LOCAL Announcement :: Alternative Media
Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
A call is made to start a new website for Kansas City to allow the free exchange of a wide spectrum of ideas related to issues in the world and the KC community.
Let's start a new inydymedia site for KC. I would hope that such a site would be completely free from any form of censorship (except for purely hostile postings such as multiple posts of the same text over and over again).
The most difficult step is finding a way to host the web-site free of charge, and free of advertising.
After that, it's just a matter of uploading the scripts that allow people to post articles and related comments.
Here is the application site for mutualaid.org's free web hosting service: mutualaid.org/request/web.php
Several other sites (some of which allow for hosting for as little as $5.00/month) can also be looked into if mutualaid doesn't pan out for whatever reason.
Before we apply, let's discuss exactly what we're trying to do, what the policies of the new site will be (perhaps, more importantly, what they won't be), etc.
Comments
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
You know, this website was little used and then went offline until Chuck came to town. He did an extrodinary amount of hard annoying work, and now because one person flew off the handle and started an anti-chcuk campaign (authoritarian behavior for sure) based on personal nonsense. Don't jump on the band wagon. I feel like I'm in gradeschool.
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
What is going on with this site?!!
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-kc-announce
People can easily submit stories, opinion, photos, video and audio by clicking on the links above. (upload media | post an article | link to the otherpress)
KC IMC will be offering trainings in coming months which will show people how to use this website. Keep an eye on the front page for details about those events.
If you decide to get a website with Mutualaid, even for an unrelated project, tell them that Chuck sent you. I helped start Mutualaid after all. ;-)
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
read the whole article. What is the very next sentence after the sentence which points out the mutualaid website?
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
"A Reader" is simply pulling stuff out of their butt. Accusing me of censorship is pretty dumb when this software has a built-in *moderation* system. If this person doesn't want to understand the difference between website moderation and government censorship, the best thing to do is ignore this person.
Mr. or Ms. Reader also claims that I have "absolute control" over Mutualaid.org. I haven't been involved with Mutualaid.org since late 2003. On the other hand, I was one of the co-founders of that project, which currently hosts several hundred email lists, websites, and Indymedia sites.
It's obvious that a few people around town have too much time on their hands. Instead of posting attacks here, why don't you try producing some independent media and post it to this website? Indymedia is, after all, about "being the media."
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Hence the call for another KC indymedia site, one where such "moderation" does not happen.
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
I plead guilty to doing my job when nobody else cared about helping with this website.
So how about making some media?
Editorial Policy - give it a shot
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
EDITORIAL POLICY
Editorial Policy Statement for KC Indymedia Our editorial policy is to:
1. Encourage community members to contribute opinions and information to the web site.
2. Encourage contributors to provide documentation of their contributions.
3. Encourage contributors to make reasoned arguments for their opinions.
4. Encourage contributions that are focused on issues, policies, practices, actions, and events more than on personal characteristics of people involved.
5. Encourage a wide variety of views and try to present them in ways that help readers to compare and analyze alternative views and information.
6. Encourage contributions that stimulate thoughtful responses.
7. Encourage contributions that entertain as well as inform.
8. Encourage contributions on a wide variety of issues.
9. Contributions that seem blatantly racist or sexist will be transferred to a file which requires administrative privilege.
10. Contributions that are essentially ad hominem attacks will be hidden. Criticisms of the policies or actions of another person or organization will be published.
11. Generally, only full articles will be published, rather than just a summary and a link.
12. To provide needed information to persons who participated in protest events, strong efforts to provide follow up on such events will be made. This will be especially true when events result in injury or jail to the participants.
13. Make a special effort to publish contributions on important issues that are not covered in the mainline media.
14. Discourage pseudonyms
When we publish a feature, the editorial committee prefers to know the identity of the writer. We will withhold a writer’s name if he or she believes the submission must remain anonymous.
Our editorial board is always looking for features that:
* are significant and informative
* have better quality writing
* cite sources from writer’s research
* appear credible
* contain analysis
* are locally and regionally based
* include eyewitness accounts
* feature reporting on underrepresented groups
Potential features should meet some, but not necessarily all, of these criteria. When we get a lot of submissions, we reserve the right to choose articles that display more of the above. Upon request, we will offer feedback and/or guidance to posts if they need a little extra to make it from newswire to feature. These editorial processes will be followed as much as possible:
1. To encourage wide diversity of content and avoid censorship, all contributions will be posted directly to the web site.
2. An editorial board will arrange to have frequent review of posted contributions to assure that they promote attainment of the mission and do not libel or slander.
3. If a reviewer questions whether a contribution does promote the mission and avoid libel or slander, the reviewer will put the contribution in a hidden file and request that other members of the board review the contribution and decide what action to take.
