# Start Here > Ron Paul Forum >  "Black THIS Out" Money Bomb site is LIVE!

## freejack

http://www.blackthisout.com/

As we all know, the media is screwing us like never before.  No frontrunner has ever been disrespected in the way Ron Paul has.  They can try their best to suppress the message of liberty but we have to show them that they, the old media,  are as obsolete as the policies driving the establishment.  Let's make Ron proud and stand up so that his voice can be heard.

As of now, everything is fully functional.  Huge thanks to pastarocket848 for all the backend work.

I want to let everyone know that we have no intention of disrupting the campaign money bomb this saturday. I created this thread so we can discuss how we can make the blackthisout.com site better. 

We can start getting the word out next week.

Btw, 10/19 is otherwise known as black monday.

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## ItsTime

sweet! Only suggestion, maybe add something about the bankers and wall st? Since it is on the anniversary of black Monday?  Do you have a facebook page? Need help with it? Let me know I can help.

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## davidhperry

I'm a little uneasy with reminding people that Ron Paul gets the cold shoulder form the media, but I pledged.

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## freejack

> sweet! Only suggestion, maybe add something about the bankers and wall st? Since it is on the anniversary of black Monday?  Do you have a facebook page? Need help with it? Let me know I can help.


There's much to do.  Let's keep in touch so we can work something out.

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## freejack

> I'm a little uneasy with reminding people that Ron Paul gets the cold shoulder form the media, but I pledged.


I think it's ok to remind them as long as they realize WHY he is being silenced.

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## ItsTime

PMed you.

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## Darin

Love the look and wording. Well done! This could be a big one.

Funny how the media will ignore Paul, but gladly take the millions we raise to promote him. For 20Mil, they'd beg for it.

- Darin

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## Corpsman4Liberty

Awesome!

Someone needs to make a page for this on facebook and invite everyone. Spread it to the masses. I'm gonna hit my limit soon for the official campaign. The SuperPAC is going to need more money bombs

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## qwerty

Few things.

1. can we focus now on promoting the August 20th moneybomb ?

2. can the site show also the pledged amount ?

3. we need a good video to promote it! First we should make that one video to go viral and then everybody should post that video with their own accounts!

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## ItsTime

^Focus is on the 20th. Just warming the engines.

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## PastaRocket848

it could... we just figured it would unnecessarily raise expectations.  the data is calculated it's just not displayed anywhere.

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## freejack

I just want to let everyone know that we have no intention of disrupting the campaign money bomb this saturday.  I created this thread so we can discuss how we can make the blackthisout.com site better.  

We can start getting the word out next week.

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## Alex540

I pledged $20. I'm planning on giving something on Saturday as well.

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## PastaRocket848

yeah... i definitely don't want to distract from any official campaign activities... we just need to get the ball rolling to we can have time to make this one "the big one" that we've all been hoping for.  we still have a long way to go getting word out, creating videos, etc, and in the mean time we will certainly work to promote ron's birthday bomb.

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## ItsTime

> Awesome!
> 
> Someone needs to make a page for this on facebook and invite everyone. Spread it to the masses. I'm gonna hit my limit soon for the official campaign. The SuperPAC is going to need more money bombs


Page and event made, will start pushing it after this weekends money bomb.

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## wgadget

Yeah, and who's the first one in the media who's gonna say "BLACK THIS OUT" is racist?

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## justatrey

Great job - I can definitely get pumped up for this one. After Aug. 20, of course...

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## kill the banks

good work thx

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## PastaRocket848

there won't be any claims of racism when they take into account the whole media blackout theme (very evident in the text) and the fact that it's the anniversary of black monday.

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## wgadget

> there won't be any claims of racism when they take into account the whole media blackout theme (very evident in the text) and the fact that it's the anniversary of black monday.


LOL...BLACK MONDAY is racist, too.

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## Revolution9

Pledged.

Rev9

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## PastaRocket848

> LOL...BLACK MONDAY is racist, too.


only to the ridiculously over-sensitive, al sharpton types who seek to keep racism relevant by bringing it up at every opportunity.

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## RonPaulVolunteer

Please change that image. It doesn't even LOOK like Ron Paul. And it's dark and scary!

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## ItsTime

> LOL...BLACK MONDAY is racist, too.


Are my black shoes and shirt racist too? lololol

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## wgadget

> Are my black shoes and shirt racist too? lololol


Most definitely.

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## freejack

> Please change that image. It doesn't even LOOK like Ron Paul. And it's dark and scary!


If you can find another serious looking picture of Ron Paul, then please send it to me.  I couldn't find anything better.  It also needs to be fairly hi-res (800x600).

The other reason it may look odd is because I had to flip it horizontally.

Thanks!

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## PastaRocket848

i like it, personally.  has a very serious demeanor... the whole point of the message is "Ron Paul is serious"

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## RonPaul101.com

I worry that putting such a high goal out there will only get the media to claim that they are right in ignoring Ron if/when we come up short. The goal reads as $20 million dollars; that's off the charts high and IMO unobtainable. 

If you want an angle to play with this to have it gain momentum, try hooking up with the official NH campaign and see if they want to do a project(s) to be funded by this event (like Iowa has). Like "Live Free or Die Airwaves" for radio ad funding... Then find out how much they think they need for it and aim for that.

Again, just IMO about the goal amount, I'm certainly not down on the concept at all.

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## tribute_13

Just pledged $20.12.

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## PastaRocket848

i was a little worried about the goal amount as well... but then i guess you gotta aim for the stars if you wanna grab a cloud.

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## freejack

I'm thinking about lowering the target to $10 million.  But as pastarocket says, we really need to aim high if we're going to achieve anything meaningful.

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## justatrey

Is there a trick to make blackthisout.com work as well? Minor point but you might lose some traffic if something links to it without the www.

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## freejack

> Is there a trick to make blackthisout.com work as well? Minor point but you might lose some traffic if something links to it without the www.


doh. we'll get on this asap.

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## PastaRocket848

done

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## dusman

Glad you like it! 

Yeah, I had rushed some parts.. but good enough start to take some revisions if you have any?

Here is a link to the design I've submitted for those who missed it in the other thread: 

http://www.creativesagest.com/black-this-out-layout.jpg

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## ItsTime

> Glad you like it! 
> 
> Yeah, I had rushed some parts.. but good enough start to take some revisions if you have any?
> 
> Here is a link to the design I've submitted for those who missed it in the other thread: 
> 
> http://www.creativesagest.com/black-this-out-layout.jpg


Im kinda liking that!

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## justatrey

> Glad you like it! 
> 
> Yeah, I had rushed some parts.. but good enough start to take some revisions if you have any?
> 
> Here is a link to the design I've submitted for those who missed it in the other thread: 
> 
> http://www.creativesagest.com/black-this-out-layout.jpg


Awesome picture of Paul in this one! That's a huge improvement. Overall I love the look. 

Not sure if it would be a good idea to throw in an example of the media bias? Maybe this?

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## ItsTime

^I am hoping people are working on a video to promote this money bomb and have clips of media bias in those youtube promotions.

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## Shelton88

pledged

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## justatrey

> ^I am hoping people are working on a video to promote this money bomb and have clips of media bias in those youtube promotions.


Good point - a good video will be essential. I already saw some good ones on youtube.

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## justatrey

Almost forgot - pledged

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## wstrucke

one million donations?  seriously?  and I'm a little wary about providing my personal information to an anonymous web site as everyone else should be.  just pledge with the official campaign, it's better all around.

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## ItsTime

^There will be a facebook pledge page as well. Where you can RSVP. I dont pledge in emails either.

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## freejack

> one million donations?  seriously?  and I'm a little wary about providing my personal information to an anonymous web site as everyone else should be.  just pledge with the official campaign, it's better all around.


i'm not sure if the campaign will endorse this.  this is more of an underground money bomb that harnesses the anger of the people into something productive.

as for your personal info, you can always pledge with a spare email address and a fake name.  we just want to make sure we have a somewhat accurate pledge count.

we're not pushing this money bomb till next week.  we may change the target before then.

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## freejack

> Glad you like it! 
> 
> Yeah, I had rushed some parts.. but good enough start to take some revisions if you have any?
> 
> Here is a link to the design I've submitted for those who missed it in the other thread: 
> 
> http://www.creativesagest.com/black-this-out-layout.jpg


hey i sent you over some notes on the design.  check your pm.

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## justatrey

> one million donations?  seriously?  and I'm a little wary about providing my personal information to an anonymous web site as everyone else should be.  just pledge with the official campaign, it's better all around.


I agree that one million donations is ridiculous. I know it _seems_ possible, but on our absolute best day, there were 58,000 donors which was considered amazing. By the way I pledged and the most personal information required is any email address. The name can be anything.

