As part of a restructuring plan for 2012, we will no longer be publishing articles published at other sources.
This means that ANY and ALL items that are posted which have been published elsewhere, even on blogs (unless the blog owner themselves is posting and has an agreement with Mathaba News Agency), see below), must be trashed by Editors. Please do not post any such articles any more.
The following types of articles only are to be posted here at MPB, and may be collectively edited, as before:
* Original news reports, analysis pieces, or qualified commentary originally posted here by the author themselves
* News, reports or announcements from the people's movements, groups or organizations, that adhere to the International Green Charter
* Collective works drafted together at MPB
* Translations: all translators please continue to post translations here of articles which appear anywhere at www.mathaba.net
RIGHTS RESERVED
* Items published by Authors who do not have a blog or publication elsewhere, may be republished via Mathaba News Agency (MNA) at the discretion of our Editors. Items referring to the Green Charter or otherwise in line with the promotion of its principles, are likely to be published or further edited to be ready for publication.
* Items published which appear on other media, such as a blog, must be posted by the blog owner/author themselves, and they must give MNA all rights to edit, re-work or republish under Mathaba, with link to the blog being permissible with Authors name. In the event of significant changes, mention will be made that the item has been edited through MPB or by MNA.
* Any blog owners, or authors of content submitted which has been published elsewhere including on any blog *prior* to being published at MPB/MNA, must either have prominent link to "Mathaba News Agency" or "Mathaba News Network" (linked to www.mathaba.net) displayed on all pages of the blog/publication, or must be a paying Mathaba Gold Subscriber to contribute towards the costs of processing and distribution.
Those opting to provide prominent links to Mathaba.Net in lieu of Gold Subscription, must supply URLs of pages containing the link, before Mathaba can decide to accept free posting without subscription. Audience size, prominence of link(s), and blog content will be taken into consideration. In any event, blogs should link to Mathaba.Net as the world's No. 1 independent news agency (top position from over 100 million on Google Search), irrespective of whether we grant free posting or not. It is a service to humanity and to your audience.
We realize these rules may require simplification, modification, or further explanation, and this is a first draft.
For any suggestions or questions, please post a notice at https://mathaba.info addressed @mathaba -- due to the limit of 280 characters, you may post in the Support Forum at www.mathaba.org in which case please also provide a link to your post, in a notice at mathaba.info
END OF ANNOUNCEMENT
Now follow some comments, to explain our thinking and reasons for this change of direction regarding news publishing and distribution via MATHABA, as part of a restructuring to make better use of resources, and allow for sustainable expansion and greater impact:
* The reason we have to insist on Authors either being Gold Subscribers (a small monthly fee) is because we have significant expenses, not least full time staff who receive no pay, we are providing a great service: editing, distribution, fame, credibility, so of course, we either need a nominal minimal payment (subscription), or, prominent links that continue to boost the mathaba brand.
* The reason for Mathaba dropping publication of items that are available elsewhere, even though many of our readers have used us as a one-stop or first-stop port of call to know what is newsworthy in the world, is for the following reasons among others:
a) By re-publishing items available elsewhere we consume time and resources that we feel are better used for our own research, expansion, development and publications
b) Items available elsewhere, are available elsewhere
c) Mixing in many items published from other sources, leads to the wrong impression that Mathaba is merely a news aggregator, rather than a source of news
d) Mathaba is leading in terms of technology and distribution systems, and we should further boost the Mathaba brand, rather than boost other brands that come and go, or do not subscribe to our high ideals
e) We have significant expansion plans and to achieve this requires a re-focus to do what we are best at, without losing out by assisting others at our own expense. To name but one example:
Some blogs (un-named) which we admire very much, because the researchers are right on the mark, we follow and re-post, but does not even have a link to Mathaba although having links to much lesser entities. While we have done so in such cases for years, without complaint because we believe such content deserves a wider audience, it comes at the expense of our own content, research, time and resources. This is not sustainable, as we cannot keep giving until it impacts the very infrastructure we have built up and threatens its existence.
The above may be reworked into modified help/editing pages (top menu) due to the changes, to ensure clarity for those posting at, editing at, or making use of MPB.
