this has happened twice here today on forums I posted on.

I even rebooted my box, thinking this is some sort of freak software thing. But now I don't know what is going on. Some help, explaination or restorative effort on behalf of Admin. would be much appreciated.

By the way, TJ, your comment on that page was spot-on. I agree with it 100% and am glad to discover someone articulate who can see what way the wind is blowing here.

If you still remember what it was all about, I can attempt a crude reconstruction to get things moving again, unfortunately, I had not saved the page and my cache was overwritten by that 'no story to tell yet'-crap:

the original story itself was entitled

"Stop these Nazis using Indymedia"

in itself a fairly run-off-the-mill 3-line whinge calling for somebody or other to be censored for whatever.


To this, I replied as follows:


"Don't you have anything at all to contribute to this collective, apart from imbecelic mantras of

'Ban him, Ban evil, Ban argument, Ban discourse'

and if that fails, which it inevitably will, soon you'll be moaning

'Ban IndyMedia, Ban IndyMedia, Ban evil terrorist platform'

This is an unspeakably sad mentality that you represent, the intellectual paucity of which I will not stoop to detail at greater length here.

Listen, here's a deal: why don't you simply ban yourself from being too lazy to follow or develop a constructive argument or even rational thought while other people, who wish for an honest exchange of ideas without mental strait-jackets enforced upon them by jumped-up little thought-policemen like you, get on with using this magnificent forum for that exact purpose?

OK, all fair and square then, eh, me old mate?

Shalom, BP"


Next, a couple of reasonable people speak up against the dangers of censorship - yourself for instance. Please, repost if you still have it.

Then an individual calling himself 'Robin the Red' responds with approximately the following:


"To BlackPope

why don't you simply ban yourself from being too lazy to develop a constructive argument and stop permanently offending people here and on IMC-Germany!"



There then follows my response to that inanity, which I was trying to deliver when the whole page went belly-up:


"Hello, Robin the Red

... and thanks for having the balls to finally stand-up and defend your 'position'!!

Oh, sorry, you didn't actually do that, did you? - you just used cut-and-paste techniques in a lame-assed attempt to diss me - and then still have the brazen cheek to accuse me, with plagarised words, of laziness. Bam!!

Well, hahahahahahaha, that will take some beating as a display of intellectual sloth, just the very quality I was protesting about in inquisitors.

Thank you so very much, Robby, for this gem of an effort, the rich fruit of a full 2 seconds brainstorming - it will rekindle much mirth in years to come - and don't beat yourself up about how disasterously slack-witted your riposte, now to be beamed around the world all to enjoy, is going to appear. I mean, you are just too innocent for this world, that's all!

Perhaps your best solution would be to change your nick, then continue lurking in a new guise? Just pop up occasionally to moan something incoherent about 'Ban evil Nazi Scum, yeah!' to let us know which Thought-Policeman still occupies the shadows, OK?

As to 'permanently offending' people here or on IMC-Germany, the following 3 points are for your information:

1. I do not aim to offend anyone, and that includes you, but do sometimes enjoy rupturing the sails of self-inflated hypocrites, much like yourself, with some cut-to-the-chase commentary in a genuine attempt to stir them to dialogue.

2. Seldom do these mighty headstrong word-warriors deign to respond, so I can hardly know how they feel about that, but in the rare cases that they do, their display of wounded pride is ultimately not my fault, rather their own. In a manner of speaking, they ran their puffed-up chests straight onto my sword.

3. I've posted approximately 3 times in total on IMC-Germany, so 'permanent' is just so much hyperbolic puffery in that case, and the third time, today, had my post censored (can be at link given ) and my IP-address blocked to prevent me asking what the hell is going on or from apparently ever posting anything further!! So on that score, your wet-dream has actually come true, temporarily at least.


Now, although this last fact might fill the likes of you with thievish glee, I, and I imagine a good proportion of others who use this forum, find it an extremely disturbing tendancy. Let us not forget that IMC-Swiss was closed-down by grubby-pawed little censors much like yourself, who employed exactly the same lazy irrationality you display. Coincidence? I don't think so.

If it turns out that YOU are in actual fact an Admin. at IMC-UK, something I do sincerely hope is not the case, and would be shocked to discover, then I would confidently predict you will resort to blanket-banning me here too, as I suspect you are too witless and basically cowardly to risk letting the discussion go any further. Am I right in this assumption, my fond friend Robby?

I await your reply with some trepidation, not!

Shalom, BP

oops! Almost forgot.

Here is the comment I posted on that article that has strangly dissapeared:

A world without Nazism/fascism would by a much nicer place to live, but at the same time, if Indymedia was to censor such people it would undermine the very reason why the Indymedia exists, to provide people a platform to raise their issues without the restraints of editing or censorship. Removing Nazis from Indymedia may also be the thin end of the wedge, and further down the line you may then get calls for the removal of, for example, articles that criticise the SWP.

Since 99.9% of the people who read Indymedia are anti-racist/anti-fascist, the few Nazis ("Jack", "Dave", et al) who post on here aren't really having this much of an impact in my opinion, since the majority of articles posted on Indymedia are sending the exact opposite message. In addition, the Nazi articles are soon severly criticied by the readers in the comments, which in turn undermines the Nazi message.

All that I am saying is to prevent the Nazis from getting a foothold, we need to keep informing the reader why their views are in the wrong, but to me censorship is a very dangerous road to take, and one that if ever taken, would destroy the sprit of Indymedia.

By the way, thanks BlackPope for the message of support, I have read some of your recent postings and also agree with what you have to say.

