I have a confession to make: I think the Right is still bogged down on the technology front in a way the Left is not. I also think the reason is simple. If you look at the major players on the right, they have little interest in working with each other when they could be seeking competitive advantages against each other as well as major contracts with campaigns and businesses.
Certainly there are those on the left who compete and seek contracts, but there is, in my mind, a substantial difference: the left put down the shared infrastructure first, then went out and started competing against each other. On the right, technologists started up competing against each other intending to get rich off the coming wave of tech infrastructure.
Consequently, the left has Act Blue and the right has . . . well . . . had a variety of ultimately failed platforms the most successful of which was Slatecard, which is still gearing up for the 2010 election cycle. One of the only truly successful state efforts was RedStorm PAC, which has not been successfully duplicated to my knowledge.
With RedState’s being owned by a corporation, it is more difficult for us to raise and control a pot of money through which we can fund worthwhile projects. I think, frankly, one of the advantages the left had early on is that there were very big blogs and only a handful of them. On the right, there are varied, competitive, and competing blogs of all roughly the same size save for Michelle Malkin and Hot Air, both of which dominate the rest of the right-o-sphere.
This is one reason I am so excited about the Concord Project. A group of RedState readers got together and just did it.
But that goes back to Act Blue. I would love to embed links to a central site at RedState to give to candidates — either individually or as a slate of candidates. That’s not going to happen. We don’t have the technology on our side.
The conservative donor infrastructure, which has too often been burned by the charlatans on our side, remains hesitant to fund tech projects on our side outside of existing 501(c)(4)’s. One of them needs to step up. This is ridiculous.
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Caleb Howe
I don't know if we need it
Neil Stevens (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:13AM EST (link)I think that measuring conservative efforts against the progressives really doesn’t do us justice. Our movement is not organized in the same way theirs is.
We consistently reject top-down systems. Our side doesn’t want to give to slates. Our side wants to give to individual candidates and be choosy about it.
For that there *is* no benefit to an ActBlue over an individual candidate’s website.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
I don't think that is necessarily true
Erick Erickson (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:42AM EST (link)Our slatecard in 2008 was quite successful for what we did with it and I get bombarded on a near daily basis these days asking if there is a “one stop shop” where people can give and have it divvied up, etc.
Generally yes, it is great to give straight to the candidate. But there are often times when something else with all our candidate choices would work best.
Who will stand on either hand and keep this bridge with me?Follow @EWErickson
Additionally
aesthete (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:54AM EST (link)a “one stop shop” has the advantage of having more information available to it, and of being able to prioritize better. Individual donations, while great, result in massive funding disparities in which popular candidates like DeMint and Bachmann are flush with cash they don’t need or know what to do with, and where other conservatives are left hanging because they are not as well-known.
I see some merit in Neil’s point, and we’ll probably always be behind the left on top-down system implementation, but we can and should certainly aspire to do better in that regard.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
Fair point (nt)
Neil Stevens (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 12:18PM EST (link)RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
There is an advantage
paint_it_red (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:52AM EST (link)The disciplined have the advantage over the disorganized in almost every context, perhaps none more so than politics. For your average guy with a limited political budget, it may make little to no difference whether he gives to an ActBlue or via a candidate’s web site, but it many other ways it matters. What about the individuals / organizations / businesses that have more substantial budgets but do not have the time to peruse web site by web site, or perhaps even the know how on how to do that? What about the outreach power of a substantially developed network? What about the strategic placement of funds? What about the candidates who would be great conservative voices but don’t have the resource base?
The result of not having one is that our candidates are losing races they should win. Good candidates have in both time and resources a higher entry cost to get into the political world. We lose some resources and voices simply because of the way we are disorganized. Erick’s right, we absolutely need a conservative counterweight to ActBlue.
“It is not good to cultivate a respect so much for the law as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think is right.” Henry David Thoreau
“The means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“If you want peace, work for Justice.” Pope John Paul II
Think "and".
