[imc-melbourne-work] Re: Fw: Melbourne Indymedia to Suspend Publishing?

[takver]

Thanks for the offer of help. At the moment I am the only MIM editor
moderating and feature writing. Harry, the other regular ftr writer
has become burnt out atm. Nigel hasn't been doing much moderating
recently. And thats about it.

Over the last week I have been running the site myself, actually Cam
has admin rights as well and has assisted over the last few months
with some moderating. As I haven't had time to do features thru May,
every few days I popped in to moderate the blatant edpol breaches in
the newswire, just keeping the site above water.

On Thursday I pushed Greg Kable/Parrot Press/Sam/Mel/Kevin/Garry's
button by moving a local post to crosspost wire and using a user
comment with an intro as a warning on the local newswire to stop
crossposting non-relevant comments. That pushed Greg over the top.
Greg has generated well over 200 posts since. I enlisted Dave from
axxs.org and Cam to turn on IP logging, but Greg is using a proxy so
bloclking his IP is just a short delay.

Greg has calmed down a little, as long as I leave one of his posts on
the local near the top. I have come to the conlusion that I can't
defeat him unless there are the numbers to moderate him round the
clock - inefficient at best. Really what is needed is a software
upgrade.

Irate users and spammers have become more persistent and without a
software upgrade I really don't see the point in trying to maintain
such a high level of manual moderation.

Melbourne had a drupal site in development about 80% complete, but it
has stopped there. Yeah, I found this very frustrating, especially
after having to suspend Google News indexing in February.

But it really gets down to the fact that people like and_ drifted away
during the Mick Lambe saga and we haven't been able to generate
interest in the admin/site editing/ feature writing. The radio program
got organised this year, but I think no one has understood that basic
site admin and editorial has fallen really to a couple of people for
quite a long period of time. In terms of reporting there is really
only 2 or 3 ppl (of whom I include myself) who actively report to the
newswire on activist events and demos in Melbourne.

 It can't continue without some sort of schism.

I think your right - Melbourne does need an activist news site, and
open publishing should be part of that, but I have come to the
conclusion that much of the articles and comments posted are opinions
which swamp activist news and analysis. More editorial control needs
to be asserted to weed the good articles from the bad. Open publishing
should be a small corner of the site to generate new contributors and
news postings, but should not be allowed to dominate the site
editorially as it does now with the present software.

We need to empower article contributors by letting them decide if they
want all comments, be able to approve comments, or choose no comments.
Remember if a poster chooses no comments in a well written article,
balance can be achieved by promoting a well written article in
response. Too often I have seen contributors being turned away by the
extent of abusive or destructive comments, because we provided no
option to turn off comments.

I also want to reward consistent contributors of good articles by
their articles being promoted without moderation. That is where
userids come in. A contributor can build up a profile and can then be
allowed priviledged posting access. One of the carrots we should be
offering our contributors is that promoted articles will be indexed by
Google News. So that reports by grassroots activists can be accessed
alongside corporate media reports. My greatest pleasure last year was
seeing a union activist, not previously an Indy reader, from one of
those long pickets in the suburbs begin to post to MIM, and their
posts be picked up by Google News to counterbalance reports in The Age
and Herald Sun. Similarly with Tasmanian forest protests. We became
highly useful in 'getting the news out' not just to our Indymedia
scene but to a much wider audience. Very empowering.

So in the near term I don't see how we can avoid suspending MIM. The
real test is can we bounce back and provide something better than we
have today that allows us to concentrate on activist news.

I think we have enough people to make an Australia wide news site
work.Fundamentally we are about grassroots reporting of news and
events. I just think we need to reassess what we are trying to do with
open publishing and work better with its limitations and strengths.

