Fundamentals
The use of, and belief in, Open Publishing rests on several central assumptions:
- People who post to the newswire will present their information in a thorough, honest, and accurate manner.
- Readers are intelligent and aware, skeptical and inquisitive of the posts they read and videos they watch, and are able to distinguish for themselves what is content of value and what is not.
- The TB Indymedia Editorial Collective will, at least in theory, refrain from removing any post, given that by doing so, the flow of information between poster and reader will have ceased to be free.
- The means to an end is as important as the end itself.
A definition of Open Publishing.
IMC Thunder Bay General [news wire] Editorial Policy:
I. All hidden content will be prefaced by a description of why it is hidden.
II. We reserve the right to hide unsubstantiated, oppressive, hateful, racist, fascist, xenophobic, sexist content, or any other content that is considered by the editorial collective to be contrary to the objective of human equality. Exception to this rule will be made in the case of substantiated content in the comments section following the questionable article. In this case, it is mandatory for the editorial collective to indicate that this is the reason the article has not been hidden.
III. We reserve the right to hide all articles which are personally or product promotional in nature.
IV. We reserve the right to hide all articles which are obviously non-factual or misleading, excluding satire, provided it does not violate our other editorial policies.
V. We reserve the right to hide all articles which are re-posted or text that was originally a comment posted as a report.
VI. We reserve the right to hide mass-posted articles and those that are not regionally relevant.
Consensus
For purposes of this editorial policy and process, consensus shall be defined as no dissension or block of a given newswire editorial decision on the imc-thunderbay-features list. The post or comment may be re-displayed if principled dissent is later voiced by an editorial working group participant.
Administration
The editorial collective is reponsible for updating and maintaining several sections of the site, including the center column of the front page and various feature pages, and the newswire. While the center columns are compiled and edited by the editorial collective, the open-publishing newswire, on the other hand, is designated as an open, unedited space for publication of news, media, and commentary by TB-IMC readers, participants and organizers.
Editorial Process
While striving towards pure open publishing principles is the ideal, reality dictates that the editorial collective may at times decide to edit or hide posts and comments. This is not a decision that is taken lightly, however, and the editorial collective does all it can to refrain from hiding/editing posts and comments. Our vision for the function of the newswire, and the general framework in which these decisions will be made, are as follows:
- The newswire is intended to be a community media resource, a space free from spam and abuse in general.
- That space will not contribute to the oppression of traditionally oppressed and marginalized groups.
Therefore, any proposal to hide/edit a post or comment by editorial consensus should be based on at least one of the following three points:
- The post or comment constitutes abuse of the newswire (see note below)
- The post or comment undermines the Principles of Unity of the TB-IMC
- The post or comment constitutes a spam attack (see below) on the newswire
Types of posts that MAY be hidden immediately are as follows:
- All reposted corporate media articles
- Duplicate posts or comments
- Posts uploaded with technical problems
- Explicitly pornographic material
- Posts from a previously recognized spammer
- Test posts
- Product advertisements
Upon hiding/editing a post, the member of the editorial collective who did so will also add a comment explaining the basis upon which the decision to edit/hide was made.
In addition, all hidden posts and comments will continue to remain publicly accessible one click away from the front page on a page listing only hidden posts. The link to view all hidden posts is located at the bottom of the newswire.
Commenting
Commenting on posts is an essential feature to the democratic nature of Indymedia. It allows points to be refuted, ideas to be expounded upon, arguments to be had, and discussions to be hashed out. If you disagree with the content of a particular post that someone has posted or can provide further relevant information, you can say so by commenting via the "add your own comments" link at the bottom of each post.
The process for hiding and editing comments will be the same as that for posts. Special care will be taken to not stifle debate and dialogue. To be clear, flame wars are not generally considered debate and/or dialogue, while cogent arguments and analyses are.
Spam Attacks
A spam attack is defined as a pattern of abuse of the newswire by a particular poster or posters. If the editorial working group reaches consensus (at a meeting or on the mailing list) that an individual is launching a spam attack on the TB-IMC newswire, the spammer's posts and/or comments may be hidden from the newswire by a member of the editorial working group. Alternately, the posts may be linked together so as to occupy only one spot on the newswire.
Each instance of recognized spam will be considered individually, and the reason why the editorial working group perceives the post(s) as spam will be stated on the editorial mailing list, as well as in a comment on the hidden post itself. When a member of the editorial working group hides a post, (s)he shall immediately notify the editorial working group via the mailing list.
In cases of recognized spam, editorial working group members are empowered to immediately hide the post or comment, though notification via the mailing list is still necessary.
Contact
Contact the TB-IMC editorial collective at imc-thunderbay@lists.indymedia.org if you have any questions or comments.
Last updated Tue, 25 May 2004 15:55:05 -0700
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