[New-imc] Lancaster, PA, USA IMC -- new imc decision deadline, AUG 3, 23:00 GMT (2)

[Jay]

(this is part two of the Lancaster, PA, USA IMC criteria)

Promoting Content to Feature Status
LPIMC chooses content to feature from the newswires daily. A variety of
criteria is used to determine which articles to features including the
quality of writing, local and regional relevance, incisiveness,
uniqueness, sources, balance with other content and points rating from
readers. The most relevant, best written and well composed original
content has the greatest chance of becoming a feature--the most widely
read articles on our site.

We encourage writers, photographers and videographers looking to increase
their audience to fully understand these guidelines and consult our
resources page for more in depth information. We strongly encourage
collaboration, especially among those who focus on different types of
media. If you are interested in contributing regularly, please consider
subscribing to our Editorial Collective email list where discussion takes
place regarding story ideas, writing tips, and other useful topics.

Features, which reside in the center column of the LPIMC website, are the
more prominent articles or announcements in the center column and must be
well-written and considerate of the audience. Only members of the web
editorial collective will have the password for posting features and
editing the website content. To obtain the password, new volunteers need
to actively participate in writing and promoting features. In addition to
actively participating in the editorial process (i.e. joining the
editorial collective), each new volunteer must attend face-to-face LIMC
meetings and attend an editorial training session where they will learn
the moderating responsibilities and receive an administrative password.

Copyrighted Material
To alleviate the problem of copyrighted articles from other press sources
being reposted on this IMC site, articles posted to the newswire that have
been copied and pasted from copyrighted sources by anyone other than the
copyright holder (or without the copyright holder's permission) will be
removed from the newswire. Articles with summaries or brief copied content
with a link or URL of where to find the copyright article are permitted
and encouraged.

While Indymedia reserves the right to develop sections of the site that
provide edited articles, articles posted to the newswire section are
sometimes minimally modified for readability and clarity (i.e bad
formatting). The Lanpa-IMC Editorial Collective keeps an eye on the
newswire to keep track of what is being posted and to apply basic
editorial guidelines to keep the newswire free of Spam, commercial
advertising, incomprehensible posts, malicious and hate speech and
duplicate postings.

The following are types of situations and posts which may be hidden by the
Lanpa-IMC Collective, along with guidelines for determining what should be
hidden.

•Duplicate Posts - if a single post is duplicated during a relatively
short time period, all duplicate posts may be hidden. In determining
duplicate posts it should be understood that it may be appropriate to
repost information in order to bring information to the attention of
website visitors after a reasonable amount of time has elapsed since it
was first posted.
•Threats and Intimidation-The IMC newswire is not intended to be a forum
for primarily publicizing hate nor for making direct threats against
individuals, groups or classes of people. The IMC recognizes that such
speech can be harmful in and of itself and may create at atmosphere in
which physical action becomes more likely. In any post under consideration
the threatening speech should be weighed against other ideas or expression
in the post. If the majority of the post nonetheless is intended to
contribute to discourse or debate, then the issue of hiding it should be
considered very carefully.
•Flooding or Spamming of Posts - this is when a single individual posts
multiple times in a short period in a manner that indicates that the
poster's purpose is to flood the newswire or push other posts off the
front page of the IMC website, which typically only contains ten to twenty
of the most recent posts. This type of posting behavior can only truly be
identified after several occurrences, and depends heavily on the amount of
volume of posts. It can be difficult to stop because posters can change
screen names at a whim. Therefore the utmost care must be taken to make
sure that only posts that are made by a known "spammer" are hidden.
•Technically flawed or Technically malicious posts
•Commercial Solicitation and corporate propaganda - the Newswire is not
intended to be used for commercial purposes, therefore commercial
solicitations and advertisements for commercial products should be hidden.
•Impersonation of Individuals and/or groups- Newswire items will be hidden
if it can be established that the post authorship deliberately
impersonates a group or individual.
•Content Empty Posts
•Deliberately misleading or false statements

Guidelines for Editing and Deleting Posts
The following types of posts may be edited or have text deleted by the
LPIMC Editorial Collective.

•Illegal Speech - very few kinds of speech are considered illegal in the
US, however those that are must be dealt with seriously. One example of
such speech is a threat against the US president. The appearance of such
speech on the IMC website can bring unwanted and unnecessary scrutiny and
harassment from police and the government. Any conceivable benefit or
contribution such speech might make is far outweighed by the threat it
presents to the health and existence of the IMC.
•Libel
•Direct Threats ­ These constitute direct threats on specific people or
small, easily identifiable groups of people. The purpose behind editing or
deleting such posts is to not feed into the violence threatened.
•Trolling & Crapflooding [T&C]:

"T&C" refers to posts which disrupt the intended function of the website
by: Diluting or fragmenting the thread of a stories comment chain with
spurious, irrelevant, and often inflammatory, content as opposed to
engaging the substance of the original post, or a related matter. It also
refers to posts appearing in clusters, often in the media gallery, which
have little or no content and / or relevance to the purpose of the website
and have the effect of "swamping" legitimate stories.

Since judgments about what constitutes "T&C" are likely more subjective
than other categories of unacceptable content, editors must post
notification of content "hidden" for this reason to the Editorial
Collective at lancpa-editorial at lists.indymedia.org.

• Posts in a language other than English we suspect of violating one of
the above criteria.

