the directory of everyone in the club (this chapter).
• Companies, Bands, Venues — organisations and acts that members are linked to (covered in Chapter 7).
• Partners — festivals, venues, media outlets and businesses we partner with (also Chapter 7).

The directory itself lives at metalbc.com/members/ (or /nl/members/ and /de/members/ on the localized sites). It's the same dataset everywhere — language only affects the surrounding interface.

How the listing works

When you land on the directory you'll see a grid of member cards. Each card shows:

• The member's name and photo (or the MetalBC logo if no avatar is set).
• Their title or role.
• A short snippet of their bio (first ~20 words).
• A row of flags showing the countries they're active in.
• Their primary company, if any.
• The bands they're linked to, if any.
• A small orange "Private mode" pill if their profile is private (more on that below).

Cards are sorted alphabetically by name. The listing paginates, and on most modern browsers more cards load automatically as you scroll. If you prefer the old-school approach, traditional pagination links sit at the bottom too.

For a recap of what's on a full single profile — phone, social media, bio, work history, attended events — see Chapter 2 — Your Profile.

Searching and filtering

At the top of the directory you'll find a search bar plus a Filters button that opens a dropdown panel.

Search is a free-text search over member names and profile content. Type a name, a city, a job title — whatever you're looking for — and the list narrows in real time.

Filters (in the dropdown) let you drill down by:

• Country — useful when you're planning a trip or scouting a regional market.
• Skills — what people do (booking, A&R, mixing, legal, PR, etc.).
• Companies — surface everyone working at a specific label, agency or studio.
• Bands — find every member linked to a particular act.
• Chapters — filter by local MetalBC chapter (Amsterdam, Berlin, etc.).

You can combine filters freely — for example "Skills: Booking" + "Country: Germany" + "Chapter: Berlin" — and use the Clear Filters button to reset everything. The filter button shows a small count badge so you always know how many filters are currently active.

Single member profiles

Click any card to open that member's full profile. We won't repeat what's there — Chapter 2 — Your Profile already covers the full anatomy of a profile, from cover image to skills and social links. The short version: it's everything that member chose to make visible, and it's your starting point for reaching out.

Members and companies and bands are linked both ways. If you open a company page (Chapter 7), you'll see all members of that team and can click straight through to their profiles. Same on a band page — every band member with a MetalBC account is one click away. The directory isn't a dead end; it's a graph.

What guests and visitors see

MetalBC is a members' club, and the directory reflects that.

• Visitors (not logged in) can browse the directory and see public profiles, but cannot view single profile pages without logging in. Cards show a "Login to view member" button instead of opening the profile.
• Guests (event guests with a temporary account) can also browse the directory and see public profiles, but private profiles stay hidden from them.
• Members see everything: public profiles, private profiles, and — as a bonus — a separate Guest Directory of people who registered for events as guests but aren't full members yet. A small cross-link at the top of the directory takes you there.
• Admins see all of the above plus guest profiles inline.

At the top of the listing, guests and visitors see a friendly "teaser" banner: "Become a member to see 12 more profiles" (or "Log in to see 12 more profiles" for visitors). The number is real — it's the actual count of profiles currently hidden from your view. The button next to it takes guests to the Join MetalBC page, and visitors to the login screen. No bait-and-switch, just a transparent nudge.

Private mode

Every member can flip a switch on their own profile to go private. When private mode is on:

• The profile is hidden from visitors and guests in the directory and in search.
• A direct link to the profile redirects visitors to login, and shows guests a "Members Only" page with a "Become a Member" button.
• Other logged-in members still see the profile normally — private mode is about keeping the public web out, not hiding from your peers.
• The member's own card still shows an orange "Private mode" pill in the directory so they can see at a glance that the flag is on.

Chapter 2 — Your Profile covers how to toggle private mode on your own profile.

A note on partners

The Partners entry under Network is a different beast — it lists organisations (festivals, venues, media, businesses) that MetalBC has formal partnerships with, rather than individual people. Chapter 7 covers Partners in detail alongside Bands, Companies and Venues. It's worth knowing they live under Network in the menu so you don't go hunting for them elsewhere.

Once you've found someone interesting in the directory, the rest is up to you: open their profile, see which events they're attending (Chapter 5), drop them a line, or just show up at the next chapter night and say hello. That's the whole point.

4. The Concert Agenda

The Concert Agenda is the heart of MetalBC. It's a single, daily-updated overview of every metal, hardcore and punk concert and festival we can find across Europe — roughly 2,700 shows in about 20 countries at any given moment. Whether you're planning your weekend, scouting which festivals to hit next summer, or just curious what's on tonight near you, this is where you start.

Where to find it

The agenda lives on its own page in every language:

• English (main site): /concert-calendar/
• Nederlands: /nl/concertagenda/
• Deutsch: /de/konzertkalender/

You can also reach it from the main menu under Concerts on any subsite. The page header tells you what you're looking at, and the small info icon in the top right reveals a short explainer about where the data comes from.

Where the data comes from

Three editorial feeds power the agenda, and we refresh from all of them every day:

• Festivalinfo.nl — the go-to source for shows in the Netherlands and Belgium.
• Podiuminfo.nl — venue-level coverage across the Benelux.
• Festivalticker.de — festival listings across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the wider European scene (Finland, Croatia, Italy and more).