Loren Heal (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 12:01PM EST (link)While it’s true that people on the right tend to want to pick out certain candidates, I think that’s a result of our coalition. And the more eyeballs we put on candidates, the better.
But there are people who just want to spend their time making money and writing checks, not fact-checking pols.
What would be nice is if a group could accept your money and your input, then bundle the percentage you want to the candidates you describe. So if I call up and want to donate $100 to “pro-gun, fiscal conservative, but socially liberal” candidates (to pick a combination that’s not necessarily me), they distribute the money and send me the bumper stickers.
–
Join the Concord Project, and follow @lheal, if you dare.
Agree and disagree.
acat (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 12:01PM EST (link)I agree with you that using Libtard metrics to measure Conservatives is … I think “wrongheaded” says it politely enough. However.
While giving to individual candidates is great *in theory* it kinda blows chunks when there’s no site I can go to and *find* the candidate sites.
A “Red State Donor Page” consisting of nothing more than links to candidate sites and a quick search of Red State for diaries or diaries+comments regarding the candidates would be very helpful, and would put no money in Red State hands, so should keep the FEC et al clear.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Sad state of affairs...
MetaCosm (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:51AM EST (link)It is sad that this issue has been an issue on our side for so long. I am exciting by the positive polling and so forth, but I do quietly fear the left mobilizing heavily at the last minute and managing to hold onto seats they rightly should have lost.
I think the problem is one of attitude, value and engagement. Again and again I have heard technology mocked and dismissed on the right. I worked in a conservative environment in the run up to the 2008 election, and often heard about how all the people online would never turn out to vote… how it was a phantom threat. It wasn’t.
Beyond that, when projects are discussed, they tend to be discussed on very short timelines, with extremely constrained budget and seeking immediate ROI… I think a broader vision (Act Blue since 2004, still going strong) and a longer timeline to some of these projects is required. A project started today might not have a full ROI by Nov.
The final thing I have noticed is that the level of engagement with projects after they start tends to be low. They pony up the cash and just expect everything to go smoothly. The right needs to engage as these projects are being worked on (before they are done!) and start giving feedback.
~~~~~
Another point worth noting is that a lot of the research and effort in finding out what works has been done by the left, for us. At this point, if you funded a couple developers (or 1 developer, 1 network guy) with cloning the 5 best utilitarian sites that left depends on, you would probably be exceptionally successful in almost no time.
The right could be a very successful Fast Follower of the left on the technology front, wait for a winner to be crowned, then clone it.. don’t add too much, don’t muck around too much, just clone it.
That would ensure tool parity, and ensure that we don’t fall behind simply because of tooling… tooling is a terrible reason to lose a political battle.
~ MetaCosm
Too many Republicans see governing and politics only as a zero sum game;
Achance (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:54AM EST (link)they win only by seeing you lose. And I don’t mean that they think they win only by seeing a Democrat lose; they think they only prosper be having you suffer.
I think outreach would be better if there were one readily accessible and well-branded site that people could go to and one that understood “consumer” tastes and e-commerce better than anything the Party has shown us so far. That said, we’d soon be arranged in another circular firing squad over it; look how quickly the squawking started here about supporting blue dogs and being non-partisan. It is always better to be pure than successful.
In Vino Veritas
what technology?
catt (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:54AM EST (link)What keeps RedState from having a page of links to individual campaign donation pages? You could cycle through the ones that need the most attention. I didn’t spend much time on the ActBlue site but it didn’t look like anything special, just another web page with a fairly plain layout by a designer who thinks magenta and green go well together. Do they have some special technology behind the scenes that isn’t obvious to the casual observer? Obviously I’m missing the point here, and just curious about what it is I’m not seeing.
The Point
MetaCosm (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 12:51PM EST (link)The point is — they have it. That is the only point. There is nothing special about it, give me two weeks and a designer, and I will put up a rock solid site just as nice.
The point is — they have it. Up, centralized, running and already having raised a huge sum of money. We lack it.
~ MetaCosm
Agree, just clone it
paint_it_red (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:55AM EST (link)Tinker after its something established, up and running. But take the working model and make it work for us.