4. If the board decides that a contribution is not appropriate, the contribution will be removed from the open web site and transferred to a "hidden" file. This file will be accessible to administrative privilege, but the contribution will not be listed nor displayed in the open web site.
5. The author of a contribution so "hidden" will be notified. He or she can present an argument to the board explaining how the contribution supports the mission and is within the editorial policy. This statement will go to the executive board of the web site. Their decision will be final.
6. Contributions will be posted for a limited time. After that, they will be moved to archives that will be accessible. One year after posting, most contributions will be removed from the archives.
7. If any reviewer believes a contribution to have little or no information or opinion, the contribution will be "hidden." The procedures described in items three through five above will be followed.
8. When a large amount of email containing much the same information is received, a feature story may summarize the email and respond to it. The volume of spam will be archived and available for a limited time.
9. If an issue generates a lot of controversy, the editorial board will review it and decide whether action is needed.
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
16 Jul 2005
Mission Statement
Drafted 12/15/2002
Kansas City Independent Media Center joined the global network to provide regional residents with an alternative source of news reported by the citizens who see and make it happen. We demand a forum for unadulterated information that people can use to solve problems and make lives better. We have good ideas and important things to say, and we will no longer settle for the twisted truths and blatant distortions passed off as news in our local corporate media. We believe chain newspapers, canned radio broadcasts and television news that promotes fear and disinformation do not serve our community well. We can make a difference by raising our voices, conveying our thoughts through unfiltered words, documenting what we see with our cameras, and refusing to sit down and shut up.
Kansas City Independent Media Center will use our space on the web to further the efforts of the many individuals and organizations working to promote social and economic justice in our community. We will do so by giving everyone a way to communicate with a broader audience in a forum that is free of hate speech, slander and vitriol. We will work to break down the layers of apathy that make people give up, and we will try, using the power of information, to forge new alliances so that groups which have never worked together before can recognize the potential of their greater collective strength.
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
21 Jul 2005
just trolling the neighboring IMC sites. I am going to have to say that starting a new IMC seems like a pointless endeavor and a waste of valuble activist resources.
Surely the KC editorial collective has regular meetings and open membership. If Chuck's moderation bugs you, get access and help do the moderation yourself. It is a lot more work than you might think and I am sure he would be glad to work with a diversity of opinions.
An unmoderated IMC is a disaster...multiple postings, spam, KKK shit, no intelligence just rhetoric. Start it if you want, but I would be interested as to how much of a community tool it would be compared to a community joke.
Indymedia is all about creating new realities from old shells. In our new reality can we work together or do we have to tear each othyer apart instead of corporate media.
Just look at the current state of www.arkansas.indymedia.org to see what happens when ego and sectarianism split what could be a fully functioning indymedia collective.
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
22 Jul 2005
if you do not like the political opinion conveyed by an article and remove it, that is censorship. if you do not like a work of art that is posted, and you remove it calling it "bad art", that is also censorship. this site is not supposed to be so limited as to only let through content in line with your politics, opinions or tastes.
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
22 Jul 2005
Many Internet users don't understand this, but it's always been assumed around the Internet that people who visit a website agree to abdie by the rules and guidelines set up by that website. That means that people have to accept editorial and moderation decisions done by editors and moderators. Yes, this can include the removal of comments or speech that go beyond being dupes, flames, spam and so on. I commonly remove certain types of comments from Infoshop News, including comments from right wingers and some left wingers. When I do this, I am not "censoring" these people, I am implementing moderation in order to maintain a certain flavor for the website. If I allowed right wingers unfettered ability to post anti-activist hate speech on Infoshop News, I would not only be abdicating my responsibility to our community of users, but we would quickly see many people stop visiting the website.
Indymedia websites are no different. Each website sets its own policies and moderation can depend on decisions made by whoever is moderating the newswire. There are always gray areas that policy doesn't cover. One person's trollbait may be another person's treasure. But one thing I've observed over the years is that most IMCs eventually adopt similar policies, because they have a common mission and are confronted with similar headaches.
This IMC is in the process of going over its policy and training new editors and moderators. So you will see things evolve on this site in coming months. Personally, I hope that everybody will focus more on making media and less on what's on the newswire.
Re: Let's Start a New KC Indymedia Site
22 Jul 2005
why can't a small independent website practice censorship? because it can't, according to your definition? if so, your definition seems rather circular and self-serving to me. there are strong personalities, ideological factions and power politics in many groups, even an online news forum like this one. i do not see why censorship within such a group could not occur.
questions like whether your censorship conformed to the guidelines, or whether indymedia ought to be moderated like Infoshop News (with only certain politics allowed throgh), are better addressed in meetings because i am only one person giving my opinion.