Articles are not only hidden here, the hidden ones can be found via digging throuh the viewallposts page:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/viewallposts.html

But vanished.

The vanished ones are very hard to find since there is no indication anywhere which have been vanished.

The IM editors vanish articles by unticking the UK topic on posts that they don't politically like and this removes them from the front page newswire, but since they are not hidden the vanished articles can't easilly be found like the hidden ones.

In theory you can find the vanished articles by comparing the not-rebuilt-very-often topic pages or the viewallposts page but this is a pain to do.

The politically bias vanishing should stop, the readers of this site are not idiots and should be allowed to make their own mind up about material posted here not have some egotistical censor filtering what they are allowed to see.

This thread has been hidden as are all posts relating to indymedia editorial policy or other posts which do not adher to the editorial guidelines - guidelines which have existed and not changed in any significant way since the conception of indymedia uk.

You can raise you concern about the application of moderation in the imc-uk-features mailing list or better yet, get involved in your local regional imc.

The claim that current editorial policy is having "a detrimental effect on the mobilization of activist's, directing ever greater numbers to increasingly obscure issues" is totally contradication in the contect of the later claim that it's "questionable as to whether Editorial status above and beyond self editing is even needed". Those increasingly 'obscure issues' distracting all us 'adults' are very likely to be the same threads that the writer is saying should not be hidden from the wire.

Personally I'd also like to see an indymedia like platform which did not require or use moderation collectives but the current system would be very quickly become completely worthless and unusuable without that moderation. The irony about the complaints to UK indymedia about moderation (and replicated at all other indymedias) is that on one hand people complain about things being hidden and on the other they complain about things not being hidden.

While you might prefer the idea of 'treating people as adults' and letting them decide what to read, many people simple can't be arsed to trawl through a newswire full of adverts, misinformation, coroporate media reposts, porn etc.

It is those posts that threaten the use of indymedia for what it was orginally conceived and this is illustrated by the frustration of activists and people attempting to complie regular bulletins about actions and political struggle in this country who have ended up setting about another site specifically to extract the action reports from indymedia and form a newwire without all the other distractions.So it is again ironic that the poster threatens "there will have to be another reclaim the media, this time it won't be mainstream", as that is obvisouly something that has already been taking place.

Likewise, the frustration is illustrated by the many writers and producers of independent grassroots reports and media who no longer bother posting on indymedia because their work can so quickly vanish off the bottom of the wire swamped in posting that have so little to do with grassroots struggles and independent reporting.

The internet has changed a lot since indymedia was launched, with even the mainstream media adopting open publishing on their websites, the explosion of bloging and 'citizen journalism' etc. In this new climate it is even harder for indymedia to be all things to all people and there is also less need to attempt it.

Finally, the person who replied in comments complaining of 'vanished' articles. Some of the regional collectives have different editorial guidelines to the IMC UK and allow local party political postings or news about local community events which do not relate to political struggles. Obvisouly those posts should not be hidden so when posted to the UK wire the UK topic is unticked so that the newswire is not filled with reviews of the local jumble sale, flower show or Respect collalition press releases. Occasionally posts which do not fit the IMC UK guidelines are also not hidden but instead are left on the world topic because they have there. They are not that hard to find, read your local IMC for local news, IMC UK for mostly UK news and the world topic for additonal non UK news and analysis.

It is really no a case of "unticking the UK topic on posts that they don't politically like" but rather attempting to maintain the integrity and value of the UK newswire. However, asking that the "politically bias" should stop ignores that indymedia is very clear that it is not an unbiased platform and hence the editorial guidelines. Also suggesting that the readers of the site could make on their own minds about what is posted simply is nonsence since it is impossible for a 'reader' to influence a posters ability to post.

Anyway, discussion of these issues should take place on the mailing lists or imc collective meetings rather than cluttering up the newswire. Any post about imc editorial policy will be hidden.