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## afwjam

I might try working on a video.
You need to add the social networking links and setup a facebook event.

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## CrissyNY

I pledged.

Let's get this party started.

I am so mad and focused right now... let's capitialize on this.

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## justatrey

> Glad you like it! 
> 
> Yeah, I had rushed some parts.. but good enough start to take some revisions if you have any?
> 
> Here is a link to the design I've submitted for those who missed it in the other thread: 
> 
> http://www.creativesagest.com/black-this-out-layout.jpg


There seems to be more interest in this again. I really think the site needs this makeover. I love the pic of Paul in this one.

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## sailingaway

Didn't the one currently going on pretty much take the place of this?  Remember that there is already one planned for Constitution day, September17, with a continuing end of quarter push to the end of the quarter.

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## justatrey

Well I think we backed off of this one to promote the birthday bomb. Now that its over, no question that September 17th is next. This one is currently set for October 19. Now some are saying this should be the Nov 5 theme. 

Not sure if its a bad idea to promote more than one money bomb at a time...

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## mstrmac1

> ^I am hoping people are working on a video to promote this money bomb and have clips of media bias in those youtube promotions.


Is there a video yet!!

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## cero

cool design there dusman! now throw a video or two

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## mhad

Ok, please do not set a goal of donations or total amount.  We went through this in 2008 after the nov 5th and many people were wanting to set 10M 20M, 50M goals.  In fact Trevor was sending our press releases stating these ridiculous goals.  You are setting up the event up to be a huge failure (especially with an insane goal).  It is a VERY VERY bad idea....  I pleaded back in 2008 for this kind of thing not to happen, the people hosting them did not listen and it was an epic fail.  I think the Black This Out theme is AMAZING, that being said focus on the theme of the event not the total number of donors or donations.  I PROMISE you will regret it if you don't listen, please listen...please.

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## freejack

Hey guys.  Looks like we have a lot of ideas here.  Here's what I'm thinking based on what we've discussed here:

1) If he's willing, I'll will continue to work with dusman to implement his design.
2) I agree, setting a donation goal is a bad idea but we need to get the point across that the theme of this money bomb will only work if the final tally is huge.
3) We went with 10/19 since there's a 'black' (black monday) theme that we could associate it with but now that I think about it, since 10/19/11 is on a wednesday, it loses the desired effect.  9/17 would be a good date but I really wanted this money bomb to stand alone and not distract or be distracted by other money bombs.  I'm open to discussion on the date.  If you think setting it around the same time as other money bombs is a good idea, please provide your explanation.

Thanks for all the feedback.  Let's make this one they'll talk about for years to come.

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## dusman

Here is an updated version of my layout. What do you all think?

http://www.creativesagest.com/blackt...-layout-v2.jpg



I'm trying to capture a little more emotion with this version. I wanted people by the time they reached the pledge form to be MAD!

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## JoshLowry

That's a nice looking theme.  Good work!

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## dusman

> That's a nice looking theme.  Good work!


Thanks!

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## Oddone

Now that looks great, really like it much better than the old one. Keep up the good work!

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## Monique

I agree Mhad.  We can talk amongst our selves about what we want to try to do, but yes, setting any set number goal will lead to failure.  On the other hand setting low goals like this one this time may not help us either.  

I do think that we all need to focus on the September 17th date right now for two reasons.  1. The October date is too far away for people to remember.  And if you start pushing it now, by the time you get to October, half the people who signed up earlier will forget.  2.  If we are going to have on in September, which I think we should, we all need to focus our energies on ONE date.  If we push two simultaneously people will either donate to one or the other and not both.  If we make the September one huge because we all focused on that, it will be easy to get the October one going...we got a lot of push for the Dec. 15th money bomb because we had the big one in Nov. before it.

The way money bombs work is they build momentum.  We need to push that momentum in one direction.  It is like beams of light...scattered all around they are very weak, but focus them all together and they make a powerful laser.

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## afwjam

That is a great looking theme!

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## dusman

> Now that looks great, really like it much better than the old one. Keep up the good work!


Coooool.. what I'm hoping to hear!

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## parocks

> one million donations?  seriously?  and I'm a little wary about providing my personal information to an anonymous web site as everyone else should be.  just pledge with the official campaign, it's better all around.


Agree.  One million donations is guaranteed to fail.

I don't ever do these pledge things.  I don't think I go to those sites.  They really seem like an opportunity to grab email addresses.

Can't that website be a heck of a lot better?  It's almost like people decided that these money bomb pages be as single purpose as possible.

I would add a section to the blackthisout.com website called "black this out" parties or "black this out" events a "black this out" volunteers section.  "black this out" promotion section.  A place to download the black this out logos, ads, templates.  All the information we need about the blackthisout moneybomb should be found
at the blackthisout.com site.  Not just enter your data and we'll send you an email on the moneybomb day.

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## dusman

> Agree.  One million donations is guaranteed to fail.
> 
> I don't ever do these pledge things.  I don't think I go to those sites.  They really seem like an opportunity to grab email addresses.
> 
> Can't that website be a heck of a lot better?  It's almost like people decided that these money bomb pages be as single purpose as possible.
> 
> I would add a section to the blackthisout.com website called "black this out" parties or "black this out" events a "black this out" volunteers section.  "black this out" promotion section.  A place to download the black this out logos, ads, templates.  All the information we need about the blackthisout moneybomb should be found
> at the blackthisout.com site.  Not just enter your data and we'll send you an email on the moneybomb day.


Parrocks, I second this idea. I actually reformatted my design to allow for unlimited vertical content, so all of those things would be pretty easy to implement.

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## JoshLowry

> Agree.  One million donations is guaranteed to fail.
> 
> I don't ever do these pledge things.  I don't think I go to those sites.  They really seem like an opportunity to grab email addresses.
> 
> Can't that website be a heck of a lot better?  It's almost like people decided that these money bomb pages be as single purpose as possible.
> 
> I would add a section to the blackthisout.com website called "black this out" parties or "black this out" events a "black this out" volunteers section.  "black this out" promotion section.  A place to download the black this out logos, ads, templates.  All the information we need about the blackthisout moneybomb should be found
> at the blackthisout.com site.  Not just enter your data and we'll send you an email on the moneybomb day.


I think the pledges used to be a good indicator of excitement that was building.  2007 was before Twitter had much of any audience.

Facebook has been a convenient way to "attend" an event without sharing your email address with who knows who...  Personally, I don't like FB being a middleman counter for me.   Multiple options on updating people is probably best.

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## CaptainAmerica

People are waking up and the media blackouts helped.

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## CaptainAmerica

> I think the pledges used to be a good indicator of excitement that was building.  2007 was before Twitter had much of any audience.
> 
> Facebook has been a convenient way to "attend" an event without sharing your email address with who knows who...  Personally, I don't like FB being a middleman counter for me.   Multiple options on updating people is probably best.


 Facebook is big brother now. Events are apprehended by federal agents and local police.

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## parocks

> Coooool.. what I'm hoping to hear!


Dusman, you're one of the leaders on the internet front, shouldn't blackthisout.com be much much more?

It's a great URL - it's the best one.

How about that social portal surrounding this moneybomb?  

Tea Party had events on the ground.

The meetups are looking for something to do.

There should be events all over the place on moneybomb day.

Done by the local meetups.  

I like the idea of "Constitution Day Parties" and also "Black This Out" party.

I'd like to communicate with all the meetups and suggest that they should have events on all tea party days.

That could really be all they do.  Bring computers / tablets, so everyone there can be rooted on to more spending.

But the core point is that there is so much more that all of these sites should be.  There definitely should be a "tips on how to promote the money bomb" section whether there are events or not.

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## afwjam

This moneybomb is in Oct, not to far from halloween. How about we get people to dress in all black and go out in public.

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## JoshLowry

> This moneybomb is in Oct, not to far from halloween. How about we get people to dress in all black and go out in public.


ಠ_ಠ

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## dusman

> Dusman, you're one of the leaders on the internet front, shouldn't blackthisout.com be much much more?
> 
> It's a great URL - it's the best one.
> 
> How about that social portal surrounding this moneybomb?  
> 
> Tea Party had events on the ground.
> 
> The meetups are looking for something to do.
> ...


I'd like to see it be a lot more. Unfortunately, it's not my project.. so not my say. I contribute where needed. 

However, I would really like to see some national collaboration with the meetups. For this moneybomb in particular, I think each meetup group should plan a peaceful "protest" at every local news station in the country. I would focus most of that effort to getting on camera of the morning shows, conducted outside in the crowds.

