[Seattle-editorial] editorial policies from other imcs - sf speaks up

[sheri at speakeasy.org]

-----Original Message-----
From: nessie at sfbg.com [mailto:nessie at sfbg.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 08:14 PM
To: 'A process discussion list for U.S.-based IMCs'
Subject: Re: [imc-us-process] sf editorial policy request.

>  i've been following some of the discussions that
have migrated onto the UCIMC newswire after folks had their posts hidden
>and one person was banned outright from posting on the sf site
>



I did that. I do a lot of the moderating around here. I should have 
thrown him out long ago. He's a racist. He spams. He lies about it. 
He abused our newswire. He is not welcome.

I can't for the life of me understand why *any* IMC welcomes someone 
who has abused any IMC. Is not an injury to one an injury to all? Why 
is this man permitted to post at UC-IMC? If someone abused UC-IMC, 
and was banned, SF-IMC would not permit him to post. For Indymedia to 
hold together as a global network, solidarity is essential. No one 
who abuses any IMC should be permitted to post on any IMC.

Anyone who abuses our newswire by spamming is banned. Period. End of 
story. No appeal. We also forbid any form of enemy propaganda, be it 
sexist, racist, homophobic, pro-war, pro-exploitation, pro-nuclear, 
anti-environmental, anti-labor, or anything like it. Trolls are not 
welcome on SF-IMC. Our site exists for the benefit of our friends, 
our allies and our potential friends and allies. We have learned from 
experience and from feedback that if they have to wade through troll 
shit to read the news and talk to each other, they wont use the site.

We also hide duplicate posts, reposts from enemy websites, and 
anything containing a live link to an enemy website. Gibberish, 
personal ads, porn, the ravings of nut cases, and forgeries are also 
forbidden.

All these things are regular problems, especially spam and forgeries. 
We are under near constant attack by enemies from across the 
political spectrum, including Zionists, Nazis, and especially 
grassroots rightwingers, who use their own websites to organize 
coordinated attacks. The most egregious of these are Free Republic, 
KOBEHQ, Protestwarrior, and a guy who calls himself SmashTheLeft.

These people not only attempt to disrupt Indymedia and to drown our 
signal in noise, they have also threatened our lives, mine in 
particular. I take it as a compliment, but I also take prudent 
precautions. I disguise my identity, appearance and location, live 
with a big dog and own guns. I refuse to end up like Alan Berg.

These people are not always just a lot of hot air. Last year, 
Freepers actively promoted violence against protesters. Specifically, 
they encouraged people to run down protesters with their cars. This 
actually happened at least six times, in cities as dispersed as SF, 
Vancouver and Copenhagan. Nobody died, but at least one guy went to 
the hospital with a broken leg. As a guy who, at various times, has 
had both legs broken on highway crashes, I know exactly how he felt. 
No, I will not allow the miscreants who encourage people to do this 
to protesters to use SF-IMC as a soapbox.

During this period, STL also published a map showing how to find our 
office, and encouraged people to go there, hurt us and break things. 
It didn't happen, in part because we posted  guards and only let 
people into the building who we knew.

This is what we're up against.

Then there's COINTELPRO, which has not gone away, not even a little.

See:

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/12/1666652.php


These are the kind of people we have for enemies. No, we will not 
permit ourselves to be defeated by them. There is too much at stake.

To judge from the amount of traffic our site attracts, our editorial 
policy has been, and continues to be, an overwhelming success. We 
have no intention of altering it. Au contrair, we strongly recommend 
its emulation.

The best way to understand how our editorial policy works, is to look 
at what we hide. Note the volume.

Click here:

http://www.sfimc.net/news/?keyword=&author=&comments=yes&display=f&year=&month=&day=&medium=&category=0&sort=&limit=200


As for Gehrig himself, see this:

http://www.sfimc.net/news/?keyword=Gehrig&author=&comments=yes&display=f&year=&month=&day=&medium=&category=0&sort=&limit=200


For more about me, personally, click here:

http://www.transbay.net/~nessie/
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