Together that's roughly 2,700 entries spread over about 20 European countries. You'll spot a small Festivalinfo logo next to artist names on cards whose source is Festivalinfo / Podiuminfo — that's your hint that clicking through opens the editorial page on Festivalinfo. Festivalticker entries don't carry a logo badge, but you'll recognise them by their richer detail page (line-up, description, price — more on that below).

Do you organise concerts or festivals yourself? Get your event listed for free directly with Festivalinfo, Podiuminfo or Festivalticker — once it's in their feed, it lands in our agenda automatically.

The country filter (and why it just works)

When you arrive on the concert page, the agenda already knows roughly where you are based on which subsite you're browsing:

• On the Dutch site (/nl/concertagenda/) you see shows in Netherlands & Belgium combined.
• On the German site (/de/konzertkalender/) you see shows in Germany.
• On the English / main site (/concert-calendar/) you see all of Europe — no country pre-selection.

Why this default? Because a Dutch-speaking visitor almost certainly wants Dutch and Belgian shows by default, not a wall of 2,700 entries spread from Lisbon to Helsinki. We've intentionally bundled NL and BE into one option in the dropdown — "Netherlands & Belgium" — because they form one Dutch-speaking gig market: the same bands tour both, the same fans cross the border weekly. Treating them as one default just feels right.

The active default is reflected in the URL (?country=NL,BE, ?country=DE, etc.), which means:

• You can share the link and your friend lands on the same view.
• You can bookmark a specific country combination.
• And you can override it whenever you want.

Changing or removing the country filter

Use the Country dropdown at the top of the agenda:

• Pick a single country (Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Finland, Czechia…).
• Or pick "Netherlands & Belgium" to get the combined Dutch-speaking view explicitly.
• Pick "All countries" to see every show in Europe — useful when you're scouting a destination festival.
• Or hit Reset filters (the little × link that appears as soon as any filter is active) to clear everything in one click. On concert pages this resets you to "All countries" so the default doesn't silently re-apply — you stay in control.

The other filters

Below Country you'll find three more filters, all of them collaborating: pick a city and the venue list shrinks to only that city's venues, pick a period and the city/venue lists shrink to only places with concerts in that window.

• City — every city we currently have concerts in, neatly grouped under Netherlands and Belgium (and the rest below). Pick "Tilburg" and you're looking at every gig in town, regardless of venue.
• Venue — once a city is picked, the venue dropdown narrows down to that city's venues. Otherwise it lists every venue with upcoming shows.
• Period — quick presets for the moments people actually plan around: Today, Tomorrow, This weekend, This week, This month, Next month, plus individual upcoming months when there are concerts that far ahead.

Genre filtering (?genre_main=…, ?genre_sub=…) is also wired through the URL — handy if you want to share a "doom metal only" view, for example.

A Reset filters link appears as soon as anything is active, so you never need to clear filters one by one.

Four ways to look at the same shows

A view switcher at the top of the results lets you flip between four perspectives without losing your filters:

• Grid — image-first cards, the default. Best for browsing visually.
• List — compact, dense rows. Best when you're scanning a long week.
• Calendar — a month-by-month grid view. Best for "what's happening on the 14th?"-type questions.
• Map — every venue plotted geographically. Best for road-trip planning.

The view choice is remembered in the URL (?view=list, ?view=map, etc.) so it survives a refresh and is shareable.

Load more (why we cap at 36)

Grid and list views start with the first 36 concerts that match your filters. With 2,700 entries in play, loading every card up front would punish your browser — and you. So you'll see a Load more button at the bottom of the grid; click it and the next batch of 36 streams in via AJAX, without reloading the page. Keep clicking until you've seen everything that matches.

Calendar and Map views always show every match in your filter (no cap), because they need the full set to draw correctly.

The single-concert page

Click any card title and you land on the dedicated page for that show. What you see depends on how rich the source data is, but at minimum:

• The title, image, date and start time (with "aanvang onbekend" if the source didn't include a time — common for festivals).
• Venue and city, with the venue name linking through to its own venue page when we have one.
• Genre and category (concert vs festival).
• External links: Tickets, Official website, Meer info — all opening in a new tab.

If the show came from Festivalticker, you'll also see the bonus fields they provide:

• Line-up — the full artist roster.
• Price — entry fee where Festivalticker lists one.
• Verwacht aantal bezoekers — expected attendance for festivals where Festivalticker tracks it.
• Over dit festival — a longer description from the Festivalticker editors.

At the bottom of the page sits the Attend / Maybe block. Tap one of those buttons to mark the show on your personal agenda — your fellow members can see who's going, and once you're marked as Attending or Maybe you also get the option to start or join a Meetup for that concert. See Chapter 8 — Meetups & Your Chapter for the full meetup flow. If a partner has a ticket type for sale on a show, you'll also see a MetalBC ticket section directly under the title — see Chapter 6 — Tickets for the purchase flow.

"Concerts near you" on your dashboard

Once you're logged in, your member dashboard surfaces a Concerts near you card that uses the exact same logic as the country default — Dutch-speaking subsite → NL + BE, German subsite → DE. It's a fast shortcut into the agenda already filtered the way you'd filter it yourself. Full details are in Chapter 2 — Your Profile; just know it's there and it links straight back into this same agenda.

In short: open the agenda on your language's subsite, trust the default country, narrow down with City / Venue / Period as needed, switch views to suit how you browse, and click through for the full story on any show. Everything is shareable via the URL, everything resets in one click, and the data refreshes itself overnight — so it's always today's picture, not last week's.

