[Seattle-editorial] Editorial control and power distribution

[Joseph Eisenschmidt]

SEAIMC Editorial WG,

Dear Eds.,

Who besides me is clerking the wire?
 
If I am the only person doing this, then I am the censor! That is a 
very uncomfortable place to be for a free speech activist who has 
gotten into a lot of trouble by erring on the side of openness and 
transparency. 

I can be a hard-ass, but not when constitutional issues are at 
stake. There I am always a hard-ass.

If I am the only person clerking the wire, then let's understand:

If I do all the work, I get to make the decisions as to how the 
work is done, unilaterally. My grandmotehr would call that 'the 
story of the little red hen.' I do too.

If I am the censor, my personal safety and reputation is at risk. 
That's not so good. When two or more folks are doing editing, it's 
an us thing. If I do it alone, then I get all the blame, 
personally, and all the credit, personally. 

I think the options going forward are to suspend the open newswire, 
come to an understanding that is unmoderated in any way, or to 
develope a completely anonomous proceedure. (What was the name of 
the guy in Hollywood who did the censoring? I don't know either!) 

In effect, www.seattle.indymedia.org becomes 'my site'. You all 
know me: I'm a bit power hungry sometimes, as are we all, but not 
like that. Not when it involves our collective integrity. 

To let everyone know, It takes me up to half an hour with our 
current system to read, edit, and hide stuff that can be posted by 
someone with broadband in about 5 minutes. I have dial-up, share it 
with me mum out in Mason county, and need to keep my home phone 
available some of the time. 

The admin server is offline (Don't ask me, I don't do the tech 
stuff), and the only other active editor/clerk has lost his 
internet and phone. I am literally hanging on by a thread.

It's not my thread folks, its ours, and I'd like everyone to know 
that things are in one good hand. 

Clapping in the wind, and, as always, in complete Solidarity, 

Joseph