[imc-melbourne-work] Future of Melbourne Indymedia

[musicman]

Hola,

I'm largely staying out of this debate because I'm incredibly busy as
it is, but I would flag this interesting article by Cory Doctorow of
boingboing fame:

http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=199600005

"How To Keep Hostile Jerks From Taking Over Your Online Community

Angry people looking for fights will inevitably try to poison
successful Internet communities. Columnist Cory Doctorow looks at ways
to remove the poison without killing the discussion too. "

I like some of the ideas in here - especially if we could implement
disemvowelling:

"Troll whisperers aren't necessarily very good at hacking tools, so
there's always an opportunity for geek synergy in helping them to
automate their hand-crafted techniques, giving them a software
force-multiplier for their good sense. For example, Teresa invented a
technique called disemvowelling -- removing the vowels from some or
all of a fiery message-board post. The advantage of this is that it
leaves the words intact, but requires that you read them very slowly
-- so slowly that it takes the sting out of them. And, as Teresa
recently explained to me, disemvowelling part of a post lets the rest
of the community know what kind of sentiment is and is not socially
acceptable."

L.

On 5/17/07, Anna Helme <anna at engagemedia.org> wrote:
> the other thing i would suggest is that if the collective wants new
> software to do this:
>
>  >>>>>>>>
>
> ==Software==
>
> In terms of software, the Melbourne site really needs that upgrade.
>
> * We need Userids for identification of quality users.
>
> * We need an Option for users when they post an article to decide
> whether they want a) no comments B) approved comments c) all comments
>
> * At least one newswire that is only for articles posted by "trusted
> users" and that members of the editorial collective can move articles
> to. Without this, we can not met the requirements of Google News and
> we become just another opinionated blog.
>
>  >>>>>>>>
>
> (as takver has outlined) then MIM should use the money in the bank
> - am i right in thinking it's about $1000? if not i'm sure it wouldn't
> be too hard to get it up to that amount - to *pay* a developer to
> do this. MIM seems to do OK when it comes to donations.
>
> you should be able to solve the major problem MIM is facing - the
> software - if you pay a developer now, and know that you will have to
> use donations to pay for regular maintenance. much more sustainable
> i think - both for MIM and for the developers who may be so burnt out
> from doing free activist stuff they leave it all behind and never
> come back.
>
> if $1500 was spent on software development / maintenance a year,
> perhaps everybody would be much happier...
>
> _______________________________________________
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> imc-melbourne-work at indymedia.org.au
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>


-- 
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Imagine a giant radish, like a planet sized radish. Now imagine that
there's a bunny hopping to the radish, and it takes a bite out of it.
But the bunny spits out that bite and kind of smears it back in place
on the radish with a paw. Then it rains.

That's the internet.

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