Procedure for Hiding, Editing or Deleting Posts
The Lanpa-IMC Collective expects readers to not only monitor the Newswire
and alert the IMC volunteers when inappropriate posts appear, but to be
able to read the newswire with discretion. Additionally, any LPIMC
volunteer, member or website visitor may call attention to a post believed
to be inappropriate by e-mailing the LPIMC Editorial list at
lancpa-editorial at .lists.indymedia.org

Hiding Posts
When the Editorial Collective is made aware of posts that should be
hidden, it should make a reasonable attempt must be made to contact the
author of the post in question and to explain the IMC's appropriate use
policy, asking for cooperation and compliance. In the event that a post is
made anonymously, or no valid e-mail address is posted, then no effort can
reasonably take place to contact the author. If after attempting contact
with an author posting inappropriately the Editorial Collective is unable
to reach a resolution with that poster, the Collective may hide any of
that author's posts as they deem necessary, according to this policy. The
Collective may instruct the website editor or editorial group to hide
future posts from such an author.

Whenever a post is hidden/unhidden a comment from the Editorial Collective
explaining whey the post was hidden should be added to the hidden post,
and the editorial collective listserve should be notified with a direct
link to the post. This also includes all changes by individual members. In
order to keep things transparent and equal all adjustments or alterations
should be shared with the Collective to inform the other members.

Finally, remember that the Indymedia site is here for you. The site is
especially intended to be available and useful to peoples, ideas, and news
that are overlooked, systematically excluded, or mis-represented by the
dominant media. We encourage you to upload your own stories, commentaries
and announcements that may be of use to the community. And you are further
encouraged to participate actively in the LancasterPA Indymedia Project!

Editorial Policy Reviewing and Assessment Process
The Editorial Collective reviews the Editorial Policy bi-annually,
including reviewing hidden posts and comments/concerns/constructive
criticisms from readers. It is our best intention to provide an axis of
free expression while at the same time protecting the autonomous rights
and dignities of individual readers.

Fair Use Policy
Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for
non-commercial re-use, re-print, and re-broadcast, on the net and
elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily
endorsed by LPIMC.

f. Agree to the use of Open Publishing as described in the NIMC Editorial
Policy
WE WILL USE OPEN PUBLISHING AND ENCOURAGE THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF MEDIA IN
OUR REGION

g. Adopt a decision-making policy that is in alignment with consensus
principles which include open, transparent and egalitarian processes,

WE WILL USE FORMAL-CONSENSUS AS DESCRIBED IN INDYMEDIA DOCUMENTS;
(CONSENSUS MINUS-1 FOR GROUPS LARGER THAN 20; CONSENSUS MINUS-2 FOR GROUPS
LARGER THAN 30, AND 2/3 MAJORITY FOR GROUPS LARGER THAN 40).

h. Have a spokesperson(s) willing and capable of participating in the
global decision-making process and meetings as a rotating
liaison/representative, with a clear understanding of the responsibilities
that come with this role,

MICHAEL HODGSON, KATE BUSCH, JOHN SCHRECK AND ABDUL-LATIF WILL PARTICIPATE
WITH GLOBAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES--OTHERS WILL FOLLOW SUITE-- AND ALL
UNDERSTAND THAT THEY WILL BE REPRESENTING THE DECISIONS OF THEIR LOCAL
COLLECTIVE RATHER THAN ESPOUSING THEIR OWN VIEWS TO THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY.

i. Participate in the key IMC Network Communication Methods that pertain
to the health and vitality of the Network and that contribute to the work
of the IMC. Assure that at least one person from your local IMC
participates at any given time on the IMC-Communications list,

MICHAEL HODGSON WILL BE THE FIRST ONE ON THE IMC-COMMUNICATIONS LIST

j. (NOT FINALIZED): Have no official affiliation with any political party,
state or candidate for office (comments: but individual producers have
freedom to do whatever they like and local IMCs can "feature" stories
about various political parties and initiatives),

WE AGREE IN SPIRIT TO THIS STATEMENT

k. IMCs shall in no way engage in commercial for-profit enterprises. [We
could add: The IMCN is committed to the decommercialization of information
and will disassociate from any local IMC that decides to become a for
profit media corporation.]

WE AGREE; EVERYTHING WE DO WILL BE NON-PROFIT

l. Display a ³local version² of the IMC ³i² logo on your website and
literature.

WE WILL HAVE OUR OWN VARIETIES--WE HAVE CHOSEN THE LANTERN AS OUR
SYMBOL--RELATED TO THE HISTORY OF LANTERNS WITH THE UNDERGROUND
RAILROAD--LANCASTER WAS AN IMPORTANT STOP ALONG THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
AND LANTERNS WERE SOMETIMES USED TO INDICATE SAFE HOUSES (OR IF SAFE
HOUSES WERE UNSAFE).

m. Include the IMC Network current ³Cities List² on your site, preferably
on the front page.

YES, WE WILL DO SOMETHING SIMILAR TO PHILLYIMC.ORG SO THAT THERE IS NOT A
MILLION LINE LIST GOING BELOW THE SCREEN.

NETWORK MEMBERSHIP 1. Network Membership is open to any group that accepts
the above criteria for membership. In the case of several requests from
the same city or region, we will encourage them to meet and work together.

WE ARE THE ONLY ONE IN THE LANCASTER REGION--WE WILL ALSO BE ENCOURAGING
OTHER COUNTIES TO FORM IMC'S, SUCH AS HARRISBURG, YORK, READING, ETC. AND
ALSO WILL HELP DEVELOP SMALL SUB-REGIONAL COLLECTIVES WITHIN OUR OWN
COUNTY.