In particular, if I had to put all my marbles in one thing. I'd like to see several hundred supporters together in New York City on that day for the Morning Show there. What's the one Al Rucker was always on? They always go to the crowds outside for that show. They would be forced to show our signs and such.. and it would create a lot of buzz and certainly the reporters would have to comment on it. By doing that, you expand out to probably a few million people that morning. That would help take it offline and grab the attention of those who aren't fixated on their computers like we all are.

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## afwjam

> I'd like to see it be a lot more. Unfortunately, it's not my project.. so not my say. I contribute where needed. 
> 
> However, I would really like to see some national collaboration with the meetups. For this moneybomb in particular, I think each meetup group should plan a peaceful "protest" at every local news station in the country. I would focus most of that effort to getting on camera of the morning shows, conducted outside in the crowds.
> 
> In particular, if I had to put all my marbles in one thing. I'd like to see several hundred supporters together in New York City on that day for the Morning Show there. What's the one Al Rucker was always on? They always go to the crowds outside for that show. They would be forced to show our signs and such.. and it would create a lot of buzz and certainly the reporters would have to comment on it. By doing that, you expand out to probably a few million people that morning. That would help take it offline and grab the attention of those who aren't fixated on their computers like we all are.


all dressed in black....

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## dusman

> This moneybomb is in Oct, not to far from halloween. How about we get people to dress in all black and go out in public.


That's kind of neat. However, I'm not sure how well received large groups of people dressed in black would be. lol, just saying.

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## afwjam

> That's kind of neat. However, I'm not sure how well received large groups of people dressed in black would be. lol, just saying.


They would be kind of noticeable, actually I think they might get some coverage.

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## dusman

> They would be kind of noticeable, actually I think they might get some coverage.


To make it not so creepy.. I think if that group all wore "Black This Out" t-shirts, it would pull off that effect. 

I had a thought at one point to stand on the corner of my town with black electrical tape over my mouth and holding a sign saying something like "Don't Censor Me". 

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-pho...php?st=7d0994b

That might be interesting. It would certainly be dramatic having hundreds of people on that morning show with Black This Out shirts, signs... and every one of them with their mouths taped.

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## CaptainAmerica

> This moneybomb is in Oct, not to far from halloween. How about we get people to dress in all black and go out in public.


How about we just use a mask and business suit?

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## dusman

> How about we just use a mask and business suit?


lol.. I can't help but love the idea. Maybe black tape over a Ron Paul mask for the ultimate dramatic gathering.

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## speciallyblend

pledged

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## CaptainAmerica

Maybe a big stamp across Rons mask face saying "CENSORED"

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## dusman

> Here is an updated version of my layout. What do you all think?
> 
> http://www.creativesagest.com/blackt...-layout-v2.jpg


Would appreciate some critiques on this. Bump.

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## The Free Hornet

> http://www.blackthisout.com/


I pledged $50 but will donate more.  Here are my two cents:

1) I hesitated to complete the form because I am already on reminder lists (it is redundant)

2) You can make the email optional (*) and not lose anything.  I used (somebaloney)@example.com
(nobody can use example.com so it is always safe as a legit-looking email address)

3) You might explain better how the information (email) is used and state when it will be deleted after sending out the final results (like Oct 22nd or something).

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## ItsTime

Don't forget to add the like button to the pledge site.

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Bla...56862800999266

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## KingNothing

> Would appreciate some critiques on this. Bump.




That page looks excellent, bud.  Great work!

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## Thomasjefferson69

You need to put some sort of privacy policy on there. I'm hesitant to pledge because I don't want to put my email on some page without any real affirmation of security.

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## dusman

> You need to put some sort of privacy policy on there. I'm hesitant to pledge because I don't want to put my email on some page without any real affirmation of security.


We're working on all of this now. We'll be replacing the current page over the next few days.

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## mhad

New Theme is much, much, much better!  I think a lot of people can get behind that!  Very Pretty!

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## T206

> You need to put some sort of privacy policy on there. I'm hesitant to pledge because I don't want to put my email on some page without any real affirmation of security.


Might want to think about using a service like Aweber -> http://www.aweber.com/pricing.htm

They provide a privacy policy, Its a double opt in, and they send the emails from their servers, they have a great delivery rate meaning that they dont go to peoples spam filters, and you can even see tons of stats and resend emails to people who either didnt open or didnt click on any links.

Just my two cents...its not a free service

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## Revolution9

I was thinking of a video for this and would do it but at this point I have a new client needs catering to.

Two drag racing funny cars. One black and tricked out like a viper/diablo cross, huge rear tires and a hemi blower out the hood with pipes spewing smoke, sparks and a loud roar as it is revved. It is called "BlackOut" and is decorated with MSM logos. The other car is a more economical model with a stars and stripes and Constitution paint job over a pearl white paint. The lights go from red to yellow to green and the Ron Paul 2012 pops out of the pocket and starts passing markers on the quarter mile signifying dollar amounts with the finish line being the final goal. The MSM BlackOut car revs up hard at the green go light and dropping the clutch rips all the bolts off the rear wheels which fall off and the car falls to the ground, the doors fall off, engine hood pops up and the blower explodes and the fender sporting the logos fall off and the logos cannot be seen because they face the ground. Finally the crash test dummy driving "BlackOut" with a TV head playing O'Reilly and other MSM talking heads rolls out and ragdolls to the ground.  "Donate To Ron Paul 2012 Black This Out moneybomb and take the wheels off the MSM" or something similar. The Ron Paul car goes over the line and pops it chute for the final shot.

Rev9

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## parocks

> Parrocks, I second this idea. I actually reformatted my design to allow for unlimited vertical content, so all of those things would be pretty easy to implement.


Based on looking at this, and looking at the the constitution day moneybomb page, I'd argue that we should be using joomla for this, and for much of everything else until joomla fails.  These designs all look good, but there should be more.

I'm not saying joomla is best.  I really don't know.  It is the most popular.  It's easy enough to add functionality.  People can make joomla templates, and those templates can be downloaded, voted on, tested, switched around, etc.

Re, other issues we discussed, a new an exciting social cms.  That might be best.  But most people don't want to jump in with something new.  There should be enough people who are familiar with joomla to help with this that or the other thing.

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## teacherone

> Would appreciate some critiques on this. Bump.


dusman's template should go up ASAP.

i know joomla pretty well, have built two joomla sites, and will chip in wherever asked.

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## parocks

> dusman's template should go up ASAP.
> 
> i know joomla pretty well, have built two joomla sites, and will chip in wherever asked.


You know anything about CiviCRM?

What joomla component, module, etc would be best for doing what is being done here?

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## parocks

> Would appreciate some critiques on this. Bump.


Are you http://www.creativesagest.com/ ?

I like what I see on that site and I like the graphic you posted.

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## teacherone

> You know anything about CiviCRM?
> 
> What joomla component, module, etc would be best for doing *what is being done here?*


where?

Community Builder (joomlapolis) and JomSocial are the most popular/well supported social networking platforms for Joomla.

 Have not used either -just run across their names all the time during Joomla related searches.

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## parocks

> where?
> 
> Community Builder (joomlapolis) and JomSocial are the most popular/well supported social networking platforms for Joomla.
> 
>  Have not used either -just run across their names all the time during Joomla related searches.


I've used community builder.  

But, by "what is being done here?"

I mean,  a poll and a graph?  

I'm looking at charting modules and components, graphing modules and components.

There's basically a form, and a graph of the results.

Do you know what a good, or the best, joomla component would be.
Joomla has a built in "mass email", which presumes that people can't put in fake email addresses, which in this particular case, seems to be a downside.

With joomla, which you obviously know, on a moneybomb day, you can just send a mass email to all the registered users of the site.

A simple poll could determine "will you support the blackthisout.com moneybomb"  Yes and no.

----------


## dusman

> Are you http://www.creativesagest.com/ ?
> 
> I like what I see on that site and I like the graphic you posted.


Yep. That's me!

----------


## dusman

> dusman's template should go up ASAP.
> 
> i know joomla pretty well, have built two joomla sites, and will chip in wherever asked.


I'm coding it right now. I'm building it on MODx, which is far superior in architecture than Joomla.

You can't beat separation of business logic from presentation layer.

----------


## dusman

I intend to add much more functionality coming soon. However, I'm breaking it down into phases. This current layout concept only represents a portion of what I'd like to do with it. I'd love some input on what should be added!

----------


## Jeremy Tyler

Isn't Oct. 19th a little close to 11-11-11 or 11-5-11 (whichever one we are doing).  Might dilute the money bomb potential.

----------


## Crickett

> LOL...BLACK MONDAY is racist, too.


Ya..pretty soon we will have to pretend we do not even see colors. Does Negro Monday sound racist?
If they had not decided they liked to be called Blacks rather than Negroes we perhaps might not be having this conversation..To me, true Racists are always very quick to scream the word while pointing fingers away from themselves..

