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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

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Welcome to Twin Cities Indymedia!

  • Who are we?
    • Anyone who wants to be one of us. Pretty much. Unless it's the feds.
  • Specifically?
    • A) TC-IMC Tech Collective: Wily gang of ne'er-do-well infomaniac nerd types etc. We handle the nuts and bolts of the TC-IMC web platform, coordinate with the international Indymedia technical groups, and also corralling some content stuff.
    • B) TC-IMC Editorial Collective: The far flung network of passionate observers, killers of spam and all around geniuses of the written word.
    • C) TC-IMC Video Collective: Pretty self-explanatory.  Hypontized by these new moving picture things, acomplishes best work @ 4am, has pages of Final Cut Pro keyboard shortcuts duct taped next to dwindling snack supply.
    • D) You! (Unless, again, you're a fed.  You already have a soapbox.  We paid for it, too.)
       

  • Shouldn't there be meetings?
    • Yes, if you come! As of April 2009 open meetings are scheduled every two weeks; check the events calendar.
       
  • How do I post articles?
  • How do I send you a press release about my Most Important News Item Ever!! ?
    • Don't do it!  Well, you can, but if we're not as "hip" as you we might ignore it.  So just post it yourself (see above).  Unless you're a capitalist PR-bot, in which case please go away.
  • How do I post video?
    • Please post the video at one of the major video hosting websites, i.e. Blip.tv, Brightcove, Google, JumpCut, Live Video, MetaCafe, MySpace, Revver, Sevenload, YouTube, or perhaps a custom URL. Then add a 'Video (embedded)' node, and provide its URL in the embedded_video field.  (You can also just embed the video in an article or event post.)

  • Hey can I get one of these fancy websites like you got?
    • Yes! We want TC-IMC's uniquely home-brewed Drupal engine & theme to be cloned by anyone interested! Please a drop a line as we haven't yet made it clonable.
    • [That will also help everyone with good security - we try to adhere to standard, secure Drupal methods.]
    • Also, the global Indymedia community is working on Drupal-powered CMS solutions. See the IMC-Drupal-Dev mailing list or here: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/ImcDrupalDev
       
  • I want Indymedia coverage for my event!
  • I want to find stuff to do
    • We like you. Please come to an open meeting (or find us at the bar, or wherever)
       
  • I want to support TC-IMC!
    • We need equipment, content, sweet labours of love and money. Contact us! Or just do it and make us surprised.
    • Also, support the Drupal community with features, feedback, debugging and other help etc.
       
  • I don't want to support TC-IMC!
    • Go start another blathering rightwing blog which will surely save the day from 'Al Qaeda in Iraq.' 101st fighting keyboarders yay!
       
  • What about TC-IMC and that one Republican National Convention thingy? What happened at that, anyway?
  • Who decides what counts as a feature? Why don't i get to vote?
    • Collective members decide which articles become features.  Usualy features are written by collective members, but open-published content also gets promoted.  To draw attention to something you've submitted, use the contact form or ask a collective member.
    • In principle it would be cool to let people vote up features, but our web server is not fast enough to support such bells and whistles yet. If you would like to help with this, see Donate $ or equipment.
       
  • Why is there no Spanish/Hmong/Somali/Ethiopian option to use TC-IMC?
    • Indymedia strives for media participation for all people, with all abilities. Multilingual IMC sites are common around the world. However we use Drupal 5 as a platform, and its multilingual support is not very good. We are going to try to get multilingual support for Drupal 6 quickly when it is released. Also we want to support any efforts to bring new languages to Drupal that serve people in the Twin Cities. See the Languages-Accessibility group for more on this. Also our site should work OK for people with limited vision but please let us know if it doesn't.
       
  • Who decides what content is acceptable?
    • Currently the collective hides or deletes spam and other content that violates our editorial policy and mission. Also we are pretty firmly expecting provocateurs sent by the usual suspects to post provocative and illegal bullshit, and then tattle on our site to the FBI or something. Such provocateur nonsense will be handled as such. If you want to use the Internet for your schemes please feel free to clone the design of our website and take it somewhere else. Really.
       
  • Can I use content from TC-IMC on my site/for my publication!
    • Absolutely not!!!!
    • Just kidding.  TC-IMC content is anti-copyright unless otherwise noted, and is meant to be republished.  Use it!  If we were authoritarians, that would be an order.  Attribution is nice, though.