An article, 'Nazi's not welcome on IMC' was there, until I posted a picture... which the Zionist entity no doubt would not have approved... and the post was then removed. Either I'm paranoid or this is censorship. I published 'Opium and the CIA' - It said; your article has been published, but it never was.

The SSC uploaded two press releases. In the first, the attachment would not upload despite three attempts. In the second, the article vanished after someone replied to it. I think there's a serious technical glitch in the system.

I doubt its a Zionist conspiracy, my stuff has also disappeared, eaten by the 'No story to tell yet' spook. I would guess its a (rather selective) technical glitch.

Not that anyone cares, but what I wrote was an analysis of an email I recieved from my cousin, a 16 year old West Bank settler, in which she describes how a terrorist was shot outside her school after stabbing someone, she praises the army and finishes with the ominous words: 'I wish evry day i could see a dead arab'. And I was wondering how to reply to it, and then I went on to ask how one would reply to a Palestinian teenager preparing to be a shahid, who said 'I wish evry day I could see a dead Jew'. And I left an open question about penetrating self-made fantasies and delusions that come from intense subjectivity.

the "no story to tell yet" is a bug with our database dying. that happens and someone needs to kick it to life again... please mail to the tech list on  imc-uk-tech@lists.indymedia.org if you come across a "no story to tell yet" error.

Just clicked on that "stop nazis using indymedia" article, and found that it's back online, so it was merely a technical glitch after all. Oh and Josh, the article about your 16 year old cousin on the West Bank has also come back to life.

However, I must say that the UK IMC service can be somewhat unreliable, and going through searches takes forever, even on my university's network which is really fast (I have to contend with dial-up now cause I'm home for summer). Also there are times when the Indymedia page won't load at all, something that would alarm people who are suspicious of such events. Remember the problems that the Italian and Swiss IMCs have had with government interference, people then wonder which IMC will be next.

yes the thing here was an obvious glitch which is now sorted.

For those posting images, video, mp3's etc. it is my experience here that sometimes, particularly if you see the red message 'Connection interrupted by Server' immediately after hitting the 'add my comment'-button, you need to repeat until it goes through with a blackscreen saying 'uploading files to server'. This can take anywhere up to 8 attempts and requires a certain amount of patience.

Josh, your post is back, with my response - I would be happy to continue any discussion with you there.

What is by no means fixed is the censorious attitude of the moderators on IMC-Germany. These people have set up mental seismometers to detect what they dub 'Antisemitismus' (TM), which in actual fact get triggered by practically anyone even mentioning the word 'Zionism'.

This crude device was used against me yesterday to block a valid and reasoned critique directed against the censors and their AntiFA Thought-Police cohorts.

They at first tried to fob off my protest at this treatment with pleas of 'Technical Difficulties', but this was really just so much BS. In the meantime, 24 hours later, I'm able to post again, so I was not permanently blocked. Now, with the chance to confront them again, they have admitted the actual censorship, offering wild accusations of 'Antisemitismus' (TM) in pseudo-justification for the deed, and zero chance of having my post restored.

They were also, by the way, acutely embarrased and unchuffed by the fact that I effectively managed to evade their scissors by posting the censored item here, with a link on the original page for all interested parties to follow. I think that is why one of their ShockTroopers now, in a fit of vengeaful pique, resorts to smearing me with handy little labels, as can be seen here:

 http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=33913&group=webcast

They now demand that I display 'solidarity' with this sorry band of Witch-Hunters!! Heaven prevent the idea!

Haaahahaha, Foolish Fools! Little do they know what powers they dabble with!!

Anyway, all the very best to you all, and thanks, IMC-UK, for not being such inquisitorial hair-trigger-censors as we must suffer elsewhere.

You should all remind/inform yourselves of the case of IMC-Swiss!!

Shalom, BlackPope

yes the thing here was an obvious glitch which is now sorted.

For those posting images, video, mp3's etc. it is my experience here that sometimes, particularly if you see the red message 'Connection interrupted by Server' immediately after hitting the 'add my comment'-button, you need to repeat until it goes through with a blackscreen saying 'uploading files to server'. This can take anywhere up to 8 attempts and requires a certain amount of patience.

Josh, your post is back, with my response - I would be happy to continue any discussion with you there.

What is by no means fixed is the censorious attitude of the moderators on IMC-Germany. These people have set up mental seismometers to detect what they dub 'Antisemitismus' (TM), which in actual fact get triggered by practically anyone even mentioning the word 'Zionism'.

This crude device was used against me yesterday to block a valid and reasoned critique directed against the censors and their AntiFA Thought-Police cohorts.

They at first tried to fob off my protest at this treatment with pleas of 'Technical Difficulties', but this was really just so much BS. In the meantime, 24 hours later, I'm able to post again, so I was not permanently blocked. Now, with the chance to confront them again, they have admitted the actual censorship, offering wild accusations of 'Antisemitismus' (TM) in pseudo-justification for the deed, and zero chance of having my post restored.

They were also, by the way, acutely embarrased and unchuffed by the fact that I effectively managed to evade their scissors by posting the censored item here, with a link on the original page for all interested parties to follow. I think that is why one of their ShockTroopers now, in a fit of vengeful pique, resorts to smearing me with handy little labels, as can be seen at bottom of this page:

 http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=33913&group=webcast

They now demand that I display 'solidarity' with this sorry band of Witch-Hunters!! Heaven prevent the idea!

Haaahahaha, Foolish Fools! Little do they know what powers they dabble with!!

Anyway, all the very best to you all, and thanks, IMC-UK, for not being such inquisitorial hair-trigger-censors as we must suffer elsewhere.

You should all remind/inform yourselves of the case of IMC-Swiss!!

Shalom, BlackPope