As a follow on to Time To Get Local, I wanted to make a proposal to improve the “State” functionality of RedState. I believe my statements that I can’t promote state issues here wasn’t true, if a few improvements could be made. Since the powers that be at RedState seem to be in the mood to improve the site, I’d like to suggest the following:
1. Highlight one State each week at RS. Something like Sesame Street’s “Today’s show is brought to you by the letter -R-”. This will help folks from that State get together and show what’s going on there. It will keep a focus on State Issues for over a year (you know….there being 57 States and only 52 weeks in a year).
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Rotate the States listed in the “Get Local” widget. I’m aware that the 4 states there were listed because they were
Waterloobattleground states, but that time has come and gone. The four States listed should be the current week’s State and the previous three. -
Create a system so people from the same state can easily connect. Maybe something we could click on that would go to a list of RS members from the same State (opt-in list, of course). I’d suggest an opt-in email list to contact everyone, that would probably be too easy to spam.
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Promote good diaries to the Front Page about State happenings on a regular basis, especially in the highlight State. You know, I like to sing in the shower, but few others get to also enjoy the experience. Writing a diary about an important State issue and only getting a couple of comments can discourage the practice.
I’m sure others here will have a lot of other good ideas. Let’s work together to turn RedState into RedStates.
Steve Maley
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Hopefully, I didn't overSTATE my case. -nt-
NightTwister (Diary) Thursday, November 13th at 3:09PM EST (link)-nt-
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. – Winston Churchill
Good Ideas
James_Reynolds (Diary) Thursday, November 13th at 3:57PM EST (link)I hope something to this effect can be implemented. Government is better at local levels, and if we can influence each city, county, state, and region we make our ideas not only known, but show they work best while keeping the integrity of the constitution together. People identify well with local politics and are influenced by the outcome. We need a way to promote ideas in larger populated areas since they tend to be democratic.
badump-bump
Brian Simpson (Diary) Thursday, November 13th at 4:03PM EST (link)| My RedState archive |
Important principles may and must be inflexible. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Okay
itsonlywords (Diary) Thursday, November 13th at 5:19PM EST (link)I never paid any attention to that little get local thingy. I thought it was an ad. So maybe they could do something to make it more readily apparent that it’s not an ad.
Tu ne cede malis sed contra audientor ito. ~Virgil
Do not give in to evil, but proceed evermore boldly against it.
I whole heartedly agree...and nothing would be more timely
AceInTX (Diary) Thursday, November 13th at 9:09PM EST (link)the 2010 census makes it imperative that we focus on the state level because redistricting based on the Census will be crucial in Republican fortunes in 2012 and for the next decade!
I agree
DONTREADONME (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 12:23AM EST (link)As we speek and when I have time between my work and and family, I will be examing the census from 2000. Virginia will be my state to tackle since I believe I have single figured out why VA was lost. It has to do with the counties that experienced rapid growth from 2003 to 2006. I would venture to say the margin that Obama one by is related to an increase in the population especially in the Red County 2004 of Prince William which is now Blue County 2008.
I am curious to see how many house representatives we will be picking up here from the 2010 census. I will venture a prediction that VA and NC will acquire a few new house representatives (EVs) from New England and the Rust Belt states.
One thing we're planning to do...
Neil Stevens (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 12:18PM EST (link)One idea we had was to get everyone’s ZIPs in their account, and have your state shown in Get Local.
But I’m still in the midst of making sure the site will stay up! Once that’s settled for good, hopefully soon, I can start doing stuff like this!
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. I understand the priorities.
NightTwister (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 12:46PM EST (link)I do think my suggestions about highlighting one State each week and making an effort to promote more State-related blogs could be done now while the other improvements are being made that you’re working on.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. – Winston Churchill
NightTwister, you could do the highlight
CFPeterson (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 5:42PM EST (link)NightTwister, if you wanted to write a weekly/whatever diary highlighting one state you always could. It ~would~ take a lot of research effort, though, to do it right.
Otherwise, it maybe wouldn’t be a bad idea for people in each state to occassionally report on what’s going on in their own statehouses.
Local
Jon E. Schultz II (IlliniJon) (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 6:09PM EST (link)Neil,
That would be great – I’ve been suggesting enhanced functionality around the zip code we’ve entered. It’s all stuff I’m sure you were planning.
It would be cool to see a map of the US which represents where all the restaters are (anonymously), something like this, but cooler. And obviously not showing visitors, but rather the zip info we have in our profiles.
It would also be cool if we could elect to make our location public, so we could network with people in our local area.
Again, all stuff I’m sure you’ve thought about, and I know there are other priorities.
Thanks,
-IJ
I agree
Chance Haywood (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 11:31PM EST (link)I’d like to be able to network better.
Support Bronx County Young Republican Club
Facebook Group – MySpace Group – Yahoo Group – LinkIn – WordPress Blog
Great Ideas
LoneStarLizard (Diary) Saturday, November 15th at 12:11AM EST (link)I think there are some good ideas being proposed. I would definitely like to see more local news here, although I’m not sure how much local news from other places I want to see on the front page. Maybe you should have to select your state for all but the most interesting local items.
http://www.lonestarlizard.com/
Good Ideas
Whitehorse (Diary) Saturday, November 15th at 12:40AM EST (link)2010 will be contested on a state by state basis, though nationalization of the overall importance of the races a la 1994 would not be bad. Here in TN, if the Republicans hold on to the state house it’s likely we’ll have a Republican governor elected also. Holding the state legislature will be critical for redistricting.
And a question
itsonlywords (Diary) Sunday, November 16th at 1:25PM EST (link)Is there a way to find out which RedStaters are from your state?
Tu ne cede malis sed contra audientor ito. ~Virgil
Do not give in to evil, but proceed evermore boldly against it.