“It is not good to cultivate a respect so much for the law as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think is right.” Henry David Thoreau
“The means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.” Martin Luther King Jr.
“If you want peace, work for Justice.” Pope John Paul II
Easier said than done
Neil Stevens (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 11:58AM EST (link)Building any big, community site takes serious effort and investment. Building one that also must follow FCC regulations to the letter brings in a set of challenges beyond even the engineering effort.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
Can the FEC be sidestepped .. legally?
acat (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 12:32PM EST (link)What I mean is, is it necessary to go through the hassle of setting up a “Red State 501(c)” when there are existing reasonably conservative 501(c)s as well as candidate pages out there?
Seems to me one good step is a candidate-donation-page aggregation.
No money actually goes to Red State, it all goes to the candidates, thus side-stepping the FEC, thus not making Erick’s life harder.
I have to click 10+ buttons to spread my donations around, but that’s not – in the age of PayPal – a huge time sink.
Moe has been doing something along this line – all I have to do is google moe lane interview site redstate.com and voila, I have 2/3 of what I need right there – candidate positions, and their campaign web sites, most of which will accept donations.
Other than some skillful legal work to make sure the FEC stay away, this shouldn’t take too much to get built out.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
I don't even mean for RS in particular
Neil Stevens (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 12:39PM EST (link)Anyone who creates this kind of aggregator will have to follow all the relevant FCC rules.
Mistakes could mean serious trouble.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
Point of clarification, Neil.
acat (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 5:45PM EST (link)By “Anyone”, do you mean “Anyone on the right”, or would I be correct in thinking that the rules as enforced are more .. relaxed .. for the Left ?
I think that’s what’s meant and what the “hard part” is – and I’m thinking of ways around or through it… but I want to first make sure I’m thinking about it right.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
I mean anyone
Neil Stevens (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 5:52PM EST (link)I think the FEC is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans?
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
Thanks, Neil [nt]
acat (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 5:55PM EST (link)——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Tech is easy.
MetaCosm (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 12:58PM EST (link)Technology wise, it is easy. Legally, I have no idea, IANAL. But, you would have to explain to the company that owns Redstate how it would be profitable to them to get involved in something like this… and it may well not be.
Which is why I think that the technology build-outs might best be left to small individuals who are supportive of the right, already experts in the field, and willing to work for cash and get the job done… not a established player looking to get hooks in for the next two election cycles of work.
~ MetaCosm
the problem then, Meta, is how does the "solo act" get enough attention?
acat (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 2:56PM EST (link)It’s really a chicken-and-egg problem.
You need a site big enough to gather attention directing traffic to get enough traffic to matter…. but… if you’re big enough to have the traffic, it’s opening up to a whole new level of libtard harassment…
There is an existing model that, although lacking traffic, certainly has the legal expertise…
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
"Solo Act"
MetaCosm (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 3:27PM EST (link)You misunderstood. I talk about a solo developer, not without an organization behind that person. That reason I made the specification is because it removes the “corporation to corporation” relationship that bogs down many of these deals. It cuts the red tape and BS allowing the work to get done quickly.
Also, all sites start small, if they are good, they can gain traction. Also, some ideas like the one posted above from Soc
“‘”What would be nice is if a group could accept your money and your input, then bundle the percentage you want to the candidates you describe. So if I call up and want to donate $100 to “pro-gun, fiscal conservative, but socially liberal” candidates (to pick a combination that’s not necessarily me), they distribute the money and send me the bumper stickers.”"”
~ MetaCosm
High first step, though.
acat (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 3:42PM EST (link)The problem, MetaComm, is not the code. I could ‘jin up a functional web site in a couple all-nighters.
The problem is twofold. First, backing to get traffic day one. Until reaching 800lb gorilla status, the site will immediately get copycats and the market then remains fragmented. Second, the fixed and sunk cost of getting lawyers to make absolutely sure the FEC is satisfied that every lowercase j is dotted… and that’s really the tough part. Election-law experts don’t come cheap and most of ‘em don’t work for nothing….
