[Imc-uk-features] hidden

[Roy Bard]

Hi Tony

If Indymedia's agreed purpose was clear, then there would be a way of
cleaning the newswire without having to deal with constant flack - which
is the reason that I do far less of it than I was.

The problem is that is there is no consensus about what the newswire
should be doing - and the last few days have been particularly bad -
most of the articles up there are from dodgy sources, or are adverts or
promotions or are badly written and contain no news whatsoever.

On the newswire at the moment we have:

1) UK Jews charge 'bias' in BBC peace series - C+P from the Jerusalem Post
2) Hitler, what a legend! - Is it news that some people compare Bush to
Hitler?
3) Sheffield no Borders - More pics - DA related
4) In the Name of Counter-Terrorism: Human Rights Abuses Worldwide -
links to hrw report and babar achmad campaign without commentary
5)Nato changing to a global corparate force - C+P'd UPI report
6) Veggies - 21 Years and Counting! - invite to celebrate veggies
birthday and discussion re setting up a forum (DA related promotion)
7) Inside Indonesia's War on Terror - 2 lines + a link to a comments
section on an australian corporate news site
8) Norwich No N25 protest, TUES 1st NOV - background info free invite to
an anti road protest with a link to the campaign site (DA related promotion)
9) captain Ken Masters found dead in Iraq - C+Ps from the MOD and the
Independent
10)Mailbox Birmingham to charge visitors on bicycles - at least somneone
took time to write this....
11) Ubuntu releases third version of popular Linux distribution -
12)Iraquis vote "Yes" - commentary on the referendum
13) Anti-capitalist film now out on DVD - £5.50 inc P+P for DVDs of a
film made by 4 members of The Socialist Party
14) US cannot explain suspicious 'Zawahri letter' passage - Reuters C+P
15) Ireland Puts The Iraq War on Trial - pitstop ploughshares trial
restarts on 24?10 (DA related)
16) Sheffield No Borders Tour (part 2) - DA related
17) Sheffield No Borders Tour (part 1) - DA related
18) Plagued by corporate prank calls? Here's who to blame: - DA related
BUT is INDY able to allow directors home addresses to be published?
19) !!! ILLEGAL ART SHOW !!! - DA related
20) INTELLIGENCE REPORT: US "private military contractors" already in
Venezuela -
21) Roll another one - claims that Blair and Cameron take coke together
and that Blair is ill because of it
22) Boris Kagarlitsky’s plagiarism - difficult to comprehend analysis
23) Globalization chickens coming home to roost - Toronto Star article
24) DR Congo: The Seamless Borders Of Genocide - C+P from Pambuzuka
25) Deaths in immigration detention and violent deportations to
dangerous countries - promoting BID meeting (DA related promotion)
26)Manchester McD-Day update - 2 para action report (DA related)
27) SPEAKING OUT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS - details of meeting with Zimbabwean
women held by Amnesty in Brum
28) Schwarzenegger Signs California Legislation - Kids & Teachers Are
NOT Lab Rats! - california safe schools press release
29) Stop the vote - commentary on Iraq referendum
30) Insex Cult Leader Calls It Quits! BDSM Mind Control - hmmm - not DA
related

So - hardly any DA related stuff, lots of C+Ps - a handful of stuff
where the author has bothered to spend time writing it - a fair number
of events promotions.

I've unhidden the Mark Thomas thing as its no worse than most of the
guff...... but I do think the newsire is being abused - and that there
is an urgent need for a newswire that is aimed at those who engage in or
support DA in the UK - which some of us believe is what IMC should be
doing - perhaps this can be done through making the UK newswire a
"promoted posts" newswire, with a clickthrough to the "open publishing"
section - but something needs to happen soon......

best

ftp





Tony wrote:

> Hello ftp
>
> I know this could be seen as advertising/promotion - but we could
> still let some events be covered in the newswire - i do think we are a
> little too close to the rigid use of the guidelines. I would prefer a
> wider interpretation from time to time.
>
> To me indymedia has a purpose - to report the news/direct action etc -
> and ideally we would have good reports coming in all the time etc -
> but as we build a community of people who want to use indymedia - we
> also need to be able to support a wide community of political
> activity. This includes some promotion / events and advertsing when
> appropriate.
>
> To me the guidelines are there to be used when the newswire starts to
> be abused rather than to be held to so strictly. I say this as someone
> who really appiciates the amount of work you are putting into the site
> and am in not critisising your many other judgements - just as i enjoy
> Mark Thomas i felt i should say something...
>
> cheers tony
>
> At 21:16 +0100 16/10/05, Roy Bard wrote:
>
>> 325744 - Mark Thomas free Q&A - non news/events promotion
>>
>> -- 
>> Indymedia United Kollektives editorial: features and wire moderation
>> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-uk-features
>
>
>