I believe there is an online service that allows such meanderings for its message board users. It is called AOL.

On the subject of message boards, would an upgrade be possible?..

Another website I frequent is chronwatch.com - and they have a nice system where in the articles posted are then linked to their message board - it's much cleaner, more organized system...

Santa Cruz Indymedia is not intended to be a discussion forum; it is not intended to facilitate flame wars; it is not a site for those who wish to disrupt the community being built. This is a news reporting site where the function of commenting is to provide feedback to the stories, either corrections, alternative analysis, or further information. There is an editorial policy outlining the details of editorial control. Readers and contributors are encouraged to contact the editorial working group if they find posts which they feel violate the editorial policy. Those who wish to create media are encouraged to come to a general meeting. Furthermore these views are my own and are not necessarily the views of any indymedia volunteer.

"Santa Cruz Indymedia is not intended to be a discussion forum;... it is not a site for those who wish to disrupt the community being built."

Building a community, yet without allowing discussion? Sounds like a scary community.

I fail to see how this agrees with "Independent".

"Independent Media Center" is somewhat false advertising. It should be called "Independent Progressive Media Center". That would be an accurate name. This site does not foster true independence, because it does not allow dissenting views in either articles or comments.

This site, unlike most other news outlets, is run by volunteers, who do not take funding, so it is "independent" of corporate influence.

Do you know what a "corporation" really is?

It's a legal fiction. It's nonsense. A "corporation" is just a make-believe game, whereby personal responsibility for one's actions is deflected to an anonymous bank account or business office.

All influence is bias. Whether it's the boss who threatens to fire a journalist for covering a story that criticizes Christianity, or an IMC editor who deletes a story because it runs against liberal ideology.

To be truly an independent media center, all ideological restraints must be removed. Otherwise, all you've done is cut yourself off from funding.

"Corporations" are just a boogieman. I know people who have "incorporated". It's just a piece of paper, and a different set of forms come tax-time.

People, are the problem. People with an agenda. People who want to bury the truth when it doesn't support their cause. People who are willing to lie, ommit, twist, and misrepresent. Or people who are so married to an idea that they don't see the world clearly, and try to present that false reality to us as truth.

People like those that run Fox and CNN.

And people like those that run the IMC.

What then, pray tell, is an example of an "Indepependent" Media Center, in your view, WWWCI?

WWWCI said:
"To be truly an independent media center..."
-

Stop complaining and DIY, shithead.

Cant take a little criticism? Sounds like ego talking. This is how classism begins. See how we have the stratification of society once again emerging here, between the holier-than-thou who see themselves beyond reproach for their accomplishments (no matter how meager), who look down upon anyone who dares to constructively criticize the new priesthood?

You don't know me. You don't know what I've done. You don't know what I'm doing right now.

This is how the Haves begin to marginalize and dehumanize the Have Nots. By this very attitude you are now displaying.

What then, pray tell, is an example of an "Indepependent" Media Center, in your view, WWWCI?

I'm waiting....

Like a truly free country, I don't know of a true independent media center anywhere in the world right now.

Guess that means we should accept the IMC, and the USA, that we have because they're the best available right now, instead of criticizing them for their faults and encouraging them to improve.

If I hate the IMC so much, why don't I leave, right? Just like the USA.

I'm an ex-progressive who, after seeing too many campaigns launched in the name of progressive politics that seemed to me to constitute simple, warmed-over class bigotry, have returned back to the liberal fold.

I've never found, however -- despite that fact that my occasional contributions are definitely no longer progressive in sympathies -- that my posts or articles, whether posted by myself or someone else -- are ever censored, mistreated or mishandled in any way.

In my experience, Santa Cruz Indymedia is exactly what it says it is -- a vibrant, dynamic open source for information free of advertising pressure or monetary influence.

I think y'all do a *great* job, and thank you for it.

-Paul Wagner-

I think indymedia is providing an alternative to the corporate news MATRIX we are immersed in . The MATRIX feeds us an ocean of virtual unreality. Like Neo, the tubes we are hooked up to, with which we perceive reality, are six corporations that control all we read and hear (books, movies, videos, magazines, TV)

Without an alternative contrasting media, we cant see the MATRIX if thats all there is.