Since it clearly appears that Indy workers do NOT read or bother to see why the post/ comment was noted by someone as not to be viewed by all others, it has been clear than political views, propaganda for any cause or side, or wanting to keep all comments that do not agree with article OUT of the site.

NO FAIR. Not free speech. Not to be sloppily monitored here.

This site needs to continue to be open not to fringe, weirdos, political propagandists only....

but to those who comment whether in agreement or dissent with the article's author or group.

Often, not seldom is it notable that the hidden posts when made available by that CLICK on top of article link "view hidden posts" is now displayed in pink.

If the post is not on topic, obscene, truly hate-full, [and not just in opposition with some strong emotional tone ], then it is appropriate to hide it to save others from the grime and those who desire exhibitionism of their inner hate & disgust of themselves exposed to all.

But often enough the un-liberal, not-as-progressive, not-wanted-by-ONE-group to share this open space

is the reason for the censorship and hiding.

Please Note when it is done wrongly, unfairly, inappropriately and let Indymedia staff KNOW that they have mistaken or chosen to side with one view instead of sharing their site for all who bother to come here.

Otherwise, this is a waste of anyone's time with so much

that seems extreme in views, small in thought, advertising in disguise, self-promotional mainly, or just wanting exposure for free....

instead of being a news-worthy blog like site in which to share thoughts and information that is valid and relevant PUBLICLY.

tell us which post is hidden that you fell is not violating the guidelines?

I agree with the suggestion to "view hidden posts" since that *is* informative in many ways, but the proclamation of "censorship" without any specifics is nuts.

Be specific. If there are posts that are being inappropriately flagged, point them out, be specific.

Indymedia is *being* the journalists who present the news, often as it happens. If you feel that Indymedia is inappropriately censoring, get involved, join the Indymedia effort, put your oar in to the water.

Statement on la.indymedia.org policy for hidden posts and comments

The Los Angeles Independent Media Center maintains a web site at la.indymedia.org The site is an open publishing forum, provided at no charge for non-commercial public use.

Unfortunately there are a few people who abuse this. In order to preserve the forum, LA-IMC has adopted some guidelines. Postings and comments that are racist, sexist, homophobic, threats, insults, advertisements, propaganda, ultra-nationalist, fascist, slanderous, spam and the like are hidden by the editorial staff.

Please be advised that moderating the newswire is not censorship. Without a moderator a good debate can become a shouting match. Without moderators this site would quickly degenerate into a just another noisy blog. This would degrade the site for those who respect the guidelines of the forum. The open publishing format is not a blog. There are plenty of un-moderated blogs on the internet for those who take exception to the policies of LA-IMC.

Please take note that the LA-IMC is funded entirely by small donations from its readership. The site is administered by unpaid volunteers who donate their own time and resources to keep the site up and running.

Site administrators make every effort to delete offensive material as soon as it is noticed. The problem with trolls is an ongoing battle. The LA-IMC collective is well aware of the problem and working to control it.

Given the volume of posts to read and review it is understandable that sometimes mistakes are made and articles are hidden in error. If you believe your article was hidden in error please email the staff at info@la.indymedia.org and it will be reviewed.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

now we sure would love to know more about the on-site selectivity the editorial staff concerning the 'ignoring process'

the screen grab didn't go though. but the ignored posts by our friend, the lord' remain...

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/10/242213_comment.php#242256

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/10/242213_comment.php#242254

so... what exactly is the problem?

so...

are some or one of the staff members deleting the 'reports' not assigning any credits and deliberately ignoring if not 'protecting' the obvious splotchers? From our old 'friends'?

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/10/242213_comment.php#242256

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/10/242213_comment.php#242254

how surprising.....

If there are any uncompromised collective members who are concerned enough about these issues to actually look around and ask, we might get a whole lot more transparency here.

