[Seattle-editorial] picking up the posts

Mon Mar 1 13:45:46 PST 2004

1st, Sheri, thanks for sending this. This
controversial view of what should be done about
moderation has got me thinking.

2nd, the tech person "s. banerian" (sorry for the
misspelling,) mentioned they simply do not have enough
time/manpower for major site changes.

3rd, Walt's solution about "hey, what if I just were
to start posting stuff from the news wire without
consulting everyone first like Oregon, what would the
problem be?" also has me thinking.

Though I certainly like the editorial policy below
(and I could hardly imagine a responsible management
of a open newswire that would be any different,) it
sounds like a lot of work.

I've been pondering the value of Walt's idea.  What if
we just agressively promoted the cool material off the
newswire, by turning it into center-column pieces?  I
have heard 2 main objections to this:

1) The newswire items need introductions, so it's
still a lot of work to re-post them as center
features.

2) Items will go to the center column that we wouldn't
all neccesarily endorse.

As far as #1 goes, I sure wouldn't be putting a new
introduction on anything, that's way too much work. 
Instead, I would just quote the beginning or best part
of the item, which ever seemed like the most
appropriate introduction.  I would certainly never
change the title.

As far as #2 goes, let's take a look at what would
have been moved to the center column if we hadn't
waited for universal approval first:

#1) All of Kristen Andenburg's stuff.
#2) My questionaire about what people want in our web
page.
#3) An article about some bills going through that
could potentially, but probably won't be, used to
start a draft within a year.

That's what I would have thrown on the main colum
personally, if I had not had to wade through all this
other stuff that goes on.  Would it have been worth
it, to have these 3-7 items on the center column
without solid introductions, and without universal
editorial endorsement?

To me it seems like, 
~since we don't even have the tech manpower to
implement any change at all on the newswire, 
~and we don't have the manpower for significant
moderation of the newswire, 
~it seems like the most realistic alternative for
improving the site content is aggressive promotion of
the good stuff from the newswire in our center column.

--- "sheri at speakeasy.org" <sheri at speakeasy.net> wrote:
> 
> -----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/
> _______________________________________________
> imc-us-process mailing list
> imc-us-process at lists.indymedia.org
>
http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-us-process
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Seattle-editorial mailing list
> Seattle-editorial at lists.indymedia.org
>
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=====
-Benjamin 

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