[Imc-web] What's Local -- What's Not

[Mike Lehman]

Earlier today I moved a post made by my good friend gehrig that had been
posted to the Local Newswire down to the Elsewhere Newswire.
<http://www.ucimc.org/newswire/display/8783/index.php>
Since it was a repost of a story from Haaretz, with no local connection
other than the fact that gehrig was the poster, I thought that was
appropriate.

Now I see that it has migrated back to the Local Newswire. I guess I'm
OK with that, but it also opens us up to charges of discrimination in
what is considered local news. Why should we kick spammers like DAN off
of the Local wire for reposts from a different point of view, but let
gehrig post this particular story there?

There is also the problem of not knowing WHO is posting. In this case, I
(and probably others, based on the fact that it was moved back to Local)
know, but in other cases, local people could post similar material there
assuming since it was OK for gehrig, it's OK for them. Then we move it
to Elsewhere because we see no obvious local connection. They could
raise legitmate concerns about preferential editing if this occurs.

I have posted stuff that was not local on Elsewhere myself that really
doesn't have any local content other than the fact that I posted it.
Should I have posted them to Local just because I'm local and I think an
international story with no apparent local connection should be on the
Local Newswire? I don't really think so.

I'm raising this now because appearances do matter and this creates the
perception that we engage in selective editing. We have been accused of
this in the past by infamous spammer DAN, but for no particular reason
other than he felt like it. I hate to hand ammunition to lowlifes like
DAN and that may be what we are doing if we don't take a closer look at
this when we next meet. I would certainly like to hear the opinions of
others on this.
Mike Lehman