----------


## afwjam

> Isn't Oct. 19th a little close to 11-11-11 or 11-5-11 (whichever one we are doing).  Might dilute the money bomb potential.


We are on a monthly moneybomb schedule.

----------


## Monique

I don't know anything about the programming stuff, but I love the new layout.  It looks fabulous.  I agree with the folks that want a really strong disclaimer on not using email addresses for any other purpose but to remind people of the money bomb.  I hate spam too, but I know that pledge counters have a huge effect.  They affect momentum, and they affect those who are willing to help.  When the volunteers, who are doing the hard work to promote it, see the pledge counter moving they get really excited and promote the heck out of it!  

So whatever little tweak you can make to have people feel comfortable about pledging the more useful it will be.  IMO.

----------


## Monique

nvm

----------


## Eric21ND

> Would appreciate some critiques on this. Bump.


That looks awesome!!  Much better than the current page that looks like a wall of words.

----------


## justatrey

> Would appreciate some critiques on this. Bump.


I love it, and great idea of using the Daily Show clip. Thanks for your work on this!

With a site looking as good as that I think this has big potential.

----------


## AdamT

Dusman's theme should go up ASAP!

----------


## Paul4Prez

Since people will be pledging on your site and on Facebook and elsewhere (Twitter?), why not have pledge counters on the main site that show the other pledge count(s)?

Like:

Black THIS out.com pledges:
Pledged on Facebook:
Pledged .....

With total pledges (of course, need to make sure they don't overlap?)

----------


## ApathyCuredRP

Send Phil Defranko message on youtube about the moneybomb.  See if he can promote it like the last week.

----------


## Monique

I think we should send out info about this to all sorts of groups.  I was thinking of Dr. mercola, Jim Rodgers, other gold investment people, tea party folks, small business association folks along with something that shows how Ron is against the Sarbanes Oxley act, church groups, any group that depends on tips along with something that shows the tax free tips act, Jon Stewart, etc.  The list is as endless as our imaginations.  I didn't look...is there a banner made yet that we can try to have people put on their website?  

How hard is it to make a facebook page?  I think that would be great too along with a link to the pledge site so we can keep track of pledges all in one place.  I totally adore the part that says something about number of patriots supporting Ron as the pledge counter.  Genius!  Sheer genius!!  

I so like the look of the new one.  I can't imagine how much work that took, but it looks fantastic.

I believe if we all push really hard, this can be huge.  People think that money bombs are nothing but putting up a website and waiting for the money to roll in.  We know better.  It is all of us, working like crazy that really make the difference.  I don't know anything about twitter, but can that site be used to help in any way?  It might be too early to use it.  People might forget 2 months out.  

In the meantime, what can I do to help?

----------


## XTreat

is there a fb event yet?

----------


## Monique

I just found it:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=224265770952480

----------


## Monique

So far I have sent out both links to about 400 people.

----------


## bluemarkets

Site looks good.

Honestly ... as a suggestion I think to get more people to pledge just ask for their email only. 

With a big arrow to enter email and really emphasize the pledge counter front and center ...

4 fields seems overkill for pledging to give (I know 2 are optional but still).

(Also can you check the site formatting for different browsers, firefox/safari seem different for some reason)

----------


## parocks

> I'm coding it right now. I'm building it on MODx, which is far superior in architecture than Joomla.
> 
> You can't beat separation of business logic from presentation layer.


If you're in charge of this project, I'm definitely cool with MODx.  
If you get it running good, this site could be the catch all for all moneybomb URLs.

----------


## parocks

> I intend to add much more functionality coming soon. However, I'm breaking it down into phases. This current layout concept only represents a portion of what I'd like to do with it. I'd love some input on what should be added!



Here's how I've been thinking it through.

The "pledge form" becomes a detailed registration to the site.

We gather the data from the people, you might require a valid email address.  Send them an email that they have to click on to operate.
The front page should be dominated by that registration form.  There could be a lot of questions.  Many required, many not.  One of the 
questions is do you pledge to contribute, and how much.  That data will be saved somewhere, and a charting / graphing component widget what have you
can pump out the live chart/graph of how many pledges per day, how much $.  All of this data that the people filled out appears on their community page.
Events should be a big part of this site.  I'm not sure exactly how that should work, I'm guessing that there's an events module for MODx that would work.
Just the existence of an events section in this site would encourage people to think about doing events.  

I'm going to look at MODx.

----------


## dusman

Wow, lots of great, encouraging words since last I checked! I appreciate the feedback. 

We will probably have a few days for the domain to propagate over to new hosting, but I'm just about done with the core HTML/CSS. 

Here is the plan of action for the build:

*Phase 1*
 Base Web Site Launch Pledge Counter Speak Out Feature Graph Integration Video Integration E-mail Subscription Legal Disclaimers and Terms of Use

*Phase 2*
 Mobile Device Accessibility Report Media Bias/Censorship Feature Social Media Campaigning (Twitter/Facebook Wall Design & Strategies) Digg/Reddit/Tumblr Strategy Web Site Badges (other Ron Paul sites using a link back graphic) Press Releases

*Phase 3 (If Time Allots)*
 QR-Code Marketing Strategy Twilio Phone Campaigning (SMS Reminders from QR-Code Access for now probably) Today Show "Protest" (Anyone in NYC willing to aggressively organize a group?)

I will have to double check everything with freejack and make sure he's on board with all of these, but my goal is to maximize our ability to gain exposure. 

My dream for this is to see a few hundred people show up outside of the Today Show that morning and create some buzz why there are hundreds of Ron Paul supporters promoting this strange thing called "Black This Out". Let half of America see it.. people will come.

I approached my brother about doing a production-quality video for this, but he is wrapped up in another Ron Paul project. Can a few people start putting together some videos? 

I'm trying to figure out how I can piggy-back the web site onto the recent media buzz about the media blackout. I know there are people searching it on Google and I'm hoping this site will get good placement for related terms. 

Also, if there are a few people who'd be willing to take charge on approaching the publishers that regularly write about Ron Paul and show up in Google Syndicated News.

Drudge it? That would be awesome. 

That's just my thoughts, I know there are genius ideas just swimming in the brains around here, so please share!

----------


## parocks

> Wow, lots of great, encouraging words since last I checked! I appreciate the feedback. 
> 
> We will probably have a few days for the domain to propagate over to new hosting, but I'm just about done with the core HTML/CSS. 
> 
> Here is the plan of action for the build:
> 
> *Phase 1*
>  Base Web Site Launch Pledge Counter Speak Out Feature Graph Integration Video Integration E-mail Subscription Legal Disclaimers and Terms of Use
> 
> ...


I'm looking at your Phase 1 and Phase 2.

Phase 1 seems like building the site, pretty much like your template.
I'm with you on that and it seems that you might be close to making that happen.

Phase 2 seems to be adding some functionalities to the site, much of which would be accomplished by one or a handful of share type plugins.
I would like recognition of events on the ground that meetups could be doing.  I've been looking at WebX, and I have a bunch of other website ideas.  Another post.

Phase 3 seems more distant from website.  You're mentioning sms.  If you're interested in cell phones, you might want to talk to rp08orbust, who has been working hard
and learning a lot about cell phones with his robopolling in Iowa.

----------


## parocks

Some notes, links to modx.  I don't know much about this modx.  I don't know what the advantages of modx are.  Perhaps it's so easy to use that applications that often take a lot of programming are easy to build from scratch.  perhaps there are are so many built in modules that plugins aren't necessary.  I don't know about that.  From a quick look at the plugins available, I'm not seeing too many ways to really build out the functionality of the site without really thinking about it too much.  it may be that modx is the best cms for making your site look and behave exactly the way you want, without worrying about things like how the cms defines and treats an article.  I'm just thinking that you might run into a wall with additional functionality.  Each additional feature might take too much time to implement.

Notes

http://modx.com/extras/package/jot Jot
http://modx.com/extras/package/maxigallery Maxi gallery

http://modx.com/extras/package/googlemap - googlemap
The entryway to the events could be a map with dots on it.  when you mouseover an event, you get a balloon pop up.
Tells you something about the event.  Each event will have its own page.  Details of the event.  Who is attending the event.
Who are working on the project.

Maps could also be used to show where the pledgors are coming from.

http://modx.com/extras/package/webloginpe - this might be helpful for gathering data for users, for the pledge form?

the event page should be good enough that a meetup group putting on the event will feel no need for a better option for a webpage
for the event.  They might want a facebook page too, but this event page would be better.