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Glass half-empty
MetaCosm (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 4:34PM EST (link)There is an abundance of reasons to not to do anything. The more you talk about it, the more ways someone can talk you out of it.
Act Blue was started by two geeks, that was the entire “core group”, Benjamin Rahn (Physics Guy) and Matt DeBergali (CS Guy) .. both brilliant geeks, not lawyers.
I wonder if they had debated this endlessly in 2004, how easily they could have talked themselves out of it.
~ MetaCosm
Still treasurer
MetaCosm (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 4:38PM EST (link)Matt is still the listed treasurer on the FEC data. Seriously, I gotta think that we can find two people on our side, one smart enough to fill out government forms, one smart enough to code it.
~ MetaCosm
Different side, totally different standards apply.
acat (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 5:41PM EST (link)And if you believe differently, ask Joe the Plumber.
Seriously, if any “two guys” come up with a Right equivalent, they will get the full media proctoscope treatment… and conservatives by and large don’t *do* stuff like that.
If it were as easy as “slapping up a web site”, Erick or Neil or Moe would already have done it.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Honestly
MetaCosm (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 7:14PM EST (link)I am well aware of the talents we have on the right, but talent alone doesn’t do it. It requires a bold vision and motivation. Reading an article from 2004 (http://is.gd/eZPO4), these guys were working exactly the way I think it has to be done… talking to keystone people, and getting seed funding $5000 bucks at a time. This wasn’t a well funded, big ticket thing — this was two guys with an bold idea who just ran with it.
This quote sums up IMHO, why they got it done, and I haven’t seen the equivalent on the right. “I’m a believer that that’s what it takes to make a difference, is two schmoes in Cambridge with an idea.” — Richard Burnes (invested $5000 and gave them advise in 2004)
That was in 2004, 120+ million later, a crushing election, and I gotta say I think that he was right. This type of attitude / willingness to try is what I feel is missing from the right… Maybe we are too busy with our day jobs, our families… maybe we don’t have a supportive community that embraces and nurtures ideas like this, I don’t know what the cause is… but we all have seen the results.
~ MetaCosm
Also..
MetaCosm (Diary) Tuesday, September 7th at 7:17PM EST (link)What really kicked off the popularity of their tiny little site, was blogs (just like RS) recommending people use it. If it was built, with a hearty recommendation from RS, who knows where it could go.
~ MetaCosm
Okay, when do we start?
acat (Diary) Wednesday, September 8th at 12:05AM EST (link)I don’t disagree with what you’re saying. At all. You aren’t responding to what I’m saying, but we’ll table that for the nonce.
There is no similar site on the Right. Agreed.
This would be very useful to the Right. Agreed.
The technology for this site is pretty much easy. Agreed.
Really wouldn’t need much coin to get it started. Agreed.
Three questions come to mind.
First.. how (or, even, do) the people who set up the site get paid? How does the organization get its’ bills paid, at least?
Bandwidth isn’t free. Servers aren’t free. Akamai and other scaling services (to prevent embarrassing outages due to over-demand) aren’t free. Does the organization take a couple cents off each donation? Do they take a percentage of each donation as a service fee? Do they solicit donations for running their service? Even if all the skull sweat comes from Red State readers on “funemployment” (which, actually, is a Good Idea…) the rest of the costs are still there.
All of those have problems – running based on donations has the biggest problem of all because everyone who donates will want a say in how the site is run, how it decides who to donate to, simply who comes under the group “supports the armed services” for instance could be problematic… is a RINO who supports the Navy because there’s a base in his district really what we’re looking for – but looking beyond that, what’s to stop anyone else entering the same business with lower margins…
Consider also how to pay the tax guru who gets to keep it all running in compliance with 401(c) – can you find one of those to donate time?
The second point is, after getting a 401(c) up and running and IRS-resistant, how to go about getting eyeballs? I think you’re right – getting Red State (and Malkin and Hot Air and Ace of Spades and PowerLine etc. etc.) to mention it would be a good enough start. Can you talk Moe and Captain Ed and Michelle into writing front-page pitches?
