[imc-uk-emergency] the full lowdown on open publishing!

[ionnek]

At 18:29 14/05/03, Chris Croome wrote:
>A question, if we have the germal model and also comments allowed on
>features I expect that is where the crap will get posted -- would you
>want a hidden-till-approved model for comments?

the german model does not allow comments on features. Does any imc site?

... in general, I'm a bit lost in options. I think we'll be busy enough by 
getting used to one open publishing model - if we moderate comments 
beforehand and newswire articles afterwards, it adds to the complexity.

slashdot model - wow! but... will people read the manual?

about open publishing: agree with ab re quality of open publishing sites. I 
read indy newswires as a sort of family album. For in-depth analysis I go 
elsewhere. Same with writing - wouldn't spend  a week writing sth really 
nice for the indy newswire!

I've worked on an edited web-magazin as well, and the process is just 
completely different from indymedia - slower, and much more about 
discussing contents, getting people to write stuff for it, and not being 
accountable to an entire chaotic diverse movement. Indymedia really 
requires a very tolerant mindset - if it was just up to me, I would 
probably hide everything that I haven't written myself ;-)

BUT I appreciate indymedia for what it is - not a nice, structured, nicely 
and creatively layouted journalistic theory resource (which I see as 
positive), but a messy, chaotic, loud, crowded convergence center.
Where you hear a lot about what's going on on planet activism, sometimes 
even on planet  "community". Sometimes there are real gems, beautiful 
picture reports etc, sometimes just rants. Sometimes people approach us for 
material for their legal cases. Sometimes I use the newswire as an archive 
for the actions of another group whose website is a bit slow.
All this is only possible because everybody can publish, experienced and 
inexperienced writers, photographers, filmers, audiomakers. And the 
learning curve is amazing! We sometimes underestimate how much the 
indy-medium does for the skills and self-education in the movement - 3 
years ago, most of us (the london crew) didn't have a clue about 
report-writing, confirming news, taking and editin pics, films and audio 
and processing them. Now even I have learned to resize a picture.

Yes, sometimes I dream of a really tight moderation, calls and 
announcements separate from reports, opinion in a different box, and hide 
everything that goes against my or my collectives grain. And lots of 
discussions in the collective about where we stand politically.
But that would be a different project from indymedia.
The "moderation before" model is kind of in the middle - but for the 
decision we have to take now, I go with Andi's pragmatic point of view in 
favour of moderation afterwards: we can't even cope with the newswire as it 
is now, moderation breaks down from time to time, when people go on 
holiday, or local collectives are involved in other stuff.
This implies that it is (in my view) more important to guarantee that 
postings are visible on the frontpage than to guarantee that there is no 
trash on the frontpage.
Also our "legal expert" in London says that a "moderated before" newswire 
on the frontpage makes us liable for everything that's being said.

Anyway - sometimes it seems that doing indymedia is all about "hiding" - 
how ironic!

ionnek