Imc Australia Project

Table of content :

General Information

• Development website address - http://unitedimc.axxs.org/
• Email list - http://lists.indymedia.org.au/mailman/listinfo/imc-aus

(Written) Proposals and Ideas

• syndicating in full node feeds from other sites, e.g. Greenpeace, etc
• dealing with copy and pasted stories: get their own section (already done on some IMCs) - 'In other media'. Perhaps even a harder line. If people want to copy paste other peoples work, perhaps they can go to a local city site.
• make Geography fixed categories?

Trusted users and a 'raw' newswire

• only trusted users and stories promoted by trusted users get to the wire on the front page (the newswire, not the features column).
• the only place where non-promoted stories can be seen are on a 'raw' newswire, probably using similar technology to the 'hidden' wire.
• all promoted (trusted) stories are formatted properly. No headings in all caps, no stories with all underline or bold all through. Every story that a user sees should be consistent in style (like when you visit any mainstream site).

E.g. Process:

Publish help:

Thank for visiting the publish page up Indymedia Australia. Upon submission your post will be added to the raw newswire (e.g. htttp://www.indymedia.org.au/raw). Unfortunately, as we receive so many submissions that do not follow our Editorial Policy it can only be placed on our front page after a member of the Editorial Collective has reviewed your submission. This usually takes less than 24 hours (!?).

If this seems unreasonable to you, you have two options:

• Become a Trusted User whose posts are automatically placed on the front page.
• Join the Editorial Collective to reduce the waiting time.

If you enter a valid email address you will be sent an email when the decision has been made.

Be the media! Australia IMC.

Trusted Users:

To become a trusted user please fill in the form below. Note that pseudonyms are accepted and if you wish to remain anonymous you can. But please give some indication as to what you expect to be writing about and why we should trust you to always follow our Editorial Policy.

Instructions will be sent to you via email so please control that it is correct:

User name:

Email address:

Password:

Topic List?

Brief description about your journalism:

Submit/Clear

Tech notes and suggestions:

• Could mark/colour/highlight newswire items when a member of the Ed Coll has logged in. e.g. white for approved, green for trusted, yellow for undecided, red for rejected. Could use moderation flag in drupal but need to set so that rejected is NOT unpublished. Automatic email of decision should go to user and also to the list if rejected (including reason).
• full node feeds are essentially trusted users but we pull content instead of them pushing it?

Tech Development Page

Site Design / CMS

Currently using Drupal.

Principles of Unity / Conflict Process

Editorial Policy and Process

Policy

Initial example merged from from sydney-imc and uk-imc to kick off discussion:

Articles in the centre column of the page are called features. Features are to show the best of the newswire. On the right is our newswire and here (link) we have our raw newswire where submissions are initially placed.

Anybody, not just people who are part of the editorial collective, can propose a feature. After a set time (which is?), if there is consensus wihtin the Editorial Collective, the proposal will be promoted.

Newswire articles may become feature for the following reasons:

Disclaimer: The guidelines below cover common practice, but are neither mandatory or comprehensive.

In general, posts meeting the following guidelines will become features:

• original, first hand reports on actions and other events
• good, original analysis

In general, the following types of posts will not become features:

• re-posts from other sources (blogs etc)
• announcements of events (unless with significant background/news content)

Newswire articles and/or comments will not be placed on our front page newswire if they are:

• Repeated: content that is reposted or text that was originally a comment posted as a report. Duplicate copies will be removed.
• Not news: posts which are clearly purely comment, opinion or rants unrelated to a recent event or action etc. They do not contain an element of news or journalistic commentary.
• Pornography.
• Discrimination: posts using language, imagery, or other forms of communication promoting racism, fascism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia or any other form of discrimination. BUT Perceived offensive material eg. racism, homophobia and sexism, if it is in the context of a news article will not be removed. The editorial collective believes in the spirit of free speech. Such denigrations against large chunks of humanity are better out in the open where they can be argued against than hidden away.
• Inaccurate: posts that are inaccurate or misleading.
• Advertising: posts with personal or product promotions.
• Hierarchy/Authoritarian/Political Parties(??): The newswire is designed to generate a news resource, not a notice-board for political parties or any other hierarchically structured organizations.
• Disruptive: Contributions by individuals who habitually publish above mentioned discouraged content.
• Reposts: Articles that are simply pasted from corporate news sites or have been spammed across other IMCs. Please write something original, by all means link to articles elsewhere and quote from them but don't just copy them.
• Personal attack: Articles and/or comments that contain abusive language against other activists or site users. Please make your point without resorting to personal abuse. Debate the issue, not the person.
• Posts in other languages than English: This guideline aims to stop the spamming of the newswire by articles that are published entirely in other languages than English. Please feel free to publish reports in the language of your choice providing that they include a full translation into English language, or, at least, a comprehensive summary in English about what the posting is about.
• Threaten the diversity of opinion on the site by posting overwhelming amounts of content about one topic from one perspective.
• Aim to maliciously disrupt the collectives activities or waste their time.

others on the sydney-imc:

• Is inflammatory to the point that any journalistic content will become overshadowed, and is likely to create a flamewar

On very rare occasions, some content may be fully deleted. Past instances have included pornography and personal details.

Editorial Collective

Anyone who agrees with "Our Principles" (link), and has some time to commit to the collective activities, is welcome to join. The two principle jobs of the collective are:

• Review submissions and decide if they should be placed on the front page.
• Propose and discuss features.

Members must be competent in the basics of:

• Consensus decision making procedures. (link)
• Using and editing wiki pages. (link)
• Using IRC/Chat rooms. (link)
• Administering content through the website. (link?)

These skills are necessary for you to participate fully and equally in our democratic decision making process.

Of course we will do everything reasonable to help people for whom these barriers are too high: just ask us! (And we will show you how to administer content.)

How/who/complaints/etc

-- WoWi - 06 Sep 2007 page made

-- CamG - 27 Jan 2008 General Info added

-- LeVin - 21-24 Apr 2008 added ideas from list and e.g. ed. pol. Starting fleshing out proposals.