[CIMC-work] Hiding comments and articles -- we need a review ofpolicy

[DickReilly at aol.com]

Hi all. 

Afte spending considerable time thrashing this about and finally acheiving consensus sometime ago on our newswire policy, it may be that we need to revisit it, particuarly if newer collective members are unclear or ambivalent about this. 

If we decide to do this again, then I suggest that we call for dedicated meeting of the entire collective with this issue as a sole agenda item. And FYI, despite Garth's assertion we did NOT achieve consensus that individual passwords were to be assigned. IMO, the responsibility for monitoring the wire is the entire collective's ( as well as a working knowledge of our current policy ) and not simply one or two volunteers.

As for Don's observations, unlike Garth, I sharply disagree with his assertions. Since the first wire appeared in Seattle IMC site, IMC websites have always had a moderation policy. While the criteria differ from site to site, we have never functioned as absolute 'free speech' unmoderated list ...much to the chagrin of the Free Republic, National Alliance  and Protest Warrior fascist thugs who routinely seek to sabotage our site.  Virtually every IMC site has had to go through the process of defining just what exactly constitutes troll abuse of the wire, faced with the onslaught of these kind of repeated attacks. And some sites have created a system of rotating newswire clerks to keep up with monitoring the site. 

Finally, one uncontestable example of dreck posted maliciously to our wire as sheer provocation may be the commentary about a photograhpy subject of Garth's hidden under the announcement of the IMC Mayday event. 
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/39359/index.- 

Not much room for critical discourse here, Don. 


- Dick