The last point, for now, is how to coordinate with the candidates themselves. As I pointed out above, and have said before, if you really want to avoid RINOs, you can’t just rely on what their campaigns say on surveys, you’ve got to go check the voting records (if such exist) or talk to the people and get an understanding of who they are, what they believe, etc. That takes time and money – just ask Moe Lane, who did just that *freelance*.
I understand what you’re saying, MetaCosm. The tech part is easy. Like I said, I could have a web site up after a long weekend that would work. As I see it, and the reason I’m not tackling it at this time is because most of the heavy lifting isn’t tech.
The key point in your post, above, isn’t that “this was two guys who didn’t know anything”, it’s “the two guys made the contacts they needed”. That’s not as hard to do, on the right, as it used to be but .. it isn’t just 1) Put up up a web site, 2) {step 2}, 3) Profit!
So, if you’re serious, let me know when you find the answer to any of these three questions.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Sure, Answers
MetaCosm (Diary) Wednesday, September 8th at 8:12AM EST (link)I think you mostly answered your own questions.
Question #1. How does the organization survive? Well, as a non-profit it would only take enough to keep itself up and running. With any significant amount of traffic / donation, the biggest chunk of change will be the CC processing fees. ActBlue passes this fee onto whoever the cash goes to, as for other operating expenses, there would probably be two sources … seed / support cash from organizations on the right, and the “tip” field when donating. It appears ActBlue is entirely funded via the “tips” now.
Question #2. Legal complexities: the majority of the work can be done by an individual who is involved, then it can be run by a lawyer who donates his time. If we can’t find a single lawyer on the right to help review some documents, well, that is a sad state of affairs. This again, is what ActBlue did at the start, they did the paperwork and ran it by a law firm (and since they were digging around for $5000 at a time, I doubt they were racking up hundreds of billable hours).
Question #2b. How do you get eyeballs? You be a good / useful site and have sites like RS link to you, you allow people like Moe to create candidate lists / recommended lists, so that people can donate… making the site useful / getting people to use it is all about being a little bit creative and working with people like Erick who are already in the industry.
Question #3. Candidate complexities: well, one way people can donate is simply to say “I want money to go to Josh Smith”, and the website simply works as a trustworthy proxy. As for if they want to donate to certain types of candidates, I would probably allow people to set up candidate pools, for example, Moe could setup a “Moe’s good candidates”, and you could simply point your money at that pool.
~~ Again, all of this has already been done by ActBlue, I am not being creative (except for the last bit on question 3). Also, the cost of scaling this will scale with donations… more donations need more server hardware, but also means more tips / use / notability.
~ MetaCosm
More on question #3
MetaCosm (Diary) Wednesday, September 8th at 8:36AM EST (link)Again, in doing a bit of digging at ActBlue, I found how they treat / list candidates.
We list all competitive Democratic candidates, and don’t impose our personal or ideological judgments on our decisions to include or exclude anyone. However, if our users share our anti-baby-seal-clubbing views, no one will promote them on their fundraising pages, and there won’t be any problem. It’s important to note that views reflected on ActBlue fundraising pages do not represent the views of ActBlue. For a more detailed explanation about why we don’t censor which Democratic candidates or committees fundraisers can list on their pages, see this blog post from our founder, Ben Rahn.
Blog Post -> http://is.gd/f0JkY
~~~ Again, it is worth noting how much work we can bypass by simply being a Fast Follower, and not trying to recreate the wheel.
~ MetaCosm
Okay, now how about actual answers?
acat (Diary) Wednesday, September 8th at 9:58AM EST (link)Find the conservative law firm.
Find the conservative CPA.
Take a look at which site hosting services have good policies around takedown requests, i.e. hosting services that won’t just pull the plug without actually confirming the claims.
When you can name any of the above, I’ll count it as answered. Until then, MetaCosm, it’s just wishful thinking.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Laugh...