----------


## dusman

> I'm looking at your Phase 1 and Phase 2.
> 
> Phase 1 seems like building the site, pretty much like your template.
> I'm with you on that and it seems that you might be close to making that happen.
> 
> Phase 2 seems to be adding some functionalities to the site, much of which would be accomplished by one or a handful of share type plugins.
> I would like recognition of events on the ground that meetups could be doing.  I've been looking at WebX, and I have a bunch of other website ideas.  Another post.
> 
> Phase 3 seems more distant from website.  You're mentioning sms.  If you're interested in cell phones, you might want to talk to rp08orbust, who has been working hard
> and learning a lot about cell phones with his robopolling in Iowa.


Could you define what you had in mind for events a little more? I'm curious, because it would be great to bring the meetups on board. I'm just not sure what the scope of their involvement should be and how they can be best utilized. At the very least, having these groups unify and do some related activities online or offline would be great!

I have been talking with rp08orbust about using Twilio as an alternative means to do robocalling, because it seems that it could make it more cost-effective. I'm not sure what his opinion is there or what the conclusion was; however, Twilio can do some really amazing things.

I'm currently reviewing the potential uses of Twilio with the joGet Workflow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuS7cFkiZ7o. I have some potential uses for this that I'll have to scrutinize more (have a look.. pretty sweet stuff!); joGet Workflow is making me reconsider how I approach clients in regards to how web development can interact with their business infrastructure. Some amazing potential here that I foresee could be beneficial in our ability to operate grassroots campaigning almost like an enterprise. 

Anyways, glad you are taking such an interest!

----------


## IndianaPolitico

Not to put the brakes on this, but the Constitution Day Money Bomb is coming up fast...

----------


## dusman

> Some notes, links to modx.  I don't know much about this modx.  I don't know what the advantages of modx are.  Perhaps it's so easy to use that applications that often take a lot of programming are easy to build from scratch.  perhaps there are are so many built in modules that plugins aren't necessary.  I don't know about that.  From a quick look at the plugins available, I'm not seeing too many ways to really build out the functionality of the site without really thinking about it too much.  it may be that modx is the best cms for making your site look and behave exactly the way you want, without worrying about things like how the cms defines and treats an article.  I'm just thinking that you might run into a wall with additional functionality.  Each additional feature might take too much time to implement.
> 
> Notes
> 
> http://modx.com/extras/package/jot Jot
> http://modx.com/extras/package/maxigallery Maxi gallery
> 
> http://modx.com/extras/package/googlemap - googlemap
> The entryway to the events could be a map with dots on it.  when you mouseover an event, you get a balloon pop up.
> ...


MODx is probably not best suited for a socialCMS, but if that was the desire.. I would likely abandon all CMS platforms and use something like Elgg, Dolphin, or SocialEngine. MAYBE Joomla or Drupal, but I am pretty bias against those CMS platforms for their lack of flexibility at the core and really outdated theming methods, so I apologize for my lack of interest there... those may deserve another look. 

To demonstrate the benefit of MODx... I'm primarily a front-end developer (not a programmer) and I've used MODx to completely offset all my programming needs for the past 2 years. Why I prefer MODx is that it separates design from content... so in essence, once this web site is built up, I can reskin it within just a few hours for other moneybombs if it becomes a more effective platform. 

If we get to a point where custom PHP is needed, MODx would allow non-MODx types to jump right in and author independent code that is pretty much copy and paste. I admit it may lack the robust library that Joomla and Drupal have, but the benefit of being able to retool it for other moneybombs, I think offsets that. Luckily, freejack is an intermediate PHP guy.. so I'm hoping we have help on that front if needed. 

I encourage anyone that does have PHP experience to step up and get in touch.. it's hard to say how far we take it since we finally have a few months to really push this one.

----------


## dusman

> Not to put the brakes on this, but the Constitution Day Money Bomb is coming up fast...


If only there were two of me! I chose to get involved in this one, because it provides more time. Perhaps if this one goes up fast, we can rework it for that moneybomb as well. All speculation aside... I don't want to step on toes or make others hard work obsolete. I'm pretty confident that there are a lot of people here who can make all of these moneybombs successful. I took an interest in this one particularly, because there is a lot of emotion that can get behind it.

----------


## jufreese

what if we directed people here and said if you post your transaction details for their donation, they get a free bumper sticker.

It could get more people registered to the site, get more people with bumper stickers, and the ForLibertyFight guy is giving them away free anyway.

You could even say if you just pledge to donate you can get free bumper stickers. Just have a link from the Black This Out site back to a post set up to punch in your details to get your bumper sticker.

----------


## dusman

> what if we directed people here and said if you post your transaction details for their donation, they get a free bumper sticker.
> 
> It could get more people registered to the site, get more people with bumper stickers, and the ForLibertyFight guy is giving them away free anyway.
> 
> You could even say if you just pledge to donate you can get free bumper stickers. Just have a link from the Black This Out site back to a post set up to punch in your details to get your bumper sticker.


That seems like something pretty easy to implement. I'll have to get in touch with him and make sure he can handle that. 

I like it!

----------


## parocks

> Could you define what you had in mind for events a little more? I'm curious, because it would be great to bring the meetups on board. I'm just not sure what the scope of their involvement should be and how they can be best utilized. At the very least, having these groups unify and do some related activities online or offline would be great!
> 
> I have been talking with rp08orbust about using Twilio as an alternative means to do robocalling, because it seems that it could make it more cost-effective. I'm not sure what his opinion is there or what the conclusion was; however, Twilio can do some really amazing things.
> 
> I'm currently reviewing the potential uses of Twilio with the joGet Workflow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuS7cFkiZ7o. I have some potential uses for this that I'll have to scrutinize more (have a look.. pretty sweet stuff!); joGet Workflow is making me reconsider how I approach clients in regards to how web development can interact with their business infrastructure. Some amazing potential here that I foresee could be beneficial in our ability to operate grassroots campaigning almost like an enterprise. 
> 
> Anyways, glad you are taking such an interest!


Here's what I mean by events.  People in a meetup do something on the ground.  I would expect Shemdogg to be doing something in and around NH on this day in October. Perhaps its the BlackTHISout Nashua, NH pub crawl.  They walk around to bars with tablet computers, getting people to contribute to the money bomb.
I often refer back to my sig. about the rock bands.  If people in meetups wanted to focus on the one time a month the grassroots itself is pumping out a media story, they would be focusing on the moneybombs.  All meetup groups go boots on the ground with any sort of event that would allow us to gather our supporters together, to get more people on board and contributing, by diversifying moneybomb energies from all internet, to include things happening outside the internet.

Our biggest moneybomb was tea party.  There were events all over the place, on the ground.

These events could be anything the meetup group wanted it to be.  I could set one up for that day, and give you the details.  The users should be able to add the data to the database.  There is an events system built into modx, and a handful of 3p plugins, so you will be able to implement an events system.

----------


## parocks

> what if we directed people here and said if you post your transaction details for their donation, they get a free bumper sticker.
> 
> It could get more people registered to the site, get more people with bumper stickers, and the ForLibertyFight guy is giving them away free anyway.
> 
> You could even say if you just pledge to donate you can get free bumper stickers. Just have a link from the Black This Out site back to a post set up to punch in your details to get your bumper sticker.


Why are you doing it that way.

Why do people have to go from one site to a different site to get a bumper sticker?

The first site should have their data.  And could handle fulfillment of stickers.  Send dusman some stickers.  He'd send a sticker to each of the addresses in the database.
 "register to pledge and win a free sticker"

----------


## parocks

> MODx is probably not best suited for a socialCMS, but if that was the desire.. I would likely abandon all CMS platforms and use something like Elgg, Dolphin, or SocialEngine. MAYBE Joomla or Drupal, but I am pretty bias against those CMS platforms for their lack of flexibility at the core and really outdated theming methods, so I apologize for my lack of interest there... those may deserve another look. 
> 
> To demonstrate the benefit of MODx... I'm primarily a front-end developer (not a programmer) and I've used MODx to completely offset all my programming needs for the past 2 years. Why I prefer MODx is that it separates design from content... so in essence, once this web site is built up, I can reskin it within just a few hours for other moneybombs if it becomes a more effective platform. 
> 
> If we get to a point where custom PHP is needed, MODx would allow non-MODx types to jump right in and author independent code that is pretty much copy and paste. I admit it may lack the robust library that Joomla and Drupal have, but the benefit of being able to retool it for other moneybombs, I think offsets that. Luckily, freejack is an intermediate PHP guy.. so I'm hoping we have help on that front if needed. 
> 
> I encourage anyone that does have PHP experience to step up and get in touch.. it's hard to say how far we take it since we finally have a few months to really push this one.


I definitely know where you're coming from with the community ron paul portal.  We've been talking about that at pretty decent length.  I looked at elgg.  And I just couldn't get that to work right for me.  And doing some research, it seems that if something goes wrong, the whole website can disappear.