5. Events

The Events section covers everything that happens inside the MetalBC network: monthly chapter get-togethers, the big national gatherings, and the concerts where we save seats for you. It's separate from the public concert agenda — those are imported listings, while everything below is run by us, with your fellow members.

There are three types of events, each with its own listing page:

• Network Meetings — monthly chapter meet-ups, the heartbeat of the club.
• MetalBC Events — national network-wide events, conferences, summits.
• Partner Events — concerts and festivals where we reserve tickets for our network.

You'll find each type under the Events menu in its own language:

All three pages share the same listing engine, so they look and behave the same way — only the filters differ per type.

The three event types

Network Meetings. Every month, each MetalBC chapter (region) hosts an informal meet-up at a fixed venue. These are free for members and the easiest way to get to know the people in your area. The filter bar lets you pick a Country, a Chapter, and a Period (month), so you can quickly find the meet-up closest to you. Counts next to each option update live as you filter.

If you're brand new, your first Network Meeting is the recommended starting point — show up, no pressure, drinks are usually on the house.

MetalBC Events. These are the bigger moments: yearly conferences, summits, themed nights, member showcases. They draw the entire network, often with guest speakers from the industry. Because they're network-wide rather than chapter-specific, the "Chapter" filter is replaced by a Country filter only — paired with Search and Period.

MetalBC Events can be free, members-only, paid, or use external registration (see How sign-up works below).

Partner Events. Partner Events are concerts and festivals where MetalBC has negotiated a block of tickets for the network. You'll see the regular concert details (artist, venue, date) plus a clear "buy ticket" flow. Filtering is by Country and Period.

Heads up: Partner Events also surface in two other places — the main Events archive ("Concerts with MetalBC Tickets" section) and the concert agenda — so you may stumble across the same show in more than one feed. They all link to the same single concert page.

The single event page

Click any event and you land on a page with the same layout regardless of type:

• Hero image at the top with the title, date, and venue overlaid.
• Left column: the full description, plus optional Speakers, Companies, and Bands sections when the organiser has linked them.
• Right sidebar (the important bit): the sign-up box at the very top, followed by event facts — chapter, date and time, location (linked to Google Maps directions), max capacity, members-only flag, and price.
• Attendees further down the sidebar: who else is going. Members are shown with avatar and a link to their profile; guests are listed by name. You'll see the "Members attending" and "Guests attending" sections separately, and a "Participants (n)" button opens a modal with the full list.

A handy Add to my Calendar button at the top of the sidebar downloads an .ics file (with the correct timezone) so the event drops cleanly into Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar.

Default start time of 19:30

If the organiser hasn't entered a specific time, the event defaults to 19:30 Amsterdam time. This isn't laziness — it's a safety net. Without it, an unset time would become midnight, and reminder emails sent late at night could end up showing the wrong day (an off-by-one timezone bug). 19:30 also happens to be when most MetalBC evenings actually kick off, so it's usually right anyway.

How sign-up works

The sign-up button at the top of the sidebar adapts to who you are and what kind of event it is.

Free events, logged in as a member. You'll see a green "I'm going" button. One click and you're in. Changed your mind? It flips to "I'm not going anymore" and removes you cleanly. You'll also see a "Bring a Friend" button — that opens a modal where you can invite a guest (not allowed on members-only events, naturally).

Free events, not logged in. A "Signup" button opens the guest registration modal: name and email, and you're on the attendee list. Confirmation lands in your inbox.

Members-only events. Only members can sign up. Guests and non-logged-in visitors see no sign-up button at all — the event page is informational only.

Paid / ticketed events. Instead of "I'm going" you'll see ticket types and prices (with separate member and guest prices where applicable). The checkout flow is described in Chapter 6 — Tickets. Guests purchasing tickets will hit the same guest registration modal at checkout, so the event still has names against the seats.

External registration. Some events (especially industry conferences we cosponsor) register attendees on a partner's website. In that case the "Signup" button opens an external link in a new tab.

If the event has a maximum capacity and it's full, the sign-up button disappears and the sidebar shows the count instead. Race conditions are handled server-side — two people clicking "I'm going" at the same time on the last seat won't both get in.

Featured and sticky events

The main Events archive (the catch-all listing) starts with up to three special blocks: Featured events (manually pinned in admin), Concerts with MetalBC Tickets (the partner events sneak peek), and then the filterable list of everything else. Type-specific pages skip these blocks and jump straight to the filtered grid.

Reminder emails

You'll automatically receive a reminder before any event you've signed up to:

• Guests: a friendly reminder 1 week before and again 1 day before.
• Members: a single reminder 1 day before.

Reminders go out hourly via a scheduled job, and we keep track so you'll never get the same one twice. Don't want them? You can switch event reminders off in Account → General → Email Preferences — see Chapter 2 — Your Profile.

6. Tickets

MetalBC sells a small, carefully curated set of tickets directly through the website — most notably partner-event tickets (Metal Business Club's own meetups, network sessions, conferences) and festival netwerklunch tickets for select partner festivals (for example the Gastenticket netwerklunch Dynamo Metalfest). These are tickets MetalBC actually fulfils, with your name on them, a QR check-in code and a downloadable PDF.

Heads-up: most concert pages in the agenda just link out to the venue or the official festival ticket shop (Festivalinfo, Podiuminfo, Festivalticker). Those are external links and not covered here. The flow described below only kicks in when you see the "Buy Tickets" block with prices on a MetalBC event or festival page.

