[imc-melbourne-work] Future of Melbourne Indymedia

[and]

Hey,

On 17/05/2007, at 12:51 PM, harry tuttle wrote:

> Hi all,
> Its good to read all the ideas floating around. Sorry,
> but due to other life stuff I havent organised a
> meeting. What about Saturday or Sunday the 26th/27th
> maybe later in the afternoon. I guess we really need
> to come  up with some kind of short term plan while we
> work out the bigger picture/future of MIM.

Why not switch off publishing temporarily? That way there is space to  
really stop and think about the project without having to spend time  
managing trolls and dealing with other daily tasks. It would also  
communicate to the community the extent of the crisis, especially if  
it's explained on the front page, and be a mechanism for gathering  
new people to get involved. If people think it will just keep  
plodding along they won't be shaken out of their apathy, a rupture  
needs to be created to break the current cycle and begin new ways of  
thinking about the project, both for the collective and the site users.

And.



> Harry
>
>
> --- musicman <datakid at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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...
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> imc-melbourne-work mailing list
>>> imc-melbourne-work at indymedia.org.au
>>>
>>
> http://lists.indymedia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/imc-melbourne-work
>>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> ===================================
>> 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.
>>
>>
> http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=232307&cid=18893125
>> ===================================
>> _______________________________________________
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>> imc-melbourne-work at indymedia.org.au
>>
> http://lists.indymedia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/imc-melbourne-work
>>
>
>
>
>
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