[Imc-uk-features] Web discussion board suggestion

[Chris]

Hi

Did people see this:

   non-news discussion

   Ms. Frustrated | 01.07.2006 22:09 | Indymedia

   Newswire Open Posting Guidelines
   articles and/or comments may be hidden for the
   following reasons:

   Non-news : posts which are clearly purely comment,
   opinion or rants unrelated to a recent event or action
   etc.

   Repeated : content that is reposted or text that was
   originally a comment posted as a report.

   Advertising : posts with personal or product
   promotions.

   IMCuk is under attack. Every day items which break the
   above editorial guidlines pass through the timeline.
   Conspiracy theories, blog pastes, cut and pastes from
   news sites, rants, book reviews, repeated news,
   repeated posts, even songs, all of these are clogging
   up the timeline. Indymedia is possibly the greatest
   positive media achievement of our times, but personally
   im wanting to check it out less and less these days
   because of all the above. I think that if indymedia
   continues on the way it is going now, it will be an
   aborted or fully hijacked project within a few years.
   That will be a tragedy that doesn’t need to happen. For
   me something needs to be done.

   I propose a couple of things, here posted for
   discussion.

   1) We set up an indymedia forum, for people to discuss
   things broader than simply news. Perhaps if people want
   to discuss the truth behind 911 or the Yorkshire
   Ripper, things which have no bearing on recent peoples
   struggles, they could do so here. Also, it could
   include a section for blogs, book reviews, etc.

   2) If the idea of having a separate section on
   indymedia is unappealing, then perhaps we change the
   Newswire to not simply highlight important news, but to
   have separate tabs to choose between news, opinion,
   reviews, songs, etc. Maybe even an "alternative truth"
   section or whatever those ufo folk like to call
   themselves.

   3) If not one of the above or another drastic change,
   then perhaps we take a stricter approach to the above
   mentioned posts. More than simply hiding the text of
   posts which breach the guidelines, we take them off of
   the newswire entirely, leaving them perhaps inside a
   temporary bin that will empty itself after a bit and
   can be appealed from, where the appealer would have to
   state why his entry does fit within the guidelines.

   Those are simply some suggestions. And yes I would be
   interested in trying to help out with this process.
   Also, yes i completely see the irony behind me writing
   a piece for the newswire about the problems of non news
   on indymedia, but perhaps that testifies to the fact
   that indymedia is lacking a decent method of
   discussion.


   Ms. Frustrated 

   |
   |-> Perhaps a forum experiment...?

       02.07.2006 00:18
     
       If there are techies willing to set one up and keep
       up with security alerts then I don't see why a
       forum.indymedia.org.uk site couldn't be set up as
       an experiment.
     
       Italy has been running one for years,
       http://italy.indymedia.org/forum/ of course someone
       would have to write up a proposal to the
       http://lists.indymedia.org/imc-uk-process list, it
       would need to have a consensus and also some
       techies would be needed to set it up and maintain
       it and there would need to be a server found to run
       it on.
     
       Then there would need to be some process, even if
       an informal one, for giving people admin access for
       the forum so that it it able to run itself.
     
       In the past some people haven't been supportive of
       web forums because don't use them, but it does
       appear that there are enough other users of the
       site who would like one... so why not...?
     
       The best recent example I have seem of a issue that
       would be better on a forum is the veganism
       discussion on the Sheffield site which started as a
       argument in Matilda, which led to a rant on a blog
       that was then inapropriatly (the author of the blog
       site didn't think it should be on Indymedia) posted
       to Indymedia several times and is now a long
       discussion thread:
       http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/sheffield/2006/06/343770.html?c=on
     
       techie 

  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/07/343994.html?c=on  

Chris

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