Ticket types you may see

On any page that sells tickets, the Buy Tickets block lists one or more ticket types. Each row shows:

• Name and short description of the ticket
• Price — shown both as the net amount and the price including VAT. The "incl. VAT" amount is what you actually pay. No surprise fees at checkout.
• Stock indicator — Available, In Stock, Going Fast, N left, or Sold Out
• A quantity selector (+ / −) up to the configured maximum per order
• Occasionally a Members Only badge, which means the ticket type is reserved for logged-in MetalBC members and the quantity buttons stay disabled for guests

Pick the quantity you want. A Your Selection cart summary appears with the running total. You can empty it at any time before paying.

Buying as a logged-in member

If you're signed in and your MetalBC profile is complete:

1. Click Proceed to Checkout (or Pay Now) under the cart.
2. If your billing details (first/last name, address, country) are filled in on your profile, you go straight to the payment screen. Otherwise the system prompts you to complete your billing details first — there's a link straight to the right tab, and after saving you come back to checkout automatically.
3. You're redirected to Mollie (iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA, credit card and the usual European payment methods). For specific account configurations the site may use Stripe Checkout instead. Either way it's a standard hosted payment page — MetalBC never sees your card or bank details.
4. After paying you land back on a confirmation page. While the payment is being processed in the background, your My Tickets page shows a "Your tickets are being generated" notice — this usually clears within a minute or two.

Buying as a guest (new — May 2026)

You no longer need a MetalBC account to buy a ticket. When you're not signed in and click Proceed to Checkout, a register-as-guest modal opens with two options:

• Log in if you already have an account
• Register as guest — enter your name, email and a few basic details. A lightweight guest profile is created on the spot so we can put your name on the ticket and email it to you.

After registering, checkout continues exactly the same as for members: Mollie/Stripe payment, confirmation email, PDF ticket. This works on both partner events and mbc_concert festival pages that sell a netwerklunch ticket — earlier, guests on festival pages were bounced to the WordPress login screen; this was fixed in May 2026.

The localized subsites (NL/DE) work too: the modal validates against the page you're actually on, so registering on /nl/ or /de/ works the same as on the main site.

Email confirmation and PDF ticket

As soon as the payment is confirmed, an email goes out with:

• Event details — name, date, start time, venue, address
• Order summary — ticket type, quantity, total, order number
• A "View your tickets" button that links to your My Tickets page
• Your PDF ticket(s) attached, each carrying a unique check-in QR code. At the door, the organiser scans this code.

If the email doesn't arrive (check spam first), you can always resend it from My Tickets — see below.

VAT

Ticket prices in the agenda show two values: the net price and the price incl. VAT. The "incl. VAT" amount is the final price you pay through Mollie or Stripe. VAT is included, not added on top at checkout. Your order number is the formal proof of purchase; if you need a separate VAT invoice (for example for company bookkeeping), reach out and we'll sort it.

Refunds

If you can't make it to an event you bought a ticket for, get in touch with MetalBC and we'll handle the refund manually. There's no self-service "Cancel my ticket" button in the dashboard today — refunds are processed by an admin so we can verify the situation, check timing against the event date, and confirm the gateway can still refund the payment.

Once approved, the refund is pushed back through the original payment method (Mollie or Stripe) and your ticket flips to a Refunded status in My Tickets. The card stays visible so you have a record of the order.

Complimentary tickets (good to know)

Occasionally MetalBC issues comp (complimentary) tickets — for press, VIPs, partners or promotional purposes. These look and behave exactly like paid tickets in your dashboard (same QR code, same PDF, same check-in flow), but the total is €0 and no payment is involved. If you've been given a comp ticket, you'll receive the same confirmation email as a regular buyer.

Quick checklist when something goes wrong

7. Your Bands, Companies & Venues

Beyond your personal profile, MetalBC lets you put the things you do in the scene on the map: the bands you play in, the companies you work for or with, and the venues you run, book or host shows at. Each gets its own public page on metalbc.com — description, photos, line-up or team — with a small edit button that only you (and other linked members) see.

This chapter covers all three, plus the Partners layer that lives next to venues: festivals and community/media organisations featured across the site.

Quick clarification — there are two places on your account that mention "bands":

• Account → Profile → Preferences → Favorite bands is a simple text list of three bands you like. It's taste, not membership. See Chapter 2 — Your Profile.
• Account → Bands (this chapter) is for bands you are or were a member of. Adding one creates a real, public band page on the MetalBC website.

When in doubt: did you play in it? It belongs here. Do you just love listening to it? That's a favorite.

Partners (festivals + community/media)

The Partners layer is editorial — it's how we feature festivals, magazines, podcasts, radio shows and other industry partners. You don't add partners yourself; they're set up by MetalBC admins. You'll see them in three places:

• Partner pages under /partners/ (e.g. festival pages with location, dates and linked events)
• Concert cards — a small partner badge appears when a concert is part of a festival or covered by a partner, linking back to that partner's page
• The Partners overview — split into festival partners and community/media partners

Each partner has a type: festival, community (magazines/podcasts/radio), or business. The single-partner template adapts to the type — festivals show date/location/line-up, community partners show an organisation-type label, business partners a category badge. Festivals and community partners can pull in a list of linked events they're associated with.

What's public, what's not

Everything in this chapter creates public pages. Once you add a band, company or venue, anyone visiting metalbc.com can find it. The pages only show what you've filled in — empty fields are quietly hidden, not shown as "—".

The link between you and the band/company/venue is also public: your profile lists your bands and companies, and band/company/venue pages list their members and teams. To step out of a relationship, use the Unlink button (bands) or remove yourself from the team field (companies/venues) — your profile and the public page both update.