If you give a FF.

sure would like to see an example of this, like a URL to kinda validate the following absurdity:

"others had to do with the pro-Palestinian views that did not like criticisms of their actions on LA streets."

Just so everyone could understand. Gossip is rude.

I mean they* are, ahem, unable to answer certain questions...

We depend on this wire to use a universal, not selective process but that is a yet, unreached goal.

But, as anyone should know, information networks have been under assault for many years, only the frighteningly naive believing otherwise, and we should expect the normal 'pressures' brought to bare in order to provide some control over forbidden thought.

With that in mind, it is incumbent upon any real journalist to 'work' the media as one can, putting rounds on target, down range, information wise.

And expect the raw nerves to be salted. Ha.

but maybe sometimes, not always, believed ?

Do the readers here think that every criticism or suggestion must have some evil person trying to defame the site or want to just say things for the sake of exhibitionism?

does every comment REQUIRE A LEGAL FOOTNOTE to be believable at all ?

The common attitude displayed by many so-willed liberal-labled-folk is to assume immediately that everything that does not agree with their pre-ordained views and versions of their reality Must Be A Lie or a Conspired Intent [no , not theory but a harmful plan against humanity or themselves].

The requirement to confirm each statement with a proven cited post is a bit much, since so much wild opinions predominate here at what is "indy" and media. To imply that without specific references given the complaint or comment has no validity is to throw out immediately every statement made anywhere....including the one referenced about the pro-palestinian slant that Indy volunteers seem to adhere to when hiding posts that criticize or question palestinian political actions.

This occurred more than once. It was brought to the IMC attention more than 2X, finally some response was made but no correction of the hidden comment was allowed anyhow. How quickly we learn that freedom is NOT FREE regardless of how much liberalized propaganda makes such claims.

and I could be called a dissenter, a non-conservative, a voter, a person insisting that a freedom is to be given freely, per the claims of America and all that image it claims to be.

[and not Only after having to make: demands, complaints, more work needed to get what is purported to be available freely, here and elsewhere too.]

If the purpose of the requirements of commentators that all criticisms, complaints, comments MUST BE FULLY DOCUMENTED in order to be 'believable' at all, then they are assuming some authority they dont have, and are simply slyly making negative slurs on anyone who doesnt produce what they demand...or anyone who does not OBEY their implied rulings.

Sorry, it aint happening....

Most of us need not PROVE OURSELVES to fellow misc. commentators, but we can state our truth, our experiences, our perceptions and our complaints without being given the implied suspicions that w/o obedience to requests for proof of service/documentation/references the statements cannot be honest nor true.

Not true.

No games to be played.

The reality has existed here at Indymedia LA before, and still does and those who refuse to admit it or not want to know it, read here at their own peril and are foolish.

Reader beware

Still suggest, see alll hidden posts in any article, in case there has been some sly slanting of information, censoring differing viewpoints, and Indy volunteers putting their own opinion in front of allow freedom of thought on this site.

Note the posted comments above include these words:

"but the proclamation of "censorship" without any specifics is nuts. "

" Postings and comments that are racist, sexist, homophobic, threats, insults, advertisements, propaganda, ultra-nationalist, fascist, slanderous, spam and the like are hidden by the editorial staff...."

"sure would like to see an example of this, like a URL to kinda validate the following absurdity:

Just so everyone could understand. Gossip is rude."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _

NOTICE the words used in these comments that clearly inidcate Negativity towards the commentator that said they had actually experienced unfree unfair hiding of their comments ...

regardless of topic..and they had contacted IMC and made good efforts to resolve it and it was eventually not resolved...

words above include "is nuts" = crazy, an insulting labeling of person or act.

words above include: "gossip is rude" = as if any undocumented comment is "gossip" and wtiter who does not fully footnote or reference is doing only "gossip", and is not exposing or reporting.

words above include: " Postings and comments that are racist, sexist, homophobic, threats, insults, advertisements propaganda, ultra-nationalist, fascist, slanderous, spam ... "

= indicating the rules or standards for hiding comments, many hidden posts do not fit this criteria so are being labeled all this bad stuff too by the act of hiding them ?

