[Imc-aotearoa-ed] Re: Hidden articles, reply to Rovin and Ken

[Danyl Strype]

Kia ora koutou,

Hidden:

Pair of Known Terrorists 
by dk  8:19am Tue Jan 14 '03
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3?article_id=2758&group=webcast
Duplicate post (hide requested by poster)

Like Mafia but more professional! 
by The Bushist Chronicle  7:29am Tue Jan 14 '03
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3?article_id=2756&group=webcast
Has anyone attempted to email Strike-Free and warn them
about their spammer status?

Discussion:

Pair of Known Terrorists 
by dk  1:57pm Tue Jan 14 '03
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3?article_id=2763&group=webcast
More homophobia and now some slander too. Lacks any
credible news value whatsoever, basically a bad ad for
Investigate mag.

The promotion of an nonexistent threat 
by strike-free.org  9:54am Mon Jan 13 '03
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3?article_id=2752&group=webcast
He is an agreed spammer but I think we could leave this one
up as it actually has some information in it.


Rovin' said:
>> can't hide stuff because it's not geographically
relevant - suggest a change to the ed policy first. <<

The policy empowers us to hide stuff that is off-topic - I
agree this needs to be defined more clearly but since this
is Aotearoa IMC I think posts with no geographical
relevance could count as off-topic.

I have proposed a change to ed policy on the AIM list. So
far no reaction for or against. Now what? I propose we
debate the wording of new policy on this list, then when
consensus is reached here, email AIM quoting the changed
sections and explaining the reasons for the changes. We
start implementing the changes immediately UNTIL someone on
AIM raises objections (if they do), in which case the
changes are suspended until consensus is reached on the AIM
list. 

Ken rote:
>> I agree with roving that we need to be careful about
hiding news and opinion articles which aren't specific to
Aotearoa. <<

I agree, which is why my proposal added geographical
relevance to the off-topic reference in the "for
discussion" part of the policy. Having discretion to remove
stuff doesn't mean we have to every time.
 
>> We should email him about his inference that Helen is
a lesbian, and obvious intention that this is an insult or
even relevant. I don't have the address just now. <<

See my email conversation with him, posted just now. I
posted it from my new address so someone might have to
approve it.

>> In general I think we'd be a bit strange to hide so much
stuff anyway - we need to have something on the wire, and
until we get into gear and carry more NZ content then we
shouldn't be too picky what we get. <<

I disagree. NZ content will only grow if people think it
worth returning to the site after their first impressions.
Until new features are going up at least once a week we
rely on the newswire to give those first impressions.

Postings of pseduo-fascist rants and links to oddball
conspiracy sites (as opposed to credible investigative
journalism sites which are tagged 'conspiracy' by the
mainstream eg Pilger, ZMag, Monbiot, Chomsky etc) will do
little to inspire confidence and must not be allowed to
flood out the trickle of quality, Aotearoa-specific content
that is starting to come through.

Posters like DK can probably contribute usefully if
encouraged to stick to a topic, reference their claims and
tone down their language. Having tried to reason with him,
I think this is best done by hiding inappropriate postings.

Unlike some in other Indymedia's I'm not advocating
ideological censorship (hiding stuff for being
'right-wing', or 'conspiracy theory'), rather I think we
need to define some objective criteria for what qualifies
as journalism (separation of facts and opinions; references
to evidence; concise, to-the-point language etc). 

As an example, could this be hidden according to the
existing ed policy?
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3?article_id=2767&group=webcast

A 'Writing for Indy Tutorial' above the HTML one on the
front page would be excellent. Sam Buchanen could write an
excellent one (I went to a conference workshop he took on
the subject), anyone in contact with him?

>> Why do others in this group not also post interestiong
things they find? (SNIP)
PS: I'm about to loose the easy internet access I've had
the last year, now I have to cycle to the library for a
half hour slot. <<

I think it has a lot to do with ease of internet access and
available time, same with participation in policy debates.
Once I start travelling in a couple of weeks my online
contribution to AIM will probably decline dramatically.

>> we need to think about what is too much and put it into
the ed pol.Maybe we say not more than 10% of the newswire
on any given day? <<

I agree that some criteria need to be define but
percentages of postings don't take into account people put
off reading and posting at all by offensive and vacuous
content. Plus, as we have seen from Hatrackman, Strike-Free
and DK, one post per day during a lull in general posting
can easily flood the wire so that's no solution either.

Let's discuss this some more.

RnB,
Strypey

=====
"The world as a whole produces more than enough food for everyone. People go hungry because they lack the money to buy it."
- David Concar, "New Scientist" - 14 Dec 2002

Aotearoa Independent Media: http://www.indymedia.org.nz/
Indymedia Alternatives: http://phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/23/0039242&mode=thread

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