Phone numbers, email addresses and other contact fields are public if you fill them in. To keep a channel members-only, leave it blank on the public entity and use your profile's contact section instead — that one respects the privacy choices you set in Account → Preferences.

8. Meetups & Your Chapter

MetalBC is more than a website with concert listings — it's a network of people who, in real life, end up standing next to each other at the bar before a show. Two features tie that together: Chapters (your local community) and Meetups (a way to say "I'll be at this concert, who else is in?").

Chapters — your local community

A chapter is the regional group you belong to. Every member has a "home" chapter, and most chapters host a monthly Network Meeting at a fixed venue (those are covered in Chapter 5 — Events). The chapter is what turns MetalBC from an online directory into something that actually meets up in person.

The full list is at /chapters/, and each one has its own page.

Your chapter page

Every chapter has a public page with:

• A cover image and a short description.
• The location and meeting frequency (e.g. "Eindhoven, every first Wednesday").
• Future meetings — a list of upcoming Network Meetings for that chapter, pulled live from the Events system. Past meetings are hidden automatically.
• The Chapter leader(s) — name, avatar, role, and a direct "Send an email" link. If you've got a question about your region, that's the person to ping.
• The Members list — everyone currently active in that chapter.

If you want to know what's happening in your area, the chapter page is the one-stop overview.

How you're assigned to a chapter

Your chapter assignment lives on your member profile. When you joined MetalBC you were placed in the chapter closest to where you live or work, but it's not rigid — you can belong to more than one if your situation calls for it (e.g. you split time between Amsterdam and Berlin).

Even so, MetalBC treats the first chapter in your list as your primary chapter. That's the one used to pre-select your country and surface the "right" meetings on your dashboard. If you ever want to switch your primary or add a second chapter, ask the chapter leader or drop a note via the contact form — it's a quick edit on the admin side.

The chapter card on your dashboard

When you log in and land on your account dashboard, one of the first cards you see is the chapter card. It pulls everything together:

• The chapter icon and your chapter's name.
• A "+N" badge if you belong to more than one chapter (a quick visual reminder you're in multiple).
• The next upcoming meeting for your primary chapter — title, date, and time.
• Your current RSVP status (Attending / Maybe / Not yet responded) and a one-click RSVP button that jumps straight to the meeting page.

If you don't have a chapter yet, you'll see a friendly "No Chapter — you are not yet assigned to a chapter" message instead. That usually means a quick fix on your profile.

If your chapter has no upcoming meeting on the calendar, the card just says "No upcoming meetings scheduled" — no panic, the next one is probably being planned.

Meetups — see who else is going

Now the fun part: Meetups at concerts. The concert agenda lists thousands of European shows we don't organise ourselves. But you and another member might both be going to the same one — and not know it. Meetups fix that.

What a meetup is

A meetup is a small, lightweight plan attached to a concert: a title, a time, and a location. Think "Pre-show beers at Café Brewdog, 18:30" or "Meet at the merch stand after the encore". Anyone in the club who's also going to that concert can join.

Creating a meetup

You can create a meetup on any concert page, with one condition: you need to be marked as Going or Maybe for that concert first. (The "I'll be there" RSVP is the gatekeeper — it stops random spam meetups on shows nobody's attending.)

1. Open the concert page in the agenda.
2. Hit RSVP if you haven't already (Going or Maybe both work).
3. Scroll to the Meetups section and click Create Meetup.
4. Fill in:
   • Title — max 100 characters. Keep it descriptive.
   • Time — when you'll be there (24-hour format).
   • Location — max 200 characters. Bar name, entrance, merch stand, whatever.
5. Click Create Meetup.

You're automatically RSVP'd to your own meetup, and it shows up immediately under the concert with a "Your meetup" badge. Only you can edit or delete it.

Joining someone else's meetup

On any concert you're attending, you'll see the existing meetups — each with a title, time, location, and a stack of attendee avatars. Click Join and you're in. The avatars stack visibly (up to three, with a "+N" if there are more), so you can quickly see who else is coming.

Changed your mind? Click Leave. It's instant and idempotent — no penalty, no notification storm.

The meetup indicator badge

In the concert agenda listings (and on partner cards), concerts with at least one meetup get a small users-icon badge with the meetup count. It's a subtle signal: "hey, the club is gathering here". It only shows when meetups exist, so you don't see badges everywhere.

Privacy gates

The meetups section is private by design:

• Guests / logged-out visitors see "Join the club to see meetups" — they get the carrot, not the contents.
• Logged-in members who aren't attending the concert see "RSVP to this concert to see meetups" — a nudge to commit before they peek.
• Attending members see the full list.

This keeps members' plans (and meetup locations) out of public view.

Reporting a bad meetup

If a meetup looks like spam, is inappropriate, misleading, or just off, you can report it: click the three-dot menu on the card and choose Report. Pick a reason, add details if you want, and submit. The meetup is hidden pending review by the central team. You can't report your own meetup, and you can only report each meetup once.

The buddy system (pilot)

New to MetalBC, or just new to a meetup? You don't have to find your way alone. The buddy system is a pilot that connects members who'd appreciate a hand getting to know people with members who enjoy welcoming newcomers. A buddy says hello, makes a few introductions, and helps you settle in at your first meetups and chapter evenings — and along the way they get to meet more people themselves. It runs in both directions: you can lean on a buddy, or be one.