Believe whatever you want, but the distrustful IMC reader community wants any disagreeing person to leave and not return, "please" not even included.

Again, perfection is not demanded or even requested, FAIRNESS is though,and volunteers have the same responsibility to stated standards they apply on line as those who are otherwise originators or maintainers of IMC site and keep up it's affliation to other IMC locations as well.

Responsibility and accountability are important here as elsewhere....no special treatment for LA.

any idea about staff hiding is a miss-understanding.

most of the hidden posts are hidden by the report process.

by the readership

don't be so sensitive.

There's no staff, just volunteers. Right now, we're mostly trying to keep our jobs and/or whatever clients or gigs we have in our "regular lives".

Nearly all the hiding is done from what's reported on the buttons. There are enough people to log in and check the reports almost daily. There are not enough to check the email daily, so that doesn't get responded to quickly. (They're both important, but the website is more important.)

Thank you JOHN K for responding with some info that everyone, including me, needs to hear directly from the 'sources' that manage the site.

I had presumed that if volunteers did not have time or want to read even parts of what is flagged to be hidden, then there are 'mistakes'

but the unemployment condition of LA and the nation

should not be the determining factor of how this IMC is run

and if there are not enough intersted people to donate a bit, even a tiny bit of their earnings, or take time to help out then the site is invalid and misused by those who want exposure and no responsibility.

FYI I have donated bits here and then and wondered if the site maintenance costs are covered.

That emails are not responded to because of "no one" and "no time" indicates the site iteself is teetering and may or should fall where it may if there is "no one home" to watch over what is actually being done or how the site is being used..

and used by many who want to shout, scream, accuse and blame more than inform, tho there are fewer of those writers apparent here.

again, thanks for reading and revealing.

see comment above that again was hidden because it talked about urinating and not sticking by Mission statements, very poor taste in referring to body fluids I suppose...

and will this comment also be hidden to keep the other one hidden...

so again

ALWAYS ALWAYS CLICK HIDDEN POSTS COMMENTS to see what 'else' there is to know, even if it is dis-agreeable or even a bit but not too body-referrential.

If LA-IMC hid posts that were racist, sexist, homophobic, threats, insults, advertisements, propaganda, ultra-nationalist, fascist, slanderous, spam and the like, then nothing would get printed in normal view on LA-IMC.

Aren't they racists, sexists, homophobic, Communists, propagandists, ultra-nationalists, fascists, Socialists, etc.?

Are there any Minutemen, Save Our State, Republicans, Constitutionalists, on staff?

It's best that the idiots, fools, numbnuts and lord lox are allowed to post; showing the general intelligence level together with remarks about socialism on which the commentator knows nothing about.

But it's an easy buzz word.

Socialism provides roads, water systems, fire depts. and even power as the Tennessee Vally Authority will attest. You live a modern life style because of socialism.

The problem lays with who controls the social spending. At the present time, the banking cartels on Wall Street do,

Road,fire and police departments,water systems and TVA are public utilities and/or public services...NOT "the means of production" ...NOT functions of 'socialism'....and in the case of public roads,water systems,and police and fire departments,all were going concerns before Karl Marx ever butt fucked his first lumpenproletarian

please excuse the previous comment by lord lox.

Not having anything to say never stopped him from making an ass of himself here by saying it anyway.

He is, the Crown Prince of hidden with his usual blithering and but envy from the rabid right.

Well,at least I'm not ignorant enough to confuse taxpayer funded public services with a 'socialism' like some of the lower class reactionaries on here who apparently worship at the Church of Karl Marx's Dick

In most definitions of socialism, it defines a public funded service to provide something for someone.

In corporate socialism, public funds go to bail out Wall Street.