MetaCosm (Diary) Wednesday, September 8th at 10:54AM EST (link)And after I give you names, you will just reply with “show me the site once it is up, then I will believe it”. Just keep on moving those goalposts. Dis-ingenious.
As for needing a law firm, I don’t think so, you need a lawyer. As I don’t know much about the legalities, I just fired off an email to a friend who used to be a CPA, is now a IP Attorney to see if he could give me a bit of info on what type of time investment would be required to do the basic paperwork, and if he knew anyone with the expertise.
As for takedown notices, I gotta wonder what type of takedown notice you are talking about, generally speaking, takedown notices reference DMCA takedown requests, which wouldn’t be applicable in this case. If you are talking about a legal search / seizure, I don’t think any US host can protect you from that. As for how to avoid such things generally, you don’t “host” on other peoples hardware, you co-lo and you own your own hardware and buy bandwidth from multiple providers in a datacenter, gives you a greater degree of legal protection (it is your property) and gives the people who carry your data common carrier protection.
~ MetaCosm
I haven't moved the goalposts, Meta. I've asked the same questions every time.
acat (Diary) Wednesday, September 8th at 11:12AM EST (link)I don’t care if you name names, but talking about this like it’s easy is just foolish. If it were easy, someone – Erick, Moe, Malkin, the PowerLine guys.. – it would already be up and running.
As for takedown notices, the point wasn’t that “they’re not applicable”, the question is whether the hosting service knows they don’t apply and will do a review prior to cutting service. Hate to be making a difference, close to election day, and run into a “denial of service” by the Dem dirty tricks squad, eh?
(And if I can think of using bogus DMCA takedown requests with an apology and settlement after the election’s lost, they surely can.)
So, it sounds like you’ve got a lawyer involved – good. One goalpost met. Next steps include finding out if anyone on the Right blogs would do a post on a potential ‘right wing bundler’, and looking for some seed money….
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Responses & Motivation...
MetaCosm (Diary) Wednesday, September 8th at 12:31PM EST (link)Just because something is easy, needed, and straightforward doesn’t mean it will get done. I am intimately aware of the real reasons stuff doesn’t get done on our side. I was the lead engineer on this very site (at Eagle Publishing) for the latest version of Redstate, and have been “in the room” for many discussions about topics similar to this… in my experience, the reasons for turning down projects is far more varied than you would expect, and if it will help get Republicans elected is not often in the top billed points, for doing something or not doing it.
Maybe as Erick mentioned in his post, a lot of the people who would seed something like this have been burned, or maybe the pool of right wing developers who could do it are just not very interested.
The bottom line is — doing this won’t get anyone rich, and it of course will have to be someones main task for a block of time. The real question in my mind is — would it be of high long term value?
Ohh, and regarding DMCA takedowns, a non-issue, they have to be very specific (the specific infringing work), which now is often blocked individually (taking down entire sites is unusual now, they just take INFRINGING_FILE.MP3 down). Basically, I wouldn’t worry too much about legal takedown stuff.
~ MetaCosm
Great. Let's make it happen, then.
acat (Diary) Wednesday, September 8th at 9:09PM EST (link)What skill sets do you need?
A diary describing the project, and looking to recruit “funemployed” Red Staters seems to be a good place to recruit the talent needed – fundraisers, a lawyer or two, a CPA, etc. etc.
Do the organizing documents, goals, FAQ, and prototype web site between now and the election, then roll it out Nov. 15th.
Mew
——
“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost”. –Tolkein
Thanks
nunleigh Wednesday, September 8th at 7:47AM EST (link)for all the advertising for ActBlue and pats on the back to those brilliant liberals you are working for. Erick, you are acting Blue. Every article in today’s email update has your name on it, and every one seems to have a throw in the towel attitude. My heart is aching. Guess we are just too backward and ordinary to ever be able to catch on. I will just act stupidly and cling to my Bible and my guns and pray for the best. Thanks for all the encouragement. Hope you are just having a bad day. I will anxiously await tomorrows updates.
Donna in Texas