[Imc-uk-process] [PROPOSAL] promoted wire final bits - edits to EDITORIAL GUIDELINES - proposed FEATURE

Mon Jan 2 08:29:36 PST 2006

Hi, we passed the consensus deadline for the optional promoted newswire 
a while back. It is running in admin - but not on the frontpage of the 
site yet. For this to happen we need to:

(i) Mention it in the Editorial Guidelines page
(ii) Have a feature about the change
(iii) Have a privacy policy page (we need this anyway) for the optional 
selection of the wire as a preference with a cookie.

Privacy Policy should be proposed in a short while on imc-uk-process... 
it has more about other stuff that already happens than the promoted wire.

There are copies of the proposed Editorial Guidelines page and the 
Feature on the wiki:

Editorial Guidelines page: 
https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/UkEditorialGuidelines

Feature:
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/UkPromotedNewswire#Draft_3

Propose a deadline of next weekend.

ekes

===

For those of you with off-line mail the copies of those wiki docs *at 
the time of this posting* without supporting docs and differences etc...

** EDITORIAL GUIDELINES **

The Independent Media Centre (IMC/Indymedia) UK is an open-publishing 
platform for news, issues, actions and analysis reporting on grassroots, 
non-corporate, non-commercial social justice, environmental and 
political issues. IMC UK is maintained by a network of volunteer media 
activists and groups. IMC stands for Independent Media Center, UK stands 
for United Kollektives.

IMC UK is dedicated to the open publishing ethos, this means that 
content is generated by anyone who wants to contribute. The rest of this 
page is to explain how content on the site is generated and how you can 
contribute.

<h2>Types of postings to Indymedia UK</h2>

<ul>
 <li><a href="#articles">Newswire</a>: On the front 
page and as well as on all topic pages, there is a Newswire on the right 
hand column. Everybody is free to post on this newswire. 
 On the front page you have a choice of two views of the newswire, one 
shows all non-hidden posts <a href="#hidden">(more info 
about hidden posts)</a>; the other a promoted selection 
<a href="#promoted">(more info about promotion)</a>. (Please see below 
for more information the reasons for promotion and hiding.)</li>

  <li><a href="#articles"><strong>Comments</strong></a>: Everybody can 
add their own comments at the end of each article. Comments can be used to:
   <ul>
    <li>State an opinion about any given posting.</li>
    <li>Add information.</li>
    <li>Correct inaccurate or malicious information.</li>
    <li>Rectify misinformation.</li>
   </ul>
   <br />
   Corrections and rectifications can be given prominent status as 
<strong>additions</strong> <a href="#additions">(more info about 
additions)</a>. Just as newswire articles, comments may be hidden <a 
href="#hidden">(more info about hidden comments)</a>.</li>

<li>Calendar: Please list all announcements and 
upcoming events on the Calendar. Just click the calendar link on the 
right hand column, on top of the newswire.</li>

<li><a href="#features">Features</a>: The features on 
the middle column of the IMC UK front and topic pages usually reflect 
postings to the newswire. Features are highlighting specific issues to 
make them more accessible. They are put together and online by 
volunteers, but everybody is welcome to propose them - <a 
href="#features">(more about proposing and creating features)</a>.</li>
</ul>

<a name="articles"></a><h3>Newswire and Comments - Open Posting 
Guidelines</h3>

IMC UK volunteers are moderating newswire articles and comments, 
promoting and hiding. They work openly on the site with discussions 
taking place on the <a 
href="http://lists.indymedia.org/imc-uk-features">imc-uk-features 
list</a>. Any suggestions or concerns should be e-mailed there. 
Moderation issues are not discussed on or through the newswire, and 
newswire posts on these topics are usually hidden.

<a name="promoted"></a><h4>Articles may be highlighted in the Promoted 
Newswire selection</h4>

To highlight articles, particularly those featuring first hand 
reporting, promoting the <a href="/en/static/mission.html">mission of 
IMC UK</a>, they can be placed in the promoted newswire on the front 
page of the site. Notifications of all promoted posts and any 
discussions about promotion are posted on the <a 
href="http://lists.indymedia.org/imc-uk-features">imc-uk-features 
list</a>. This is the list to contact if you think a post should be 
promoted.

<a name="additions"></a><h4>Comments may be highlighted as Additions</h4>

Comments that give corrections or rectifications can be given 
prominent status as additions. Please contact the IMC UK features list 
if you have the qualified accurate information.

