Indy Media Watch

A post on Melbourne Indymedia asks, Where's Sydney Indymedia?

[Looks under desk]

Comments bemoan the death of Indymedia:

if u follow the IMC network globally, it is obvious it is dying in the arse, especially in the States .. it has been infiltrated and destroyed from within .. can't comment on SIMC, but the Irish are down too. ... not good.

if anything it highlights the weaknesses in collectives, or tiny factions .. killed the Oz labor party and killed IMC ... are ppl round here hard learners or sumthin???

change the paradigm or die .. but be heartened over the fact that independent publishing is exploding in other forms .. text and pic are taking the background to vid

Infiltrated? I doubt it, but everyone loves a good conspiracy right?

Occam's Razor essentially suggests the the simplest solution to a question tends to be the best one.

In this case, the simplest answer is that Indymedia's content is woeful. Massive crossposting of material across local sites, little original content, just reposts from other sites, trolls, libel and this is before we get into the flagrant antisemitism, terrorism and abject stupidity which abounds.

Indy Media Watch sometimes finds out about IMC sites going of air, sometimes weeks or months after it's actually happened. Nobody even notices!

Whilst it's easy to blame The Gubment (just like 9/11) it's really not a conspiracy at all. Put very simply, readers have gone elsewhere. Why would they bother going to Indymedia, except for perhaps the same reason one might stare at a car crash.

The question: Can Indymedia recognize its own role in any of this? Or are they too busy blaming everybody else (including this site) and denying a problem. Judging from recent comments, it's pretty obvious.