I'm one who knows joomla but not the other cms's.  I did one joomla / community builder site about two and a half years ago.  it was a pretty solid music site - biggestlabelever.com - it's gone now, but we had some pretty top acts donate free downloads, and we had 5,000 registered users.  I had to do some code hacks here and there.  And honestly, with that level of complexity, I pretty much have to be fully focused on building that site.  And I don't really want to be hacking code.  I don't really care about making every pixel right.  I want a site up there that provides needed functionality.

I suppose you may be right about the elegance of the code, or theming, or whatever.  I just don't know that much about that.  What I do know is that Joomla allows you to put together existing pieces very quickly, very easily, with a great deal of functionality for very little effort.  Sometimes there are headaches getting things exactly the way you want.  And that can suck.  But in this case, there really is a need for much more functionality in all of these websites.  We're lacking these coordinating mechanisms.   You were paying attention to http://bachmann2012.com  that site was built pretty quickly.  That Bachmann 2012 website has over 1000 articles on it - I'm drawing them in by rss, sorting for "bachmann".  People can submit their own articles, and they get automatically approved.  The videos are automatically approved.  The Rand Paul video has 71 hits.  It's a solid, functional site.  There's really no reason for anyone to hype the site.  No reason for it to look good.  But I'm using it as a test bed.

You were discussing in greater detail earlier about what you thought about groups within the context of communities.  You like elgg, because it focuses on groups, and an elgg group could replace a meetup group, and everyone could be in a central place.  What specifically did you have in mind?

----------


## TexMac

> Here's how I've been thinking it through.
> 
> The "pledge form" becomes a detailed registration to the site.
> 
> We gather the data from the people, you might require a valid email address.  Send them an email that they have to click on to operate.
> The front page should be dominated by that registration form.  There could be a lot of questions.  Many required, many not.  One of the 
> questions is do you pledge to contribute, and how much.  That data will be saved somewhere, and a charting / graphing component widget what have you
> can pump out the live chart/graph of how many pledges per day, how much $.  All of this data that the people filled out appears on their community page.
> Events should be a big part of this site.  I'm not sure exactly how that should work, I'm guessing that there's an events module for MODx that would work.
> ...


Seriously??? How many people are going to click away immediately when faced with a form like that?  I would.

The genius of the moneybomb sites is in the simplicity.  You enter an email address only.  

The website should be all about the pledge counter and the pledge counter is all about the ability to blast an email to the pledgees on moneybomb day, to remind them it's time to donate.

----------


## dusman

> I definitely know where you're coming from with the community ron paul portal.  We've been talking about that at pretty decent length.  I looked at elgg.  And I just couldn't get that to work right for me.  And doing some research, it seems that if something goes wrong, the whole website can disappear.
> 
> I'm one who knows joomla but not the other cms's.  I did one joomla / community builder site about two and a half years ago.  it was a pretty solid music site - biggestlabelever.com - it's gone now, but we had some pretty top acts donate free downloads, and we had 5,000 registered users.  I had to do some code hacks here and there.  And honestly, with that level of complexity, I pretty much have to be fully focused on building that site.  And I don't really want to be hacking code.  I don't really care about making every pixel right.  I want a site up there that provides needed functionality.
> 
> I suppose you may be right about the elegance of the code, or theming, or whatever.  I just don't know that much about that.  What I do know is that Joomla allows you to put together existing pieces very quickly, very easily, with a great deal of functionality for very little effort.  Sometimes there are headaches getting things exactly the way you want.  And that can suck.  But in this case, there really is a need for much more functionality in all of these websites.  We're lacking these coordinating mechanisms.   You were paying attention to http://bachmann2012.com  that site was built pretty quickly.  That Bachmann 2012 website has over 1000 articles on it - I'm drawing them in by rss, sorting for "bachmann".  People can submit their own articles, and they get automatically approved.  The videos are automatically approved.  The Rand Paul video has 71 hits.  It's a solid, functional site.  There's really no reason for anyone to hype the site.  No reason for it to look good.  But I'm using it as a test bed.
> 
> You were discussing in greater detail earlier about what you thought about groups within the context of communities.  You like elgg, because it focuses on groups, and an elgg group could replace a meetup group, and everyone could be in a central place.  What specifically did you have in mind?


I should probably explain a difference with MODx, that is going to be a little bit foreign if you are used to Joomla or Drupal. Those systems do have a lot of plugins; however, part of that is because everything must to be plugged in, whereas you can basically accomplish the same things on the fly in MODx by simply calling placeholders and manipulating their parameters. I prefer to call MODx a framework and I guess what I was trying to illustrate is that MODx _is_ my programmer. It dumbs it down just enough to where I can create just about any interaction pretty easily. With that in mind.. you can integrate any other system that has an API and make a hybrid with MODx. 

It's pretty neat stuff.. I wish I was a hardcore PHP guy, because I would go crazy with it. 

The problem with MODx is that it's often _too_ flexible and therefore every feature you want needs to be formatted and styled for each interaction. However, I'd like to think any need can be met with it. Perfect for someone like me who prefers to mainly focus on design. 

I'd like to know what kind of features you had in mind? I've so far set a pretty low bar in my phases here and have intentionally kept it open for expansion into better things. I've only got one page here so far! I'll review over your suggestions and see if there is anything that might cause any issues in regards to MODx, but I'm pretty confident they wouldn't cause much issues. The great thing is.. anywhere I might need help, anyone here can author traditional HTML/PHP and I can use it, so there is no need to have to learn MODx. Although, if anyone else wants to learn it.. I'm never against that!

----------


## parocks

> Seriously??? How many people are going to click away immediately when faced with a form like that?  I would.
> 
> The genius of the moneybomb sites is in the simplicity.  You enter an email address only.  
> 
> The website should be all about the pledge counter and the pledge counter is all about the ability to blast an email to the pledgees on moneybomb day, to remind them it's time to donate.


Well, it's a reasoned argument.  I disagree.  There's more to be gained than lost.  But there's no real way to prove it.  Let me put it differently.  If there was one form element that said "enter email to pledge", that would be satisfactory to me if that's important to you.  If there are stickers involved, the data should be gathered at the website.  So that a choice is offered - bare minimum - the absolute quickest way - basically joining an email list.  Or, participating more, filling out the form, checking out the site, getting a free sticker.  You won't lose anybody if you have a QUICK PLEDGE -  just the email - part of the site.  I would guess that a bare minimum for registering for a site are email, user name, and password.  You want these people registered for the site, and if you don't want to force them to fill out the other features, that's cool.
But that's the direction you want to take this, toward a full featured site.

If you get the one line - just email - you're happy, and other good things can happen there simultaneously?

----------


## dusman

> Seriously??? How many people are going to click away immediately when faced with a form like that?  I would.
> 
> The genius of the moneybomb sites is in the simplicity.  You enter an email address only.  
> 
> The website should be all about the pledge counter and the pledge counter is all about the ability to blast an email to the pledgees on moneybomb day, to remind them it's time to donate.


I somewhat agree with you.. the pledge really should be very minimal. However, I think parocks has a very good point about building out the abilities these moneybomb sites deliver. 

I'm thinking a "coalition" of ideas here (Bahaha... I love you Ron). There are really two primary groups coming to these web sites: 1) those who just want to pledge and move on and 2) those who want to get involved in the money bomb. Some will be both! Let people pledge on the fly and let those who are interested in getting more involved beyond that can have a kiosk of tools at their disposal, which might then require to setup a profile. We can then use that data in the manner parrocks talks about above, including the general pledge demographics of number and amount.

----------


## dusman

> Well, it's a reasoned argument.  I disagree.  There's more to be gained than lost.  But there's no real way to prove it.  Let me put it differently.  If there was one form element that said "enter email to pledge", that would be satisfactory to me if that's important to you.  If there are stickers involved, the data should be gathered at the website.  So that a choice is offered - bare minimum - the absolute quickest way - basically joining an email list.  Or, participating more, filling out the form, checking out the site, getting a free sticker.  You won't lose anybody if you have a QUICK PLEDGE -  just the email - part of the site.  I would guess that a bare minimum for registering for a site are email, user name, and password.  You want these people registered for the site, and if you don't want to force them to fill out the other features, that's cool.
> But that's the direction you want to take this, toward a full featured site.
> 
> If you get the one line - just email - you're happy, and other good things can happen there simultaneously?


Bahaha, you beat me to it.. I got stuck on the phone and finally posted. I didn't even see yours but basically the same suggestion.

