What kind of Indymedia do you want?

by lateral thinker Sun Jan 19, 2003 00:50

I suggest that indymedia have a section for news related to the sp and swp as a lot of messages tend to revolve around these 2 groups (both pro and anti). Although they are a small minority of the population this would give these small groups an opportunity to put forward their points without frightening off new surfers from getting beyond the main front page.

by Rose Sat Jan 18, 2003 15:27

Put in software which will exclude SP trolls like Rose.

I am not a member of the SP. I am not a member of any party. The party is dead, the SWP sucks, let's have a party.

by irish times Fri Jan 17, 2003 23:36

I dont agree with censorship such as what was propesed above: "The articles posted regularly by Hatrackman and Spartacus should be removed as soon as they are published. These two people are bullshit merchants and leaving their gibberish on the site makes indymedia look ridiculous"

However I do agree there is a lot of boring nonsense that switches many new readers totally off. It includes spartacus, but it also certainly includes dogmatic Trotskyist posts and counter posts which sometimes goes on for days on end. As I said I dont agree with censoring this stuff, but I am seriously proposing that a section is constructed on Indymedia to cater for this kind of material. Then these groups can entertain themselves by attacking each other and every other group to their hearts content and the few who want to read this stuff can do so. You will find if this happens that Indymedia will have a much increased readership,influence and respect. A search engine and archives of important campaigns such as the campaigns against the Nice Referendum and Bush's war are also indispensible if you want to grow as an alternative media outlet. Of course we could opt for preserving the status quo and keep new people out.

by Gralton - Culchies Against Capitalism Fri Jan 17, 2003 18:03

Put in software which will exclude SP trolls like Rose.

by Ernie Lynch Fri Jan 17, 2003 16:19

Indymedia.ie is an outlet for radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth........but unless you log on daily, vast chunks of the newswire is lost and it can be very frustrating trawling back. The archiving of posts according to subject matter (similar to that on the Basque IMC)should be a priority. Friends of the Irish Environment categorise all their posts (see link under 'Papers Today') and this makes it a really good resource for research. Any chance we could do the same?

by Markos Fri Jan 17, 2003 16:08

I agree with previous posts -- free software should be used and i'd add an RSA feed to a list of features I'd like to see.

Why not use Indymedia's own software to run the site? That's open source. Postnuke (.org) would also be a good choice and relatively simple to set up.

http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net/ Have an excellent news clipping service, the headlines of which can be exported to other sites. I'd like to see Indymedia carry these headlines and have the capacity to export its own to other sites.

With regard to getting rid of annoying, abusive and redundant posts, I think that you could have a journalist's charter, setting out a basic standard of posting -- relevant title -- no cursing, proofread. Those journalists who sign up to this get access to the newswire. Everyone else can comment, but not post, unless they sign up to the charter. That's the way slashdot works. Indymedia.ie is in danger of turning into a chatroom at times, rather than a news site.

Indymedia has drawn blood in the Irish national press on more than one occasion but suffers from a reputation of a low signal to noise ratio. Quality control need not mean tyrrany.

by MG Fri Jan 17, 2003 09:53

I know this will be anathema to many people, but in my view, the best way to improve the site is to remove the rubbish that clogs up the newswire. Because of the open publishing ideal, many people will consider this to be censorship - it's not. The articles posted regularly by Hatrackman and Spartacus should be removed as soon as they are published. These two people are bullshit merchants and leaving their gibberish on the site makes indymedia look ridiculous.

There are also a lot of posts (presumably from the six counties) which criticise Hugh Orde, Bill Lowry, Johnny Adair, etc using strings of expletives. These posts should be removed unless the author writes a proper article, explaining the facts and quoting sources where possible. I have no problem with criticism of these people (or any people, for that matter), but the abusive language taints indymedia and makes the site look reactionary and immature. It lowers the tone of the site and takes away from the brilliant original journalism undertaken by people like Tim Hourigan.

Also, there is a huge problem with people posting articles which are not news. "10 reasons to hate XXX" is not a news story. "Does anybody know where Tim Hourigan is?" is not a news story. "Does anyone have any information about XXX?" is not a news story. IMC Ireland should have the balls to take a proper stance and delete all this kind of rubbish from the newswire. This, in my view, would improve the quality of the information available on this site.

Search function and improved picture and video uploads are both good ideas. People rarely see footage of protests or events that conflict with the image the mainstream media wants to send out. It would be nice to have such footage available here.