9. Privacy, Communications & Account Control

This is your "what does Metal Business Club actually know about me, and what can I do about it" chapter. We try to keep this short, honest and human — no twelve-page legalese, no dark patterns. If something on this page surprises you, send us an email and we will explain (or fix) it.

What we store about you

When you create an account or attend an event, we keep a handful of things on file. Nothing you would not expect, but here is the full picture so you know.

Account basics

• Your name, email address and a hashed password (we never see your real password)
• The language and subsite (EN / NL / DE) you signed up on — this is what tells us which language to send your emails in
• Your role (member, guest, pre-member, chapter manager, administrator) and which chapters you belong to

Your profile

• The things you fill in on Account → Profile: bio, photo, links, company affiliation, country, the bands you have favourited
• Any bands, companies or venues you have added to the directory — these stay attributed to you as the creator, even after edits by chapter managers

Your activity

• Events you signed up for (attendee record, plus any guests you brought)
• Tickets you bought (order details, payment reference, ticket type)
• Meetup / network RSVPs
• Comments or posts you have authored

We do not store payment card details. Card data goes straight to Mollie (our payment provider) — we only keep the transaction reference and amount.

You can review most of this yourself at any time under Account → Profile, Account → My Bands / My Companies / My Venues and Account → My Tickets.

Emails we send you

There are two kinds of email from Metal Business Club, and you have different control over each.

Transactional emails (always sent). These keep your account and your tickets working, so we send them regardless of any preference. They include:

• Account activation / verification
• Password resets
• Ticket confirmations and order receipts
• Important account or event updates (e.g. an event you signed up for got cancelled or moved)

If you do not want these any more, the only way to stop them is to close your account (see Deleting your account below).

Optional emails (you decide). These live under Account → General → Email Preferences in the sidebar, and you can toggle them on or off whenever you like:

The concert digest is off by default on purpose — we do not want to start mailing you anything you did not explicitly ask for. If you want it, tick the box and you will start receiving it from the next monthly send.

Heads-up if you have been a member for a while: the event-reminders checkbox used to render on the page but did not actually save your choice (a bug we fixed in version 1.21.0). If you previously ticked "disable" and kept getting reminders anyway — sorry about that. Tick it again now and it will stick.

All emails go out in the language you signed up in. Sign up on the German site, get German emails; sign up on the Dutch site, get Dutch ones. You can verify your language under Account → General.

Every email we send you — at a glance

We try to be a quiet inbox neighbour. Almost everything you get from MetalBC is transactional — tied to something you did. Here is the complete list:

A few small operational details worth knowing:

• Ticket emails that fail to send (mailbox full, temporary SMTP issue) are retried automatically: 15 minutes, then 30, then 60 minutes. After 3 failed attempts we email our admin so we can reach you manually — your ticket is never lost, it's always available on My Tickets.
• Event reminders are de-duplicated per event per type — you can never receive two "tomorrow" reminders for the same event even if the cron runs late.
• Verification resends are rate-limited to once every 5 minutes per email address; member-sent invites are capped at 5 per hour.
• We send from noreply@metalbc.com (account, presale, reminders) and tickets@metalbc.com (ticket confirmations). Adding both to your safe-senders list helps if your provider is strict on spam.

Where else your data goes

We try to keep things in-house, but two integrations are worth naming explicitly:

HubSpot (CRM). When you register — especially as a guest at an event — your contact details (name, email, company, phone, the event you signed up for, plus what you told us about your favourite bands and reason for visiting) are sent to HubSpot. We use it as our CRM so the team can follow up properly, keep track of who came to which event, and make sure you do not get duplicate or contradictory messages from different people at the Club.

Mollie (payments). When you buy a ticket or a presale membership, payment data flows through Mollie. We receive only the confirmation and amount; full card / iDEAL details stay with Mollie.

We are not in the business of selling your data, and we do not share it with advertisers.

Who can see what (admin access)

As of May 2026 the WordPress admin area at /wp-admin/ is locked down. Only administrators and chapter managers can reach it. If you are a regular member or a guest and you click anywhere near /wp-admin/, you will be bounced straight back to the front-end. This also covers the subsite admin URLs (/nl/wp-admin/, /de/wp-admin/).

Why this matters to you: previously, logged-in members could technically reach the WP dashboard via the admin bar's "My Sites" menu and see things they were not meant to. That door is now closed. The admin bar itself is hidden for everyone except admins and chapter managers as well.

If you used to bookmark a WP dashboard URL: that bookmark will no longer work, and that is intentional. Your member dashboard is at Account → Dashboard.

Deleting your account ("right to be forgotten")

You have the right to ask us to delete your account and your personal data. Today this is a manual but quick process — we have not (yet) wired a self-service "Delete my account" button to the live system, because we want a human to double-check what happens to the things you created (bands, companies, venues, events) before they are removed.

How to request deletion:

1. Email us from the address on your account (so we can verify it is really you) at privacy@metalbc.com, or use the contact form on the site.
2. Tell us what you want: "delete everything" (full erasure) or "delete my account but keep the band/venue pages I created live" (we will reassign authorship).
3. We confirm by email within a few working days, then we run the deletion.
4. Once it is done, your login stops working, your profile is gone, your future event signups are cancelled, and your record is removed from HubSpot.

Things we cannot delete on request, for legal / accounting reasons:

• Past invoices and payment records (Dutch tax law requires us to keep these for 7 years)
• Anonymised attendance counts in old event reports

If you only want to disconnect for a while without deleting, you can simply log out and ignore us — your account does not expire, and you can always come back.