----------


## dusman

[delete]

----------


## TexMac

> I somewhat agree with you.. the pledge really should be very minimal. However, I think parocks has a very good point about building out the abilities these moneybomb sites deliver. 
> 
> I'm thinking a "coalition" of ideas here (Bahaha... I love you Ron). There are really two primary groups coming to these web sites: 1) those who just want to pledge and move on and 2) those who want to get involved in the money bomb. Some will be both! Let people pledge on the fly and let those who are interested in getting more involved beyond that can have a kiosk of tools at their disposal, which might then require to setup a profile. We can then use that data in the manner parrocks talks about above, including the general pledge demographics of number and amount.


Agree.  Just make the simple pledge most prominent, above the fold, front and center.  Simple and quick.  If people want to browse around and get more involved, put that stuff further down the page or something.

----------


## dusman

I could include in the pledge form a checkbox that says something like "I want to get more involved" and if they check that, the CMS creates a username with their e-mail address and sends them off a password to login.

----------


## TexMac

> I could include in the pledge form a checkbox that says something like "I want to get more involved" and if they check that, the CMS creates a username with their e-mail address and sends them off a password to login.


That sounds fine.  Later in the campaign, the RP2012 site will set up a volunteer area for canvassing and we'll want to be able to direct these people there.

----------


## dusman

> Agree.  Just make the simple pledge most prominent, above the fold, front and center.  Simple and quick.  If people want to browse around and get more involved, put that stuff further down the page or something.


I normally would put something like that above the fold; however, after much contemplation, I decided that the emotional drive of the videos/evidence might create a higher pledge rate. I'm also putting a little more priority to the return visitors. We WANT people to come back to this site, whether to simply view the latest "evidence" or going there to get involved. Either way, that's what will drive the buzz as it will be more front-and-center in their minds. Much like we saw during the Tea Party moneybomb. I went back to that site a few times a day and was talking about it constantly... mainly because I was always checking it.

----------


## dusman

Being someone who is constantly observing how I myself use the internet. I noticed that how much I talked about the moneybombs in other places significantly dropped for this year's moneybombs, even though my commitment level increased. I found that to be a really odd conundrum and after thinking about it more, I concluded it was because I didn't visit the moneybomb sites daily, like I used to. 

This fits in with why there are a lot of people who are saying the pledge counter was important. These people are basically saying "Hey! I used to like checking that every day like an addict.. don't take that away from me." I've even caught myself saying this basically for that reason.

I think if we could have some statistics on those people.. we'd find a similar drop that I noticed in myself.

----------


## TexMac

> I normally would put something like that above the fold; however, after much contemplation, I decided that the emotional drive of the videos/evidence might create a higher pledge rate. I'm also putting a little more priority to the return visitors. We WANT people to come back to this site, whether to simply view the latest "evidence" or going there to get involved. Either way, that's what will drive the buzz as it will be more front-and-center in their minds. Much like we saw during the Tea Party moneybomb. I went back to that site a few times a day and was talking about it constantly... mainly because I was always checking it.


Disagree.  People go there to pledge, there should be no impediment to them being able to do it quickly.  They can surf around and watch videos after if they want.  

They don't go to the site to be convinced.  They go to pledge because someone already talked them into it.

----------


## dusman

> Disagree.  People go there to pledge, there should be no impediment to them being able to do it quickly.  They can surf around and watch videos after if they want.  
> 
> They don't go to the site to be convinced.  They go to pledge because someone already talked them into it.


Fair enough. Sounds like a great opportunity to bust out Google Website Optimizer and do a/b testing! I'll donate $20.00 more to the campaign if mine proves to be the worse of the two. If I win, you donate $20.00! Deal?

----------


## Ronpauljones

My friend and I are working on ways to do fundraisers to raise money to send in for this. I would absolutely love it if we hit the $20mil mark.

If I can help in other ways just send me a PM with what to do.

----------


## ItsTime

> My friend and I are working on ways to do fundraisers to raise money to send in for this. I would absolutely love it if we hit the $20mil mark.
> 
> If I can help in other ways just send me a PM with what to do.


Make sure whatever you do it is legal.

----------


## Ronpauljones

> Make sure whatever you do it is legal.


This was my next question I was going to post. I need to know what is legal. I mean can I do carwashes? Can I sit in front of walmart/savemart with a donation bucket? What can I do?

----------


## Ronpauljones

bump

----------


## ItsTime

> This was my next question I was going to post. I need to know what is legal. I mean can I do carwashes? Can I sit in front of walmart/savemart with a donation bucket? What can I do?


Sure you can have carwashes but not FOR Ron Paul but for you to raise money for whatever you choose to spend it on. No you cant stand outside asking for donations. Unless you creart a pac. Best thing to  do is talk to a lawer

----------


## Ronpauljones

Thank you.

----------


## anewvoice

> Here is an updated version of my layout. What do you all think?
> 
> http://www.creativesagest.com/blackt...-layout-v2.jpg
> 
> I'm trying to capture a little more emotion with this version. I wanted people by the time they reached the pledge form to be MAD!


I like this a lot more than the existing site.  Put the info there, play the jon Stewart clip, link to news articles about the blackout.

Also, we should be aware that this is 2 months from now, and 2 more debates at least.  Much is likely to change from now until then.  It would be like us planning a Debt ceiling bomb for Septemeber in June, we'd have missed the issue of the day.

----------


## Paul4Prez

Have a Ron Paul national yard sale the week before, so everyone has some extra cash.
And a Ron Paul national EBay sale.  Get rid of your old junk.

Only don't call them that.  Just recommend that everyone do it.

----------


## skyorbit

Do you guys honestly think we could get 1 Million Pledges? That would be amazing. That's $20 Million. Paul could win for sure with that. He'd be able to outspend Romney!

And then the next month all of those people could donate an additional $20 or more.

----------


## Paul4Prez

> Do you guys honestly think we could get 1 Million Pledges?


Not even close.  Hopefully that line will go when the new design goes live.  50,000 pledges would be great.  The donations would have to average $100 to get to 5 million though.....  I believe the November 5th money bomb in 2007 asked for $100 pledges....

Or shoot for 100,000 pledges, at $50 a pop.  That is a stretch goal, but achievable.

----------


## dusman

> Do you guys honestly think we could get 1 Million Pledges? That would be amazing. That's $20 Million. Paul could win for sure with that. He'd be able to outspend Romney!
> 
> And then the next month all of those people could donate an additional $20 or more.


I really want to believe that we could get 1 million pledges. Unfortunately, as of right now.. the groundswell just isn't there yet to make that happen.. it's building though. 

It's a matter of seeing it for what it is and embracing the challenges that need to be overcome. We have a lot of work to do and many more brushfires to set before it happens. In the end.. I have hope that it can and will.  

With that said.. I have a story that might inspire some thought. 

There is a plant called the Water Hyacinth. Given the opportunity to grow unhindered, this plant will cover every inch of a lake in a matter of a month. What is peculiar is _how_ it gets to that point. On day one, it starts as just a plant or two. By day 15, it would barely even be noticed. It's not until about day 28, that it will have started to gain traction and begin spreading.. we'll say at this point it covers 1/16th of the lake. By day 29, it will have covered about 1/2 of the lake. By day 30, the entire lake will be completely consumed by the plant. 

I believe our movement is like the Water Hyacinth. 

It's called exponential growth and probably one of the least understood (and most important) phenomenon in our world. Exponential growth always reaches its catalyst point in the 59th minute of the hour. That's why you have all the elitists freaking out about population growth and resource depletion, because the growth rate in these two categories is quite alarming.. to say the least. 

For example, 7% growth sounds pretty low right? What if our base grew 7% daily and had nothing to hinder that growth. How long would it take for every American to be a Ron Paul supporter? The answer might be shocking.. let's have a look:

7% growth will double it's value approx. every 7 days. 

Day 1) 2 supporters
Day 7) 4 supporters
Day 14) 8 supporters
Day 21) 16 supporters
Day 28) 32 supporters
Day 35) 64 supporters
Day 42) 128 supporters
Day 49) 256 supporters
Day 56) 512 supporters
Day 63) 1,024 supporters
Day 70) 2,048 supporters
Day 77) 4,096 supporters
Day 85) 8,192 supporters
Day 92) 16,384 supporters
Day 99) 32,768 supporters
Day 106) 65,536 supporters
Day 113) 131,072 supporters
Day 120) 262,144 supporters
Day 127) 524,288 supporters
Day 135) 104,8576 supporters
Day 142) 2,097,152 supporters
Day 149) 4,194,304 supporters
Day 156) 8,388,608 supporters
Day 163) 16,777,216 supporters
Day 170) 33,554,432 supporters
Day 177) 67,108,864 supporters
Day 184) 134,217,728 supporters
Day 191) 268,435,456 supporters
Day 198) 536,870,912 supporters

So, as you can see.. in less than a year 7% growth daily would completely consume the nation. 

