possible volunteers?

[encephalon]

I'm seriously considering making a kind of wiki-type site that is dedicated to communist/anarchist links, parties, descriptions, etc. Although I think the person would most definitely have to be communist or anarchist for membership, it would help decentralize the definitions of different types of communist philosophy or particular bias towards a certain party, group, bios, etc. It would be a resource for communists/anarchists or curious visitors, created in a decentralized manner by communists/anarchists. Anyone will be able to edit a description (or any registered member, at least.. I'm not going to open it up to capitalist sabotage), and people would be able to vote or something as such to get rid of something, etc. I think something along those lines could prove to be an invaluable resource to the left in general, while at the same time working within a rather anarchist/communist frame.

My questions: does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be implemented in it that I haven't mentioned? How many people would be willing to work on the resource? Good idea, bad idea?

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[cormacobear]

Sounds great but kind of an epic endeavour. Most terms and events in a left wing Lexicon would be difficult to define concisely. But it would certainly be a welcome format for gathering a relevant body of knowledge.

[encephalon]

Sounds great but kind of an epic endeavour. Most terms and events in a left wing Lexicon would be difficult to define concisely. But it would certainly be a welcome format for gathering a relevant body of knowledge.

it would sort of be like the red dictionary, I guess, except that it would be collaborative--and hopefully much more definitive and detailed.

It would be subject to change by those it attempts to define.. or describe, rather. The programming really wouldn't be that difficult to make such a system possible, if I sat down for a few hours I could probably work out the basic system. My concern is mainly whether or not there will be contributors.. if there won't be that many, it wouldn't make much sense to bother making such a system in the first place.

[Elect Marx]

Bah, I should have volunteered long ago... I am up for most anything except the technical scripting/programing but I like to learn.

I could do a lot of things... I don't know where to start.

[OleMarxco]

Whatever you say, comrade :trotski:
Count me in.

[Bolshevist]

I am also willing to help. PM me if you do need any help.

[encephalon]

right then, comrades, I've a few questions pertaining to the operation of such a project. This is the biggest difficulty I face in imagining how it would work.

Should the project be open to all visitors? That is, should all visitors be able to influence the content? I'm torn with this. On one hand, it should be open. On the other hand, right-wing agitation groups that stumble across it will endeavor to break the system unless a kind of "membership" system is implemented. This is the basic crux of all so-called open and democratic movements.. in order to protect such a system in today's environment, some secrecy seems to be needed, despite the fact that it's counter to democracy. Any suggestions on how to overcome this paradox?

Secondly, I've thought about it as a kind of window-like system.. with the main topic (or whatnot) in the proposed content with buttons that allow users to vote content upwards, downwards, add content, vote to delete content, etc.. once again, i am not sure whether that should be an open system or members-only system. Furthermore, direct democratic control of such a system does not wholly imply accuracy; if the majority has an entirely false impression of something, then that falsehood is stated more or less as fact. Any suggestions as to how this might be overcome?

Once more time is available, we are going to institute this kind of system in the red apollo journal, instead of a small group of editors dictating what gets in and what is excluded. I do not know how the entire system would work as a whole, though, just a general concept. Regardless, it might provide a kind of testbed that can evolve into a better system to work with factual items and resources. It may, in fact, be set up quite similar to a forum like this, with specialization in needed areas of function. I don't think the programming part would be too difficult to implement once a concrete idea of its purpose and function manifests. I am curious to know what others might have to add the idea of its use and function in particular, though.

[Elect Marx]

What the fuck has happened with your webspace nimda? It has been down all yesterday, into today.