In popular socialism, public funds go for roads, bridges, power, schools, hospitals, water systems etc. to serve public interests.

No wonder the lord of lox is confused. It requires analysis outside of ones personal indoctrinations and neuroses.

You can split semantic hairs all you want to and try to twist the King's English into a pretzel if that makes you happy....but no self respecting political scientist would attempt to bundle public services like fire,police,water,and road maintenance under the bankrupt ideology of a 19th century brute like Marx....as a practical matter,most people understand 'socialism' as government and/or seizure of the private sector...i.e. goods and services produced at a profit....public services are not now and never were profit producing enterprises...ergo,to say they are the result of 'socialism' is either the result of sheer ignorance or deliberate dishonesty....either way,anybody who is still in love with 'socialism' in this day and time is anything but 'progressive'...most socialists of my acquaintance are power hungry little twerps who delude themselves into thinking they know what is best for everybody else and that the 'masses' have to be controlled "for their own good"....such antics are for children and not for adults in a western hi tech society

talk about weasel wording...

only the lord of lox or other general wankers would confuse socialism with 'public private partnerships' meaning profit for the private and cost to the public.

Even making the terms simple enough for a 4th grader seems to set the 'lord' into a spasm of equivocation and desperate strawmen attacks having nothing to do with the original term, socialism.

Yes, we know the owners of the current system of rampant looting and conflicts of interests serves the owners; but this is the very center of the problem aside from mushed and twisted political definitions born from .

Public funds at present are being fed into the profit margins of the Wall Street gang ( Goldman Sacs, JP Morgen, Boa and all the other 'controllers ) while the very same social structure that allowed these institutions to become profitable through the insider' command of policies' as the maintenance of this structure is allowed to crumble...

lord of lox wants the corporation to have full control to satiate their infinite greed at our expense.

......the issues is whether or not public services and utilities are the product of 'socialism'....well,publicly funded roads,water systems,etc have been around since the Romans at least...police and fire departments not quite so long but the predate Marx and the very notion of 'socialism'....so to pretend that public services like these are 'socialist' is simply to bastardize the word to try and make it mean anything you want it to mean.....and that is straight out of "Alice In Wonderland"

"When I use a word,it means exactly what I choose it to mean...no more and no less"

~Humpty Dumpty~

now look who's twisting definitions like someone's life depends on it..

Even when given a 4th grade applicable definition, the lord of lox continues to engage in mental self abuse.

Socialism the great monster under his bed.

Public socialism or popular socialism is the enemy of institutions who now command the social system to enrich a very few, not the public.

We already have corporate socialism, we need to have popular socialism.

Where the labor and time of the people go to provide services for the people, not the banks or the merchants of death.

....lox is fish that you eat with cream cheese on a bagel...but I digress...you can expound on 'socialist' theory and how it's all for 'da peepul' all you want to....but it doesn't change the fact that public services/utilities are not functions of Marxist theory and are not 'socialist'...they produce no product or service...no profit and no 'surplus value' to be expropriated by the state...try paying attention to what the original topic was before you go wandering off into the ideological fever swamps and forget where you are

"..they produce no product or service...no profit and no 'surplus value' to be expropriated by the state.."

and roads schools, bridges produce no "surplus value" to a society? "Profit" is not a required component for "surplus value" unless you're a corporation.

Or a share holder.

We know you love fascism, but corporations don't need to be sustained above the public needs for private greed by funds diverted from the public as in the present state of corporate socialism.

In Nazi Germany the state took over the corporations [ we have been told ] here, the corporations took over the state.

It's still fascism.

The original premise has been proven TRUE AGAIN...

as the comment below was accidentally duplicated when the "publish" button did not indicate it took - and page just stayed in same placewo usual link showing it was accepted. So when seen later, the "duplicate" was noted and requested to be efficiently eliminated.

Then HOW did the 2nd one, [leaving only 1 comment in place] become HIDDEN ALSO ?

