[imc-oxford-features] deselected 422750

[owen at riseup.net]

My position is: people connected to Oxford in some way *can* post to
OxIMC, but they need to make the link to Oxford obvious (to a casual
reader).

As Jack said, allowing posts from people that *we* happen to know are
connected to Oxford (but haven't bothered to mention it in the article)
has the cliquey effect of favouring our friends. Also, it gives readers
the impression that 'anything goes' because they'll see posts on the
Oxford wire apparently unnconnected to Oxford, increasing the chance that
they'll post irrelevant stuff themselves (I suppose leaving the wire
uncleaned for long amounts of time has the same effect, arguably...).

This isn't the first time we've had this discussion:
http://docs.indymedia.org/bin/view/Local/ImcUkOxfordLocalRelevance
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-oxford-features/2005-January/0119-lr.html
http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-oxford-features/2005-January/0119-89.html

No wonder I was getting deja vu! In that last discussion (Jan 2005)
several people agreed that Oxford-relevance needs to be made explicit, not
assumed on the basis of insider knowledge.

I'm happy for this post to be unhid, if someone adds a comment explaining
the Oxford-relevance. I don't have time to do either right now, but will
check later.

Then, could we try and get consensus once and for all on the general
principle (that Oxford-relevance needs to be explicit), and reword our
guidelines to make it clear?

Owen the bike race


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original msg:
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hamish wrote:
> This is oxford relevent as am shore the are some police whatch crew
> in oxford and riched from VOTV/undercurrents works in oxford so dont
>  see why he cant post tio his local IMC. Please reinstate the post
> and clarify were the problem is?

I'm inclined to agree, because the custom in the past has been to accept
posts from "people connected with Oxford".

Actually I disapprove of that custom; it has the effect of favouring
posts that come from Oxford IMCers, and people that IMCers happen to
know, even if they are not Oxford-relevant; while barring equally
off-topic posts if they are from people we don't happen to know.

But I don't think this is the time or venue for changing that practice,
so I think the undercurrents post should be allowed.

-- 
MrD.
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