[Imc-web] Workers Defend Their Rights in Wisconsin & Ohio

[Chris Ritzo]

I really have no interest in changing it, but rather to communicate more
about it. Whether its anonymous posters wondering about the hide policy or
Americorps members or others who may not even know one exists. If this is a
real comnunity site, then ppl need to know what the parameters are.

On Mar 8, 2011 9:34 AM, "Mike Lehman" <rebelmike at earthlink.net> wrote:

 Chris,
As I've noted several times before, I'd be glad to set down with folks and
lay out where things have been, where they are, and what needs to be done to
update the old written editorial policy. Still waiting to hear from those
interested, though.

Effectively, everyone else left the bag with me in about 2005. The old
policy is buried  in the inaccessible archived site (at least it was
inaccessible the last several times that the question has been asked.)

I know it's the fashion at certain IMCs to not worry too much about
editorial policy, essentially, anything goes. However, that has never been
the case with UC IMC in the 10+ years the website has been in existence.
That can change to whatever people want it to be, but in the meantime I only
have precedent to go on.

In the absence of interest by others in taking on this responsibility, I've
been handling it, based on what the policy was and the flexibility that was
always built into the policy to adapt to the persistent problems that
accompany running a website that defends otherwise marginalized interest and
opinions.

I have no intention of asking any particular thing about a rewritten policy,
other than that it continue to observe the broad parameters generally
required of  Indymedia network editorial policy and that it actually be a
functioning working group, rather than a few people who take different roles
as we currently have.

On the other hand, it would be irresponsible to simply walk away from it,
which is what pretty much left me in this position in the first place. Until
a Web group is actively interested in managing the website, I'm willing to
continue. However, the very worst policy is one established by the
parameters of what people want to occasionally complain about from time to
time. That is what happened the last time an attempt was made to deal with
this in 2007.

In this particular case, however, the policy is pretty clear and succinct,
so I'll write it out here again in rough form.

Stories promoted to Feature status should be those that are relevantly local
to UC IMC. This may mean the story is a local one or that the author seems
to be local (in order to account for those anonymous stories that we cannot
necessarily confirm are local), but who may be writing on a theme or topic
that may not necessarily be local. This does not mean that all stories
posted on the Local Newswire qualify. Many may, but clearly not all will.

There are also rare cases where a non-local story is relevant enough we
decide to feature it here. That was the case with the killing of Brad Will
in Oaxaca a few years ago, where we reposted the detailed NYC IMC story on
this with a brief introduction I wrote.

The fact that stories we Feature here are automatically syndicated to US and
global IMC sites should also be taken into consideration. For instance,
sometimes we feature stories that are strictly UC IMC relevant, but really
have no relevance to those it would be syndicated to. There are ways to do
those so they don't syndicate, but this is usually not done, I suppose
because people aren't aware of how to do that.

It's also the case that anyone who has editorial access MUST be on the Web
list. If they're not, then those who granted that access need to follow-up
with them and get them signed up. Seems obvious to me, but the lack of a
written policy to refer to is a problem, I agree.

Again, I'm just waiting to throw this in someone else's lap, but that will
happen when it's clear that people want to take the ball and run with it.
Call the meeting and I'll be there to explain where things stand and to then
pass the baton.
Mike Lehman



On 3/8/2011 8:42 AM, Chris Ritzo wrote:
>
> Maybe you should post the editorial policy online. Wha...

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