<a name="hidden"></a><h4>Articles and Comments may be hidden</h4>

To maintain the integrity of the newswire and meet its <a 
href="/en/static/mission.html">purpose</a> articles may be hidden. 
Hidden articles and comments continue to be visible in the <a 
href="/en/viewallposts.html">View all posts</a> section.

<ul>
 <li>Repeated : content that is reposted, or text that 
was originally a comment posted as a report. </li>

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

<li>Discrimination : posts using language, imagery, 
or other forms of communication promoting racism, fascism, xenophobia, 
sexism, homophobia or any other form of discrimination. </li>

<li>Inaccurate : posts that are inaccurate or 
misleading. </li>

<li>Advertising : posts with personal or product 
promotions. </li>

  <li><strong>Hierarchy :</strong> The newswire is designed to generate 
a news resource, not a notice-board for political parties or any other 
hierarchically structured organizations.</li>

<li>Disruptive : Contributions by individuals who 
habitually publish above mentioned discouraged content. Posts where 
topical or regional selections disrupts the utility of the sub pages (ie 
spamming regional and topic selections). </li>

<li>Reposts : Articles that are simply pasted
from corporate news sites. Please write something original, by all means 
link to articles elsewhere and quote from them but don't just copy them. 
</li>

</ul>

<h3>Features</h3>

The features in the centre columns on the UK Indymedia site are 
typically highlights from the newswire. Typically 24 hours are allowed 
from the moment a feature is proposed on <a 
href="http://lists.indymedia.org/imc-uk-features">imc-uk-features 
list</a>, to allow for amendments, objections, and/or improvements. 
After these 24 hours, the feature is usually uploaded, in html, by 
members of the imc-uk-features collective.

Anyone can contribute to developing and proposing features by 
contacting and/or joining the <a 
href="http://lists.indymedia.org/imc-uk-features">imc-uk-features 
list</a>. There is more information and help in the <a 
href="http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/UkFeaturesHowTo">Features How 
To</a>.

<h2>Legal disclaimer</h2>

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All 
postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the 
individual authors and not of UK indymedia. Although IMC UK volunteers 
attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility 
legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention 
of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and 
constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

** FEATURE **

abstract:

The front page of <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/">www.indymedia.org.uk</a> now 
features a promoted newswire in addition to the 
open newswire. You can choose between the two. The 
addition of a promoted newswire is an attempt to keep the balance 
between our commitment to <a 
href="http://www.cat.org.au/maffew/cat/openpub.html">open publishing</a> 
and to our aims as stated in the UK Indymedia <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/mission.html">Mission 
Statement</a>.

We hope that this change will keep everyone happy: Those who want to 
read UK Indymedia as "the journal of the movement", a collection of 
local news, a running commentary by everyone who cares to post, as long 
as the posts are within the <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/editorial.html">Editorial 
Guidelines</a>.

Read on if you want to know more.

content:

When UK Indymedia was first set up on Mayday 2000, only few people knew 
about the website, and judging from the early postings on the newswire, 
most of them posted right along the lines of the IMC UK <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/mission.html">Mission 
Statement</a>: "The focus of the Indymedia UK collective is on 
grassroots politics, actions and campaigns." What has been 
practiced by numerous fotocopied zines and newssheets now moved to the 
internet by using Indymedia as an <a 
href="http://www.cat.org.au/maffew/cat/openpub.html">open publishing</a> 
platform on the internet. By publishing reports directly from their 
actions, activists further eroded the "dividing line between 
reporters and reported, between active producers and passive 
audience".

In the beginning, Indymedia users were mostly connected to the global 
protests against global governance (G8, WTO, IMF etc), to environmental 
protests and to the (dis)organisational principles of the <a 
href="http://www.agp.org/" title="Peoples' Global Action">PGA</a>: No 
leaders, no formal structures, striving to abolish any hierarchies. This 
attitude is reflected in the editorial guidelines: "Indymedia UK 
reserves the right to hide postings that contravene these 
guidelines". Hidden postings disappear from the open newswire, but 
can be viewed via the link to the view all posts page contained in the 
<a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/editorial.html">Editorial 
Guidelines</a>. The process of hiding is transparent, and often needs to 
be negotiated within the <a href="http://lists.indymedia.org/">Indymedia 
mailing lists</a>.

