[IMC-Tech] Draft: How to properly shut down an IMC

[Alster]

Hi,

taking part in some tech working groups which handle shared (between
several IMCs) services such as Listwork (lists.indymedoa.org), I realize
that we often do not get to know it when an IMC shuts down. As a result,
their services remain available, but are no longer maintained.

Depending on the type of service, this can cause this service to be
abused, such as by email or blog spammers or for exploit hosting. Even
if this does not happen, it is a waste of our limited resources. As
such, I'm putting together this document "How to properly shut down an
IMC". Its audience is meant to be both
* people who are shutting down their own IMC for the variety of reasons
  there can be and
* people who have become aware that an IMC is no longer maintained
  (whether or not they have volunteered as an Indymedia activist before)

The document should be usable both by people knowing the global
Indymedia structures and those who do not. It should be usable by any
person whether or not they have a broad or just a small tech background.

!!! I'm sending this draft here asking for your help in making it fit
!!! these requirements, correcting and completing it.

Once this is done, this should be resent to the working groups
references inside the draft. My hopes are that this document will be
used by new-imc, imc-tech and all the working groups references within
the document to notify the other relevant parties if they become aware
of an IMC which is no longer maintained.

_______________________________________________________________________

HOW TO PROPERLY SHUT DOWN AN IMC

If you become aware of an IMC which is no longer maintained, or if you
want to shut down your own IMC with a clear cut, please follow the steps
listed below.

1. Look on the website of said IMC and on http://lists.indymedia.org for
contact addresses (email) of this IMC. Send an email to all of them,
saying that you think this IMC appears to be dead and state why you
think so. Ask them to get back to you within 14 days. If you receive no
reply within 14 days or the replies you receive support your impression
of this IMC being inactive, proceed to step 2. Otherwise, stop here.

2. Send email to the following, reporting the results of step 1, the
name of the unmaintained or closing IMC, ideally their website and
mailing lists:
new-imc at lists.indymedia.org
imc-tech at lists.indymedia.org
imc-commwork at lists.indymedia.org
listwork at sos.indymedia.org
dns at sos.indymedia.org

3. If you have the ability to determine their web hosting provider(s),
please do so, and contact them, too. The general way to do so is to
determine their IP addresses from their IMCNAME.indymedia.org domain
name, then run a whois and DNS reverse lookup on these IP addresses, and
determine the tech collective or ISP from this. Once you know this,
determine their email address and send an explanatory email to them,
similar to what you sent in step two.

_______________________________________________________________________

Alster
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