Strange but not surprising...if the volunteers do not even Look or Glance or Read or anything but just ASSUME INCORRECTLY that any one in the viewiing public that wants something "out" is adequately judging the comment and claiming hidden status for what they dont happen to like ? or dont agree with ? or what ?

WHY WERE BOTH DUPLICATED VERSIONS OF A PERFECTLY ADEQUAQTELY EXPRESSED COMMENT HIDDEN ?

[see below for it's revelation here, un-hidden now maybe?]

and then 2 commentators took off - on other topics irrelevant to the main article - to vent at each other because they could not use a phone or a more direct email chat ?

Now, those might be hidden because they are

IRRELEVANT to the main article, issue, topic, premise and are diverting from what is actually being said,repeatedly

Yet again, always see "HIDDEN comments' or you miss the boat, or the meaning of the article, or the various points of view and even the 'maybe mistakes' by IMC volunteers - who have other jobs that pay them while this is done for .....what reasons again ?

this comment below was hidden 2X, so missed if not searched for:

- - - - - - - - - - -

The following post has status hidden: isHuman()): ?>

Not a new problem, repeatedly have reported this to IMC before too....

by not censored • Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 at 2:37 PM

Yes, 2 of you are correct, I neglected to add in the site where pink 'hidden' comment that was innocuous was censored, or call it whatever any euphemism that is convenient is still the same effect...

block out what someone doesnt agree with

Prior notifications to indymedia site required 2-3x sending them to get even a reply...lack of volunteer help, lack of funding, disinterest, who knows why it take so much effort to make a correction...

of a HIDING that should not have been or is not apparent to an ordinary intelligent reader here.

Yes, I have done the homework before. This time I thought to alert others about same procedure that limits visibility of actual 'comment' with opinion/ or information / or dissenting views. I neglected to identify the location in my rush to action.

The main point is that many other articles may ALSO contain responses that are unfortunately ignored by those who dont " click on hidden " comments.

I am suggesting it be done regularly to not lose what may be other than agreement made with original article.

one example I could re-find that was an opinion not nice but not hateful either is this one:

http://la.indymedia.org/news/hidden.php?id=242051

The following post has status hidden: isHuman()): ?>

James

by James • Saturday, Oct. 02, 2010 at 7:42 PM

Get rid of all the homeless drug addicts and drunks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW!

others had to do with the pro-Palestinian views that did not like criticisms of their actions on LA streets...so it was hidden and IMC was requested to un-hide 2x but they did NOT retract their own political versions of what is good to report or say or true or not..... a while back not that long ago tho...

so the intention is to Yes, take out of easy viewing the obscene, the really cruel/ mean/nasty words and

exhibitionistic venting of rage..

but Not take out of view opinions that diverge or are not just PC to some or the 'chosen slant' of liberals, progressives, or those who think only they are do-gooders and not others.

it is mostly a matter of opinion, as history has proven after many years to often show that what seemed like a bad or good idea, was different than presented.

Let's keep more open free expression that is not intended to actually hurt someone or give serious SERIOUS insult...to anyone else...

add your comments

"Then HOW did the 2nd one, [leaving only 1 comment in place] become HIDDEN ALSO ?"

was erroneously by me saying that 1 comment remained when it DISAPPEARED, so both comments were gone and none showed up ...you can see this if it is worth the effort, 2x same comment hidden so entire statements made became InVisible.

my mistake...do volunteers do same....not read what is being hidden, eliminated, not printed here ?

A sure fire way to become hidden is to bring up subjects this IMC cannot address.

Sometimes I feel the entire anarchist movement is RIDDLED with moles and spooks...so they kinda get sensitive about their past actions when the only answer to why is that their are hidden agenda under a supposed collective of concerned citizens when we are dealing with a closed and secret shop wearing the false guise of "open publishing".

But, this isn't the only IMC to have been either neutralized or compromised.