[Imc-aotearoa-tech] Re: yourname@indymedia.org.nz

[Danyl Strype]

Kia ora koutou ko Ken,

--- ksimpson@ihug.co.nz wrote:

>> Hi Danyl. I'm in favour of name@indymedia.org.(nz) if
it's voluntary and doesn't cost anything (or costs next to
nothing). <<

It won't cost us a bent penny, unless you count the link to
Sascha's website along the lines of "email services donated
by Neuron.net". 

But everyone HAS to have one!!! (just kidding ;)

>> We all have personal email addresses at present, but it
could be useful to have a separate one for Indymedia
business... <<

... and mailing lists. Some of us are heavily involved and
signed up to a number of local, national and international
mailing lists. That's a lot of email and as you say, a 
dedicated place to keep it would be good.

>> Obviously, it would be more convenient if the two could
be linked so you can check all your email in one hit. <<

There's more than one way to do this. One is to simply have
Sascha's server redirect any mail sent to
<ken@indymedia.org> to <ksimpson@ihug.co.nz>.

Also, some email services have a POP3 feature which allows
you to download your mail from other inboxes. If Ihug has
this feature, you could download all the mail in your
<ken@indymedia.org> inbox into your Ihug inbox for ease of
access.

You might find though that it is useful to have all
Indymedia-related mail going to another inbox, so that
personal mail or mail about other projects doesn't get lost
in the flood.

>> If it's voluntary and doesn't cost AIMC anything, then
maybe we can proceed without 100% consensus? <<

On the issue of consensus, I am concerned about far more
than my pet project being blocked. It seems to me that by
constantly drawing attention to a perceived lack of
decision-making process, Rovin' has somehow aquired the
ability to single-handedly stymie a project the rest of the
group seems to be in support of.

I'm not sure how a consensus-based democracy has become, on
this issue at least, a dictatorship. Perhaps we should put
the issue to a vote? Much as I abhor majority-rules it is
at least better than minority-rules. The problem being that
if it's a numbers game either Rovin' or I could sign up to
the list and vote under as many email addresses as we want.
Solving this problem would require developing networks of
trust relationships, which is what's needed to make
consensus work anyway.

In order to move ahead we need to make the appropriate
changes to the domain name settings, so that mail sent to
addresses@indymedia.org.nz will be sent to Sascha's mail
server for sorting. Neither Sascha nor I need password
access to the domain for this to happen, Sascha could just
send the appropriate info to the tech list and whoever has
that access can then make the changes. 

A tech volunteer is also need to add the link he has
requested to the site. We ought to have an 'AIM Allies'
page anyway (maybe it could go in the sidebar somewhere?)
linking:
a) groups like Context, CAT, Scoop, YesYes etc who have
contributed (individually or collectively) to AIM
b) sites that we all dig eg thePackage? ARENA? PGA? GE Free
Guide? Cruelty-Free Guide?
c) non-commercial sites that are willing to do a link
exchange with us?

So really the power to make or break this project is in
tech hands (this too could be a concern from a
consensus-democracy points of view). Do they think Rovin's
approach is legitimate dissent or unreasonable blocking? Do
they feel they have the consensus of the group to make
those changes?

As I remember Rovin's objections revolved around the
ideological point of whether having an address
@indymedia.org.nz conferred some kind of authority on the
holder in the eyes of correspondents. How many angels can
dance in 6 Megs of email space Rovin'?

I did make what I thought was a reasonable thorough reply
at the time but for the record, I think giving our
volunteers a free email address is the same as giving
trusted volunteers admin passwords for the site, mailing
lists etc. I don't see Rovin proposing to give everyone (or
nobody) admin access to the site in case secure passwords
are perceived as conferring special authority over
Indymedia to those who have them.

I honestly believe I've covered every point raised in this
discussion as it's come up. If there is anything I have
left out Rovin', please stop being so stubborn and just
communicate it. If I have to spend any more time digging
through list archives I'm going to buy a plane ticket, find
you and happily throttle you and the mouse you rode in on
;p (just kidding).

Arohanui ki a koutou katoa,
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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