The Peterloo Avatar Campaign was started to try and arrange an online debate between editorial staff and commenters about the Guardian’s editorial stance, reporting and moderation policy whilst in the meantime documenting and clearly communicating those ongoing concerns to staff members. The avatars were a visual nudge for the Guardian staff and were quite successful at instigating debate amongst the users of the interactive area of the Guardian.
However the Guardian has made it clear that it considers the issues raised a low priority. This is a position that saddens all of us, as we had hped to move forwards with the Guardian.
The campaign itself now has a much broader focus, however you can tack the birth of the avatar campaign by clicking on the link here for all (opens in a new window) Peterloo related posts on the c1nf site, the original home for the campaign.
Want to get involved?
There are varying levels of involvement – just using an avatar in CiF, indulging in armchair hacktivism, documenting omissions in articles, unusual moderation activities in or around specific topics, – contact us through the contact form below if you think you might have something interesting or even want to get more involved in what we’re doing.
If you do wear a Peterloo avatar in CiF you will find people asking you about them – posting links may get your posts deleted – it’s much safer to put the link below in your CiF profile and link to that:
http://c1nf.wordpress.com/c1nf-peterloo/
Want to comment but not sure how? click here for tips.
Follow c1nf updates from twitter:
Peterloo Campaign latest Update:
CiF Peterloo Avatar campaign update:
The latest response from Readers Editor/Mr Rusbridger is ” Before we can commit to an online debate of that kind we need to talk to colleagues who are heavily committed already. Either I or my colleague will respond as soon as we can” and in addition to wanting to know more about us “…..you raise some interesting issues”.
So a work in progress but not a no. In the meantime a new ‘Peterloo Avatar Campaign Update Page’ will soon be made available for anyone interested to visit to see how the campaign is progressing along with a comment area. We are now moving into a new stage where we will be documenting concerns that we feel need to be bought to the editorial staff’s attention, past and present, and would be grateful for people to add their own concerns and examples of what they want to highlight too on the comment page which will all then be passed on. Ideas and suggestions would be more than welcome also.
The campaign is not that old and we admit we have made some mistakes and have listened to all criticisms and hopefully are fine tuning those areas which were grey to avoid confusion in the future and to correct misinterpretations of what we are about.
Hopefully this will help….
“The Peterloo Avatar Campaign aims to continue to try and arrange an online debate between editorial staff and commenters about the Guardian’s editorial stance, reporting and moderation policy whilst in the meantime documenting and clearly communicating those ongoing concerns to staff members.”
We are not as some assume trying to make the Guardian more ‘left,’ whatever that means these days, or dictate what it should do or think we are simply asking for the opportunity to voice many readers concerns on various issues, directly to the editorial staff, whilst enabling everyone who wishes to put their views forward and have their say too.
We’d like to say thanks to all who are supporting the campaign and wearing the avatars – they have been noticed by those who needed to notice them and the more that join and continue to wear them the louder the voice we will have.
Hope that explains things and provides an adequate update on how things are going. Further updates will be given out as and when the need arises.
hi Sir Digby Chicken-Ceasar
I have changed the ‘about me’ (hyperlink) in my cif user’s profile to highlight your cause – see below
” I believe authority should always be questioned – that includes mine. Especially enjoy CiF when contributions from knowledgeable users bring you to unexpected places – quite admire the current Peterloo campaign on here – its definitely something worth keeping an eye on! check out – http://c1nf.wordpress.com/ ”
I had to do a few minutes of research *checks watch* to find out more about you – time I could have spent being curious about other stuff or peculating my coffee or something;-)
maybe if a few more ‘Looers’ left the odd clue on their profiles the word could spread a wee bit faster no?
good luck
Barry (hyperlink)
@Barry
Thanks for that I’m sure Digby will pop by soon – yes we’re fine tuning the site and trying to find the best way publicize it – we have done a profile message like your and telling people to click on our user names for more info as we seem to get moderated when we place a link – the problem we have now is people in pre-mod not being able to post info. and others being deleted but the best way seem to inform people to click on the user name/profile – if you could carry on doing that that would be great – we just need to spread the word – but they won’t allow us to pass on messages like that to get people to do the same as you so it is difficult – maybe if we post a message here above the comments that would help. Thanks for you input – feel free to contribute more – the more the merrier and all that. – how did you eventually find the site – anyway we could improve that?
Thanks.
ok lightacarrot here we go……..
to be honest the peterloo website lacks clarity, at least for me -
its a confusing place where although I think I empathise with your cause I never quite know where I am metaphorically, in terms of navigation and well, philosophically.
I’m not a webmaster by any stretch but to be more effective your site should emphasize community and radiate a stronger sense of purpose
well you did ask
Hi Barry –
the campaign has broadened it’s objectives and we’re no longer concentrating solely on 1 title. So if you feel you’re being short changed by the UK media and want to do something about it, you’re in the right place.
This page is simply here to document where the Peterloo idea was born from, while the comments were copied across with the page from the originals at c1nf.
if you see errors or problems with navigation on this site feel free to comment however it is separate from c1nf.wordpress.com
I’d like to draw your attention to this – which is still ‘up’ as a link in the Guardian – but which I can imagine them taking down once they’ve read what it says:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/28/the-dangerous-cult-of-the-guardian/