Cookies and tracking

The first time you visit metalbc.com (or after clearing your cookies) you'll see a cookie consent banner in the bottom right of the page. It explains what we track and gives you three choices:

• Accept — allow all cookie categories.
• Deny — keep only the strictly functional cookies WordPress needs to remember your login and language preference.
• View preferences — open the granular settings so you can opt in or out per category.

Your choice is remembered per browser, so you only see the banner once unless you clear your cookies. The banner also links to our Cookie Policy, Privacy policy and Impressum for the full legal text. If you ever want to revisit your choice, clear cookies for metalbc.com and the banner will reappear on your next visit.

Beyond what the banner asks consent for, the cookies in use are the functional ones WordPress needs to keep you logged in and to remember your language choice. We are not running advertising trackers or third-party analytics that follow you around the web.

If you want to use the site as cookie-free as possible: pick Deny in the banner, log out when you're done, and your browser's normal "block third-party cookies" setting handles the rest.

Questions?

If anything on this page is unclear, or you want to see exactly what we have on file for you, just email privacy@metalbc.com. We answer in plain language, in English, Dutch or German — whichever you prefer.

You are in control of your account. We are just here to keep the lights on and the gigs coming.

10. Reporting a Problem

If you ever find something on metalbc.com that doesn't work the way it should — a page that won't load, a button that does nothing, text in the wrong language, an obviously wrong number — please report it through the built-in bug-report tool. It's the single fastest way to get the issue in front of the team that can actually fix it.

Why the bug-report tool — and not "just email someone"

The bug-report tool is directly wired into our website-management system (Asana). When you submit a report, a ticket is created on our project board automatically — with the page you were on, your browser, your screenshot and your priority all pre-filled. That ticket lands in the same queue we use to plan our release work, which means it gets seen, triaged and scheduled together with everything else we're working on.

If you tell someone at MetalBC about a problem in person, on Slack or by email — that's totally fine, and we appreciate the heads-up. But please also submit a bug report. Without one, your message has to be manually re-typed into our system (often days later, missing details that were obvious in the moment), and it might quietly slip through the cracks. The bug-report button takes 30 seconds and guarantees we see it.

Where to find it

Look for the small bug icon in the bottom-right corner of any page. It's there whether you're logged in or not — on the concert agenda, your dashboard, a single-event page, anywhere. Click it and the report modal opens.

What to fill in

The modal asks for a few things:

• Title — a short summary of what went wrong. Example: "Reset filters link does nothing on the concert agenda".
• Description — what happened, what you expected to happen, and any error message you saw. Example: "I clicked Reset filters but the URL still showed country=NL and the page didn't refresh."
• Steps to reproduce (optional but extremely useful) — the recipe to make the problem happen again. Example: "1) Open /nl/concertagenda/, 2) Pick a city, 3) Click Reset filters."
• Priority — Low / Medium / High. Use High only for things that block you from using the site (can't log in, can't pay, etc.); Medium is the default for normal issues; Low is for cosmetic glitches you spotted.
• Screenshot (optional but worth a thousand words) — drag-and-drop an image, or click to upload. JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP, up to 5 MB. A quick screenshot is often the difference between us fixing the problem on first read and us asking three follow-up questions.

What you don't have to fill in: the page URL and your browser. We capture both automatically when you click submit.

The clearer your report, the faster the fix

The most useful bug reports answer three questions:

1. Where — which page or feature?
2. What did you do? — the steps that led to the problem.
3. What did you expect, and what happened instead? — the gap between intention and reality.

A vague "the agenda is broken" takes us a long time to figure out. A specific "on the NL concert agenda, when I pick city Tilburg and then click Reset filters, the URL still shows ?city=Tilburg and no concerts reappear" tells us exactly where to look.

What happens after you submit

• You see a "Thank you" confirmation in the modal.
• A new task is created in our Asana project board with your report, the page URL, your browser, the priority you set, and the screenshot attached.
• Our team triages it within a working day, schedules it for a release, and ships the fix on the next deploy.
• For acute issues we'll usually reach out by email; for cosmetic ones the fix just appears in a future release.

Limits and good citizenship

The tool will accept up to five reports per hour per IP address to prevent automated abuse. That's plenty for human use — if you genuinely have five separate things to report, please file them; if you've stumbled into a wider issue and don't know where to stop, file one report describing what you're seeing and we'll handle the rest from there.

We don't penalise duplicate reports — if two people independently report the same thing it just gives us extra context. But if you've already filed a ticket and noticed a related quirk, adding the detail as a reply to the original email beats a brand-new ticket.

When to skip the bug-report tool

• You can't log in at all — there's no bug button on /wp-login.php. Email support@metalbc.com in that case.
• You're worried about privacy / personal data — that's not a bug, that's a data-protection request. Email privacy@metalbc.com (Chapter 9 covers this).
• You have a feature idea, not a bug — please send those by email or bring them to a Network Meeting; the bug-report tool is for things that are broken, not things we should build.

For everything else: tap the bug. It really does make a difference.

12. Grow With MetalBC — Roles & Personal Development

MetalBC isn't only a directory and an agenda. The real engine of the club is what happens in the room at a Network Meeting — and that room only works because members step up and take a role. Chairing the evening, welcoming newcomers, running a 20-minute training slot, telling a story that moves people to act: every one of these is a job someone does, and a skill someone grows.

