I was at the UK indymedia site today looking for news on anti-war activity, and found, in the process, a
discussion about trolls and loony leftists that was awfully familiar.
The points of argument are remarkably similar. There's the "fuck you, Mr. indymedia administrator for restricting free speech about the bombings" (though it really seems the "administrator" wasn't one, AND didn't purge, but just complained about the posts and questioned the political wisdom of connecting the bombings to the G8).
One reader, Artaud, significantly notes that the Paris indymedia site did what one reader in the dKos debate suggested, created a "pending page" that was open, in contrast to the now mediated indymedia web-page.
he said....
as long as Indymedia retains its open publishing policy, its pages will continue to be filled with "poorly thought out politically motivated conjecture". Hey, I'm all for "open publishing"; I'm just saying that them's the breaks...
Still, it could be worse: I occasionally have a read of Indymedia/Paris (where I live). The rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth rants and trading of insults and paranoid conjectures between loony-left/anarcho fundamentalists (who are several baguettes short of a boulangerie) and crypto-fascist poseur trolls (or orcs) got so bad that it led to a form of "self-censorship" a year or so ago - basically, articles are put in a "pending" section (although they can still be accessed) until "approved" by the "editors" and put in the "authorised" section. It works a little better, but it's still a hotbed of intellectual onanism (which I guess is what the French are good at anyway...)
The fact that both sites are in a twist is probably related to the fact of the bombings themselves, and the crisis sense that they have produced. Kos's purge was related to conspiracy theorists, the Londoners complained about the overall quality of the site when they realized that, for the first time, probably more people were going to UK indymedia for coverage of both the G8 and the bombings. In both cases, the desire to improve the site seems to me to be a recognition of the potential and the responsibility involved in a website that can function as an alternative news source AND discussion forum in a world so dominated by corporate media. When there really is serious news to report and comment on, and when it becomes clear that the public is paying attention to the site, the stakes go up. Readers and writers suggest, we need more than random ranting.
The fact that Kos and UK Indymedia are having the exact same argument at the same moment would suggest that the debate on dKos is not necessarily related to dKos's connection to Democratic party politics. The indymedia people are not officially afiliated to any political parties, but
began during the anti-globalization protests to provide news about the demonstrations. I guess there's no question here for you, just something to think about. Dkos is not alone in having a re-think in connection to these bombings.