Thanks to our most prolific troll, tensions between Bristol Indymedia and this site are once again on the agenda. Their recent article Indymedia UK : It’s time to move on has not gone the same way as another recent article Syria - a call to action, which was hidden as "Not Bristol Related" despite the fictitious claim that it was authored by a Bristolian.

Nor have the Bristol mods hidden an article which falsely claims that"a petition from hundreds of Bristol people making clear we regard Julian as a hero of the people who deserves unqualified support" was delivered to the Ecuadorian Embassy. Referring to that article, one IMC uk mod noted:

"The comments section is peppered with posts clearly submitted by trolls. I strongly suspect that the original post was put up for this purpose - to provide a vehicle for subsequent trolling".

So, why does Bristol IMC hide some lies and not others? In theory it should be easy to find out. As an affiliated IMC, they have signed up to the Indymedia Principles of Unity (POU) which includes the principle that;

All IMC's recognize the importance of process to social change and are committed to the development of non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian relationships, from interpersonal relationships to group dynamics. Therefore, shall organize themselves collectively and be committed to the principle of consensus decision making and the development of a direct, participatory democratic process] that is transparent to its membership.

Yet emails go ignored, decisions are not explained and their list, unlike that of by far the majority of Indymedia lists remains closed, so that it is not possible to read the archives if you are not signed up to the list.

"This is a closed list, which means your subscription will be held for approval. You will be notified of the list moderator's decision by email. This is also a hidden list, which means that the list of members is available only to the list administrator".

It is surely a cause for reflection, to wonder how a project dedicated to Open Publishing has allowed itself to become a closed group who operate without transparency, and who seem to have a liking for trolling and invented news. It would also be more in line with the POU if they fixed their hidden functions, so that it is possible to view articles and comments that have been hidden. But despite it being pointed out for years that the system is not transparent, no explanation is given and the malfunction continues.

IMC uk strives to check the veracity of posts to the wire, and will not knowingly let lies stay up as news. Our lists remain open, and we are open to discussing concerns that people may have about the way we mod, so long as the discussions take place on the appropriate list. This is therefore an invitation to Bristol IMC to reflect on what they are doing and to engage in a discussion about how to deal with the trolling, so that the news wires can indeed focus on representing the world we are striving to create.