Frequently Asked Questions

Tags:

What does non-sectarian mean?
What do the funny pictures mean?
What do the hover overs mean?
Why do Anarchist News comments suck?
Why do you keep doing this?
What does the future hold for Anarchist News
What stories get published?
What is your comment refusal policy?


What does non-sectarian mean?

Ideally, non-sectarian means that if an anarchist of any type or stripe does something that is newsworthy than we post the story. In practice it is a little bit more difficult. By and large the site requires a submission of a story (either by the site webform (click create content on the sidebar) or an email to worker@anarchistnews.org) to make it to the site. The work required to find news that isn't submitted is too great to guarantee that non-submitted news will make it to the site. That said the site does a fairly good job of covering US anarchist news and an OK job of covering International anarchist news.

There does tend to be an evolving shift away from analysis, editorials, and organizing work (defined broadly) and towards action under cloak of night. Recently a definition of Insurrectionary Anarchism in the US was given as being "what is reported on Anarchist News". Is that because there is more writing being done about night actions or because more of these kinds of actions are being posted to Anarchist News?


What do the funny pictures mean?

Generally the images for a story fall in to two categories. They are either a direct-as-possible visual representation of the story OR they attempt to add to the story as only visual media can. This usually means that the image may seem to be silly but has a subtext that is serious.

An example of this would be that the image associated with a letter to a newspaper defending anarchists was accompanied by an image of "emo boy" with the text "I burnt the roof of my mouth". On the one hand this image has nothing to do with the story, on the other the intent was to imply both that there was a valid nagging sense of injury that provoked the letter to the newpaper and a less-valid sense of whining in the same letter.


What do the hover overs mean?

The very beginning of Anarchist News was started with a criticism of heavy handed moderation. Part of what heavy handed moderation looks like is a site admin using their God Account to make comments on the politics or content of a story. That said Anarchist News IS moderated. It is moderated for spam, for illegal & other types of bullshit, and for politics (many stories are not posted that would be of interest to many anarchists). The hover overs are a conceit. Worker is not a robot that only exists to serve the readers of Anarchist News. Worker is also the psuedonym of someone who has opinions, has posted over 15,000 stories over the past 7 years, and bites their tongue more often than the most active commenter speaks.

On the one hand the critique that there is an opinion behind the hovers is valid. There is. If you want to know the opinion of Worker you move your mouse over the image associated with a story. If you don't, you don't. It is that simple.

On the other hand the intention, which is perhaps only occasionally successful, is to be funny. To entertain friends and readers. Most of the hovers aren't actually (defendable) positions but Reductio ad absurdum. You are supposed to laugh. The failure of hovers (to the extent to which I think they are a failure) is that they aren't more funny to more people (and honestly I get more positive feedback IRL about them than I get negative online feedback). I wish there were more comments that instead of attempting to dialogue with an alt text offered their own.

Finally, several people have complained (both IRL and online) that the hovers dictate both a tone and a direction for the comment threads. I think this is both utterly ridiculous and has a kernel of truth. The idea that one sentence, intending to be funny (and that is usually utterly ridiculous) would somehow control the mind of the reader (who has no option but to read & be controlled by it) is preposterous. We all have power, responsibility, and agency for our actions. That said there are clearly threads that are dominated by someone's reaction to the hover, by a troll using the hover as their inspiration, and by a tone (cough) set by the hover. Words have power but it is a fickle power.


Why do Anarchist News comments suck?

That is a great question. Here are a few answers

  1. This is the condition of the US Anarchist milieu
  2. This is the condition of anarchists on the Internet
  3. This is the consequence of having such a light moderation policy
  4. This is the result of the funny pictures & hovers
  5. They don't suck at all, your expectations are unrealistic
  6. Anonymity is a two way street. One way is fools, the other is sages

You can only pick one. :-)


Why do you keep doing this?

I don't know, sheer stubbornness? It is fantastic to feel as though I am personally paying such close attention to the activities that are going on around the world. I feel more connected than I would otherwise to the activities of Greece, the East Coast, the West Coast, etc than I would otherwise. This is a depressing project though. It is depressing to see how much shit is talked about it by people who are using it. It is depressing to see how many sites don't link to us (for fear of giving the "wrong impression" about anarchism). It is depressing to feel like this isn't a project worth doing, mostly because of haters, when I know it is. It is sites like Anarchist News that keep a link between the anarchists doing what they do all around the world. This is what Internationalism looks like today and if it is embarrassing it is usually because it isn't nearly enough, not because we are doing it wrong.


What does the future hold for Anarchist News

There will (strong hope) be a site design in the Spring of 2012. The goals of this design will be to change the front page and logo, to fix the consequences of commenting, and to add some, but probably not a lot, of functionality.

This fall, although this has already started, there will be more international coverage and the possibility that an Anarchist News sister site will be launched in Europe.


What stories get published?

The main criteria for story publishing is that the story is about or concerns anarchists. If a story (be it mainstream newspaper article or blog) has the word anarchist (or anarch*) in it the odds are very high (90%+) that it will be posted. The only exceptions (up till now) have been around repetition (for instance analysis of the London riots, which we created a sidebar for).

Any other story is posted on a subjective basis. They are not posted because I am attempting to decide what is or is not anarchist, this is done by the authors of an article (otherwise they would use the word). Non-explicit anarchist stories are posted usually because they express actions done by the state that will have an impact on anarchists (here is an example) or are major events that will involve anarchists (example). My preference is to list these events (events sidebar) but not discuss them (center column).


What is your comment refusal policy?

The strictist version of the policy is that the only comments that are removed are ones that implicate named individuals legally (as in named in ways that could complicate their life legally), anti-anarchist comments that don't make an argument (just call @ names), and comments that are just noise (ie "this", "yes", etc). Named individuals who are public figures are not particularly protected. Anti-anarchist comments (that don't engage but insult) are removed because this is an explicitly anarchist site. Noise comments are removed as they add absolutely zero content. This line does move from time to time.

The idea is that Anarchist News reflects the people who post on it and not the moderator(s). The origin of Anarchist News is in reaction to a similar news source that had a heavy handed moderation policy that stifled conversation and didn't feel "Internet". Anarchist News feels Internet for better and for worse.

If you find yourself feeling angry at a particular comment or thread just remember that you are probably being trolled, that what is making you angry only exists on the Internet (a different place than Real Life™), and that anger is something that can help cleanse you of the emotional cruft that gets in the way of your own success.

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