[Seattle-editorial] HOW TO MAKE THE SEATTLE WEBSITE WORK! (was: Re: distributed?

[jonathan lawson]

In response to this thread:

I agree with all observations about the Seattle IMC center page. As always, 
the problem is the lack of activity. Access is available to folks who would 
like to get involved-I imagine Walt would be happy to share the access info 
if folks want to get involved.

Writing features has always been an understaffed task. For over two years, 
I wrote about 85% of all features myself--and that was when there was an 
active editorial collective, holding regular meetings and actively 
recruiting new feature writers. For the last several months, several people 
were writing features, including Kirsten, Judy, Gentry and Walt. Then it 
trickled off again. I posted three features in the past month (Peltier, 
Backbone, General Strike) in an attempt to generate the kind of evidence of 
activity Kirsten has asked for. Unfortunately, I don't have ongoing time to 
give to the project--too many other volunteer activities going on with, 
frankly, a greater sense of accomplishment and appreciation. I imagine I 
might have time to propose maybe a feature a month, no more.

Laury mentions that it might be time for the burnt out folks to get out of 
the way? There's nobody in the way. I'd love to see some new energy re 
feature writing and site management. The best strategy for folks concerned 
about this on this list, I think, would be to grab the reins and make it 
happen.

sincere thanks for caring,
Jonathan

At 01:42 PM 2/20/2004 -0800, Laury wrote:
>I think a lot of folks share Kirsten's frustration.  I certainly do.
>The Seattle IMC is closed in more than one sense of the word.  Unlike
>the Portland IndyMedia, the Seattle IndyMedia seems to have no
>connection to the community -- or to people who want to volunteer.
>The Newswire is a mess -- there is no organization or no search
>capability -- and the editorial/feature area is rarely updated.  IMC
>meetings -- such as the one that decided to have a "hiatus" -- are
>buried in the newswire between rants by LaRouche followers.