[Imc-web] [Imc-info] Question and concern (fwd)

[Mike Lehman]

Hi Jeff,
The article you cited is one of many that was posted Tuesday by a 
persistent abuser of our website, more commonly known as a troll. In 
fact, there were some 100 copies of this same article posted over a 
period of about a half-hour this evening, after an earlier copy was 
hidden by me. Except for one copy of this article, which was hidden from 
public view for record keeping purposes, all of these postings were 
deleted from our database.

Although we have a collective editorial team, we cannot always deal with 
abusive posts immediately, although we do a fairly effective job of it 
in most cases. Because we do have an open publishing policy, anyone -- 
even an racist fool like the person who engages in this kind of behavior 
-- can post to our website.

In the vast majority of cases, this important allowance for freedom of 
the press and speech by Indymedia is not abused. In cases like this, 
where an individual's past behavior has been such that they are no 
longer allowed to use our facilities, such posts are removed as soon as 
possible. To completely eliminate this possibility by doing away with 
freedom of the press for everyone through open publishing by requiring 
stories to be prescreened is not something we are prepared to do.

In fact, given this person's past behavior -- he has also posted 
virulently racist tracts from a Zionist point of view, oddly enough -- 
his real objective may be pressure Indymedia to retreat from open 
publishing, which we will not do. Despite its occasional rough edges, 
open publishing is one of the founding principles of the Indymedia 
movement, one that is too important to us to abandon.

We are sorry that you found the story troubling, but please be assured 
it did not last long on our Newswire. However, we sometimes find it 
difficult to keep up with the intentionally abusive tactics of such 
people intent on making open publishing difficult. I was deleting this 
crap about as fast as it was posted, but this is something that does not 
totally prevent such a story from briefly appearing on UC IMC.

And at least two of our regular readers did speak out against this very 
story, although their comments are now only visible to editors since 
they were made to articles that were being deleted by me as they were 
made. Please rest assured that you, too, along with anyone else who 
wishes to do so, can comment on any IMC story, whether in support or 
against. However, sometimes there is a thin line between speaking out 
and possibly feeding the troll (because that is what is surely going on 
in this person's tiny mind) and being patient for a few minutes until 
such an obviously abusive use of our website is dealt with by the editors.

I would be glad to answer any more questions you might have about our 
editorial policy.
Regards,
Mike Lehman

meghan at ucimc.org wrote:

> I'm sure one of you can address this by explaining our editorial policy?
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 17:00:53 -0600
> From: Jeff Sands <sandman at uiuc.edu>
> To: info at ucimc.org
> Subject: [Imc-info] Question and concern
> 
> Dear UCIMC:
> 
> Yesterday while driving home I was listening to WEFT and hear a program
> produced by your organization.  I found it interesting, and today I went to
> your website to find out more about you.
> 
> Imagine my initial reaction when, on your home page "open forum" I found 
> this:
> 
> JERUSALEM, Jan. 4 - after shelling, a Village some stinking jew scum fired
> into an Elementary School in a farming area today, Murdering 25 11 year
> olds according to witnesses on the scene.
> 
> Yes, I understand what an open forum is.  Yes, I support freedom of
> speech.  But I'm not impressed with your website or your organization at
> this point.  On your broadcasts, you speak out against racism.  Why not do
> it here?
> 
> 
> 
> Jeff Sands
> Associate Dean, Development
> College of Engineering
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 310 Engineering Hall
> 1308 W. Green St.
> Urbana, IL  61801
> 217/244-9918 ph.
> 217/333-7852 fax
> 
> 
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