As the project grew, social movements in a much wider sense started to 
use Indymedia. Traditional NGOs and left-wing political parties started 
to be interested. Conspiracy theories about September 11 and various 
other events started to appear on the newswires. Right wing groups 
started to spam the newswire. People started to send re-posts from 
corporate media, and to advertise their blogs on Indymedia, or repost 
their entries. Disinformation about actions and events started to 
appear. Not to mention racist, sexist or other discriminatory newswire 
articles and comments.

We are aware that there is a tension between our commitments to open 
posting and to the non-hierarchical, grassroots type of activism. As 
Indymedia United Kollektives, we feel that we are not responsible to 
provide a platform for everything. Everybody can set up their own blog, 
website, mailing list or wiki on the internet. Nobody has to rely on the 
Indymedia open publishing newswire and the comments function to publish 
their opinions. At the same time, Indymedia volunteers and collectives 
in the UK are a varied bunch of people with different political and 
social backgrounds. Some of us encourage more "art" on the newswire, 
others are hiding poems. Some of us hide every corporate repost, others 
argue for keeping some of them. One person's "disruptive" is another 
person's inspiration. As a result, the threshold of what is seen as 
unacceptable is quite high. Decisions to hide an article are often 
challenged.

Dealing with this tension has always been a crucial debate within the 
United Kollectives that maintain <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/">www.indymedia.org.uk</a>.

In some IMCs in the US, people adhere to a radical free speech point of 
view, where the commitment to free speech is more important than any 
political content. In the UK, we discussed the notion of "radical 
speech", and decided that we <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/mission.html">clearly 
state</a> our bias to radical, non-hierarchical grassroots politics: 
"While the mainstream media conceal their manifold biases and 
alignments, we clearly state our position. Indymedia UK does not attempt 
to take an objective and impartial standpoint: Indymedia UK clearly 
states its subjectivity."

Our <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/editorial.html">Editorial 
Guidelines</a> are fluid, subject to constant re-interpretation by the 
dozens of volunteers who maintain the website. These volunteers don't 
always agree with each other. Viewers of Indymedia can watch an article 
being hidden, unhidden and re-hidden, and follow the discussions on the 
<a href="http://lists.indymedia.org/imc-uk-features">imc-uk-features</a> 
and local collectives <a href="http://lists.indymedia.org/">mailing 
lists</a>. Definitions of non-news, hierarchical, advertisements etc are 
constantly being negotiated.

The <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/editorial.html">Editorial 
Guidelines</a> have room for many opinions.

We also noticed an increase in comments that were not additions or 
grounded discussion of the newswire articles, but disruptive to the 
point of trolling. As a response, we implemented <a 
href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/11/328181.html">changes to the 
way comments are displayed</a> that gives users the choice to see all 
comments, or just the headings.

On a wider scale, we all agree that the newswire is the backbone of 
Indymedia. But then there are different interpretations: some of us want 
to see the open newswire as a running commentary on the website, fast 
and chaotic, like a messy free radio station. Others want a newswire 
that features straightforward Indymedia news from the streets: A slower 
medium that gives each posting more time on top of the newswire, and 
that allows people to see what is happening on planet activism at one 
glance, rather than having to sift through miles and miles of other 
postings.

Being a diverse network of people with different political and social 
backgrounds, we will not resolve this tension. In fact, we think that it 
is part of the dynamics and the success of Indymedia.

This is why we have come up with an optional promoted newswire. We have 
discussed this option since August 2005, exchanged arguments, revised 
specifications and code, until we were ready to implement it. We have 
started to promote older articles to this new promoted newswire. What 
exactly gets promoted will depend firstly on those volunteers who 
participate in the process. It will depend on local collectives, and it 
will depend on your input in the comments to this article, or in 
communication with your local collectives. In this process, patterns of 
promotion will emerge, and they will be discussed on the <a 
href="http://lists.indymedia.org/">mailing lists</a>.

At the same time, the open newswire will remain what it is now. 
Possibly, less postings will be hidden. Those who want an indymedia-type 
filter can use the promoted newswire.

This is something that other Indymedia sites have done for a while, for 
example <a href="http://germany.indymedia.org/">IMC Germany</a>: 
"promotes articles which are not dates (like: 
demonstration Tuesday 6pm... please come!), leaflets, crosspostings, 
press releases, articles with just 2 sentences, articles which are just 
personal opinions".

The introduction of a promoted newswire is an experiment, one more 
effort to keep Indymedia as a powerful tool for radical social change.

** ENDS **