And finally, articles from other sources (i.e. copy-n-pastes) should consist of a summary and link. Some users currently do this and, in my view, it works very well. People who fail to do it, should have their articles deleted. If this was strictly enforced, people would eventually realise that if they want to direct indymedia users towards another article, their only option is to write a summary and link. (BTW, the reasoning behind this is twofold. 1. Indymedia.ie should consist of original news where possible. If it becomes a collection of articles from other sources, it takes away from the journalistic aspect of the site, which, I presume, was set up to help activists communicate Irish news and Irish views which are ignored by the Indo, IT, etc. 2. There is no such thing as objective journalism. The angle of every news story depends on the autor, the editor and the newspaper/website/magazine which carries it. If a link to the original source is provided, the reader can decide if he/she believes what is is in the article based on the integrity of the journalist, his/her past record and the overall political stance of the organ which carried the article.)

There's my two cents...

by kev - sp Fri Jan 17, 2003 01:52

dont have time to look at slashdot, but i like the way tis laid out at present, but i do think audio video upload features should be here, and also search feature definatley. and if possible a bigger pic upload facility - ie more than five at one go if poss. ur doing a great job people, keep it up.

by Rose Thu Jan 16, 2003 21:26

What kind of SWP do you want?
by KA - SWP Ireland

SWP Irl are considering changing the current cadre. We'd like to hear from proles what kind of central committee they'd like to see.

SWP Irl are considering changes to the current shit. Certain basic functions are lacking, or are non existant.

We're considering several alternatives for what we'd like to see, but feel its important to listen and hear what the minions would like to see, and be a part of.

For example would you be interested in a fuck you over system like used in the SWP UK.

Or do you like the current layout and design, but would like to see paper selling facilities like party newsagents, or a more authoritarian system.

The SWP is your party, you sell the paper, you should have input into what the party is.

Please all opinions are welcome.

Kieran
KA SWP Irl dictator for life

by required Thu Jan 16, 2003 20:12

i reckon section archives by interest.
suggestions:
in no particular order.
neutrality
war
feminism
antifascism
national question
ecology
speculation
criminalisation
corruption

these catagories could exist on a side bar and help sort old posts.
users publish to newswire as b4 but also have option to categorise, or that can be done by imc staff later.
it means no abuse.
listing by thread length encourages abuse.
listing by rating encourages abuse.
be honest indymedia has a global reputation for offering light relief to the masters of IT manipulation.
and we are the masters.
credit due where credits due.
we love the wee credit.
go look at the link for an idea of the format i´m talking about.
http://www.barcelona.indymedia.org

by Shane Thu Jan 16, 2003 20:11

A search capabilty for old articles would be welcomed and, as has been said, "to list posts according to the threads that are most active? I realise that this is open to abuse, but there is currently no way of seeing if debates are still ongoing".
Up the good work keep

by Graham Thu Jan 16, 2003 19:56

I like the site the way it is - it's simple and works. However it would be nice to have a search function and maybe another feature or two. It would also be nice to have open source code.

How about re-writing the code and making it open source and also making it highly modular?

I don't think we should have automatic feature-posting since that would make the look and feel of the site 'boxy' and less human.

by Phuq Hedd Thu Jan 16, 2003 19:24

It would be very important that any software is Free Software (i.e. a possessor of a copy of the software has the right to read, change and study the source and if they pass it on or sell it to someone else then that person also has those rights). So, for simplicity's sake it should be under the GPL.

http://www.fsf.org/philosophy

by Mags Thu Jan 16, 2003 19:22

I agree that a search and archive would be good. Sometimes you need to find an article a few weeks later and it is impossible to find.

Is there some way to list posts according to the threads that are most active? I realise that this is open to abuse, but there is currently no way of seeing if debates are still ongoing.

That link to Protest.net is never used by anyone - is there anyway to promote it more. I think people just overlook it or do not know it is there.

by hydra - slash.autonomedia.org Thu Jan 16, 2003 18:09

I'll post a more detailed response later, but I co-administrate a site based on slashdot and think that it has many limitations. Have a look at Scoop, which is the code running
www.kuro5hin.org

the nice thing about scoop is that it allows you to understand other memebrs of the community better and democratises the publication process by introducing a voting algorithm ionto the submissions queue.

hydra

by IMC addict Thu Jan 16, 2003 18:03

The present format is grand. Lots of people read and write on the newswire, and cos Ireland is a small country it's a very effective tool. Indymedia is making a huge difference.
Peer review, not a good idea. Let's keep it free and open. And slashdot website is not very nice. This is much better. We are all used to it now, so don't change it too much. Multimedia upload facilities like video and audio, yeah great. Search function would be good and maybe an indexed archive.
Thank you.
Well done IMC.