Takver

On 6/11/07, allan boyd <allanboyd at optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> Thanks John,
>
> Can I help?
>
> Despite the ongoing dramas and inherent problematics of running an Open
> Publishing site, I feel it would be a terrible disservice to Victorian
> activism to shut off the Publishing of MIM.
>
> Surely there are other things we can do.
>
> How many eds are there left at MIM?
>
> Perhaps IMC eds need to take a harsher, vigilant approach to moderating.
>   the newswires. ie: delete/hide/remove Parrot Press's shit on sight -
> and anything else you think is not relevant or newsworthy. Maybe change
> your ed policy to reflect this.
>
> Parrot Press etc are shitting us off too and we've decided to crack down
> on fuckheads like him/them/it.
>
> Happy to lend a hand by the way, I can spare an hour or so a day, here
> and there to keep an eye on yr newswires and remove the rubbish.
>
> respecta
> al
>
> PS OZ indymedia is a good idea and I'd be happy to be involved with that.
>
>
>
> takver wrote:
> > Allan,
> > just to keep Perth IMC informed. This was sent out to the Melbourne-work
> >  and eds list a little while ago and cced to Kameron from Sydney.
> >
> > Takver
> > Melbourne IMC
> > ------------- Forwarded message follows -------------
> >
> > I think we need to stop open publishing on Melbourne Indymedia ASAP to
> > reassess what we want to do.
> >
> > Over the last week I have attempted to get the site back on track with
> > features and moderation. But one person can't manage the site. All it
> > takes is one irate user, like Parrot Press, to undermine the site and my
> > efforts.
> >
> > Basically, irate users and spammers have become more persistent in their
> > attacks and without a software upgrade or a collective of several people
> > to actively moderate posts and do features, the site is unworkable. If
> > numbers are insufficient to moderate the site effectively, then the only
> > responsible action is to stop open publishing.
> >
> > I think this is the responsible thing to do for our loyal readers and
> > contributors, many of whom have openly complained about spam and
> > crossposts being published and unmoderated. If we suspend publishing I
> > suggest we link to  Sydney IMC for people to post stories.
> >
> > If or when open publishing is turned off, I shall probably join Sydney
> > IMC to help with moderation and features.
> >
> > ==Australia wide Indymedia==
> >
> > Cameron from Sydney IMC has seriously suggested that an Australia wide
> > site be developed with various newswires according to our needs and
> > moderated and edited by IMC ppl across Australia. I am now thinking this
> > could be viable.
> >
> > If this proposal goes ahead I would like to see for Melbourne:
> > * an open newswire and a promoted newswire.
> > * userids to enable priveledged posting,
> > * posters being able to choose a comments option: all comments, approved
> > comments, or no comments.
> > * an event calendar for each city/region
> >
> > I would also like to see at the very least one newswire on the Australia
> > wide site being fully catalogued by Google News, and for this to happen
> > we must show we exercise editorial control over those postings -
> > basically ensuring articles are factual and of a reasonable standard.
> >
> > == Suggested statement as Front Page feature:==
> >
> > Melbourne Indymedia Suspends Publishing
> >
> > Open publishing has been suspended on Melbourne Indymedia as numbers in
> > our editorial collective are insufficient to manage the site effectively
> > and responsibly. We realise that MIM still plays a vital role in
> > reporting activist news from Melbourne, Victoria and further afield. To
> > this end the present collective will be assessing options for how best
> > to provide an activist news service in the future. If you wish to get
> > involved, please <a
> > href="http://melbourne.indymedia.org/contact.php">contact us</a>, or
> > subscribe to our <a
> > href="http://melbourne.indymedia.org/mailinglist.php">mailing list</a>.
> > <p>
> > While open publishing is suspended, our collective suggests if you have
> > a well researched, well-written story about Melbourne events, you should
> > post the story to <a href="http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/">Sydney
> > Indymedia</a>. We thank our many loyal readers and contributors for
> > several years of grassroots journalism and media activism and hope we
> > can resume reporting with an even better interface at some stage in the
> > future.<br>
> > <i>Melbourne Indymedia Collective</i>
> >
> >
> > =======================
> >
> > Discussion, ideas?
>
>