That's the quiet deal at the heart of MetalBC: you develop yourself, and the club grows at the same time. A member who practises facilitating a discussion walks away a better leader — and the meeting they ran was better for everyone in it. This chapter is your map to that development path: the roles you can take, what each one teaches you, and how to grow into it month by month.

You don't need permission or a title to start. Most roles begin with a single, low-stakes first step at your next chapter night.

Why roles? You grow, the club grows

A Network Meeting is a remarkably safe place to practise the soft skills that are hard to train anywhere else: speaking to a room, reading group energy, making strangers feel at home, giving feedback, handling the moment when the tech dies five minutes before you start. In most of working life you only get to practise these when the stakes are high. At a chapter meeting, the stakes are friendly — your fellow members want you to do well.

So we've turned the jobs that make a meeting work into development roles. Each role:

• Teaches a concrete, transferable skill you can name and measure — not "be more confident" but "speak to 15–30 people, keep to time, and close with one lesson and one next step."
• Has a gentle first step — something you can try at one meeting without committing to anything bigger.
• Comes with a growth arc — roughly first 3 months (find your feet), months 4–6 (find your style), months 7–12 (mentor others, innovate).

Take a role and you get better at your craft and you make the club a place people want to come back to. That's the whole idea.

Which role fits you? The role chooser

There's no wrong door — but there's usually a natural fit. Use the table below to find the role that matches how you like to contribute. Each row is a summary; the full write-up for every role is just below.

A quick way to choose

• Drawn to structure and timeboxing? → Chair or Chapter Coach.
• Want to teach and share knowledge? → Trainer or Storyteller.
• A connector who puts people at ease? → Host or Company-Visits Coordinator.
• Energised by event logistics and safety? → Festival Coordinator.
• Mainly here to contribute and do business from your own company? → the Member growth track.

Coming soon — a role-fit self-assessment. We're building a short, interactive questionnaire that suggests the role that best fits your style (based on how you prefer to work, not a personality label). Until it's live, the table above is your chooser — and your chapter's Chair or Coach is always happy to talk it through with you at a meeting.

Appendix: Glossary

A quick reference for the terms that recur throughout this manual.

• Guest — a free, lightweight account created at signup. Can RSVP to events, buy tickets, and create a basic profile. Limited access to the member directory.
• Member — a full paid member of MetalBC. Full profile, access to the directory, all features, members-only events.
• Pre-member — someone in the process of becoming a member; the activation hasn't completed yet (typically during a campaign like Forge Members).
• Forge Member — early-access membership tier offered during a launch campaign (e.g. the German market launch). Same flow as guest signup, with pricing-tier choice. See Chapter 1 — Presale & Forge Members.
• Chapter — a regional group of members that meets monthly (Network Meetings). Stored internally as cluster.
• Chapter Manager — a member with extra admin rights for their own chapter. Can create/edit Network Meetings and manage chapter content. Stored internally as cluster_manager.
• Network Meeting — the monthly meet-up of a single chapter.
• MetalBC Event — a network-wide event (conferences, summits, themed nights).
• Partner Event — a concert or festival where MetalBC reserves a block of tickets for the network.
• Concert agenda — the imported, daily-refreshed listing of ~2,700 European concerts and festivals. Powered by Festivalinfo, Podiuminfo and Festivalticker.
• Favourite bands — three free-text bands you list on your Preferences tab. Drives recommendations and the monthly digest.
• Concert digest — the optional monthly email summarising upcoming metal concerts in your region and from bands you follow.
• Event reminder — automatic email sent before events you have RSVP'd to (1 week + 1 day for guests, 1 day for members).
• Meetup — a lightweight plan attached to a concert ("see who else is going").
• Subsite / Language site — MetalBC runs on three locale subsites: / (English), /nl/ (Dutch), /de/ (German). One account works on all three.
• Registration locale / Registration blog — the language and subsite you signed up on; this controls the language of every email you receive.
• Comp ticket — a complimentary (€0) ticket issued by an admin. Identical PDF, QR code and email flow as a paid ticket.
• Bug-report tool — the floating bug-icon button in the bottom-right of every page. Submits a report directly into our Asana project board with the page URL and screenshot auto-attached. See Chapter 10.
• Role — a job a member takes on at a Network Meeting (Chair, Host, Trainer, etc.) and a development path that grows a concrete skill. See Chapter 12 — Roles & Personal Development.
• Chair (Voorzitter) — the member who runs a Network Meeting: opening, intro round, discussion, connections and close.
• Host (Gastheer/Gastvrouw) — the member responsible for the welcome, introductions and atmosphere at a meeting.
• Trainer — the member who delivers a short, practical learning slot at a meeting.
• Chapter Coach (Begeleider) — a supporter from outside the local team who observes, coaches and safeguards meeting quality, often across more than one chapter. Distinct from a Chapter Manager, who runs a chapter's meetings and content.
• Storyteller (Verhalenverteller) — the member who leads theme talks built around a story and a concrete assignment.
• Festival Coordinator (COORD) — the member who builds festival partnerships and runs member activities on-site.
• Company-Visits Coordinator (VERB) — the member who organises company visits and secures matches and follow-up.
• Quality scorecard — a 1–5, five-dimension self-assessment chapters use to score and improve their own meetings. See Chapter 11.
• Guest journey — the path a guest takes from first visit to member, treated as a deliberate before/on-the-night/after flow.
• Cluster health dashboard — a monthly traffic-light read of a chapter's key signals (attendance, conversion, return rate, energy, etc.).