A bit of hindsight tells us that in 2008, we really had no chance to win, mainly because growth wasn't on our side then. However, 2012 is a totally different story. Simply put, it took the entire 2008 campaign to reach day 142. If we are at day 142 going into 2012, there really shouldn't be any doubt that we are nearing our 59th minute this election. 

When we do, no one will have seen it coming.. but you all will have and will have math to reassure you.

----------


## dusman

Another idea for this moneybomb:

Allowing users to report misrepresentations by the media. Each report will get screened and published on the moneybomb site. Each story could be individually shared out through social media and every page would have a pledge form, which would be tracked. 

In this way, not only does it increase exposure to the moneybomb, but it also gives us really great details on how each story influences pledge totals. 

As an example, say that the New York Times does a nasty hit piece and that one story influences 500 pledges and $50,000 in potential donations. We could then take those details right back to them and instead of lashing out at them, like usual... we can thank them for putting $50,000 more into Ron Paul's war chest. Oops, that backfired!

If the mainstream media has an agenda to stifle Ron Paul's campaign... knowing that their own stories are basically creating millions in donations.. you have to imagine that might change their tone quite a bit. The more they misrepresent, the more they add fuel to the fire. Knowing that their agenda is self-defeating.. it might just stop them in their tracks.

Further, we could do running totals for all media outlets and put them into contest against each other. 1) We'd be able to see which outlet was the most aggressive against Ron Paul and 2) see which ones garnered the most pledges of any of them. 

Imagine if that caused this moneybomb to pull in $10million in donations? Not only would they have to report such a massive amount being pulled in, but they'd also have to admit that their own reporting made it go so high. An odd conundrum for the media! Any curiosity from the press would naturally lead them back to the moneybomb site, where they would have a historical account of all the bad reporting and how that in itself, generated millions of dollars. That could become it's own story!

What do you guys think?

----------


## ItsTime

Facebook short url:

http://www.facebook.com/BlackThisOut

----------


## dusman

> Another idea for this moneybomb:
> 
> Allowing users to report misrepresentations by the media. Each report will get screened and published on the moneybomb site. Each story could be individually shared out through social media and every page would have a pledge form, which would be tracked. 
> 
> In this way, not only does it increase exposure to the moneybomb, but it also gives us really great details on how each story influences pledge totals. 
> 
> As an example, say that the New York Times does a nasty hit piece and that one story influences 500 pledges and $50,000 in potential donations. We could then take those details right back to them and instead of lashing out at them, like usual... we can thank them for putting $50,000 more into Ron Paul's war chest. Oops, that backfired!
> 
> If the mainstream media has an agenda to stifle Ron Paul's campaign... knowing that their own stories are basically creating millions in donations.. you have to imagine that might change their tone quite a bit. The more they misrepresent, the more they add fuel to the fire. Knowing that their agenda is self-defeating.. it might just stop them in their tracks.
> ...


Any thoughts on this?

----------


## Eric21ND

> Facebook short url:
> 
> http://www.facebook.com/BlackThisOut


Event Page > Fan Page

The Fan page is just confusing.  Dump that and stick with jazzing up the event page so people can easily invite others.

----------


## Eric21ND

> I could include in the pledge form a checkbox that says something like "I want to get more involved" and if they check that, the CMS creates a username with their e-mail address and sends them off a password to login.


Please god, no password/login system.  That's certain death.

----------


## Eric21ND

> Seriously??? How many people are going to click away immediately when faced with a form like that?  I would.
> 
> The genius of the moneybomb sites is in the simplicity.  You enter an email address only.  
> 
> The website should be all about the pledge counter and the pledge counter is all about the ability to blast an email to the pledgees on moneybomb day, to remind them it's time to donate.


I agree with Tex.  Filling out excessive questions would be instant death.  I hate filling crap out...BORING & ANNOYING.  People should be able to pledge easily and get out.  It would be cool if you had a pledge counter and dollar counter.  Have a few options, $5 $10 $20.12 $50 $100 other but cap it at the legal limit.

K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid

If you want to make it more interactive and graphically eye catching have a map of the U.S. by county on there and allow people to check/highlight their county where they're donating from.  It would be fun to see if we could get donations from every county in the country.  

Also have a check box "If you want to get involved"  Then have a simple pop up box asking (name, address, email, cell number) bam done.

----------


## ItsTime

> Event Page > Fan Page
> 
> The Fan page is just confusing.  Dump that and stick with jazzing up the event page so people can easily invite others.


I dont know how it is confusing. But in any case here is the event page http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php...81997088537471

----------


## dusman

> Please god, no password/login system.  That's certain death.


This might have gotten confused. The pledges won't be reliant on that whatsoever. That would only apply to those who chose to get more involved directly with the web site. For example, if we wanted to bring in publishers to manage certain parts of the web site.

----------


## dusman

> I agree with Tex.  Filling out excessive questions would be instant death.  I hate filling crap out...BORING & ANNOYING.  People should be able to pledge easily and get out.  It would be cool if you had a pledge counter and dollar counter.  Have a few options, $5 $10 $20.12 $50 $100 other but cap it at the legal limit.
> 
> K.I.S.S. = Keep It Simple Stupid
> 
> If you want to make it more interactive and graphically eye catching have a map of the U.S. by county on there and allow people to check/highlight their county where they're donating from.  It would be fun to see if we could get donations from every county in the country.  
> 
> Also have a check box "If you want to get involved"  Then have a simple pop up box asking (name, address, email, cell number) bam done.


I completely agree. I'm probably going to build a slider feature for the donation amount to make it a little more neat, instead of just a typical dropdown box or rely on the user to format the amount field properly. Kind of like a fail-safe measure. 

What are your thoughts on collecting ZIP? I'm still at odds with that one. However, location would be really useful for something like a map and feeding results into a map.

----------


## dusman

> I dont know how it is confusing. But in any case here is the event page http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php...81997088537471


I was a bit confused by it too. I guess I assumed it would go to the event page.

----------


## dusman

Moving things over to new DNS servers and hosting, so some of you may see the web site down.

----------


## parocks

> I should probably explain a difference with MODx, that is going to be a little bit foreign if you are used to Joomla or Drupal. Those systems do have a lot of plugins; however, part of that is because everything must to be plugged in, whereas you can basically accomplish the same things on the fly in MODx by simply calling placeholders and manipulating their parameters. I prefer to call MODx a framework and I guess what I was trying to illustrate is that MODx _is_ my programmer. It dumbs it down just enough to where I can create just about any interaction pretty easily. With that in mind.. you can integrate any other system that has an API and make a hybrid with MODx. 
> 
> It's pretty neat stuff.. I wish I was a hardcore PHP guy, because I would go crazy with it. 
> 
> The problem with MODx is that it's often _too_ flexible and therefore every feature you want needs to be formatted and styled for each interaction. However, I'd like to think any need can be met with it. Perfect for someone like me who prefers to mainly focus on design. 
> 
> I'd like to know what kind of features you had in mind? I've so far set a pretty low bar in my phases here and have intentionally kept it open for expansion into better things. I've only got one page here so far! I'll review over your suggestions and see if there is anything that might cause any issues in regards to MODx, but I'm pretty confident they wouldn't cause much issues. The great thing is.. anywhere I might need help, anyone here can author traditional HTML/PHP and I can use it, so there is no need to have to learn MODx. Although, if anyone else wants to learn it.. I'm never against that!


What I picked out was this "who prefers to mainly focus on design."

Your designs are good/great.  They look a lot better that the average.

My argument I guess is that it seems like it might be more difficult to implement more functionality with MODx than with joomla / drupal.  

With joomla you can just browse the extensions.

http://extensions.joomla.org/

I would think that for this, a community extension, a group extension, an events extension.  All which have plugins for each other.

Each person would have their own community page.  With "my groups" and "my events"  I don't really care how it works and I don't really care if the functionality is exactly how it appeared in someones mind.

Data should be gathered.  And the idea that you might not be gathering data is problematic.

----------


## parocks

> Disagree.  People go there to pledge, there should be no impediment to them being able to do it quickly.  They can surf around and watch videos after if they want.  
> 
> They don't go to the site to be convinced.  They go to pledge because someone already talked them into it.



They would go to the site for a number of reasons.

If the site is ABOUT the moneybomb project, they would go there to learn what's going on with the moneybomb project.

If they wanted information on how they could get organized and help the moneybomb project, that should be there.

If the ONLY thing on the moneybomb  page is a place to take a pledge and a ticker, the only people who go there would be people who want to pledge and look at a ticker.

We do not have very many websites where people can get more informed, more organized.  Because people will be going to this site (mostly because it's the right url), we should do as much with those people as we can.

Dusman does seem to agree with me with a Less and/or More approach to  gathering the data that we need so much.  I personally don't care if the "Quick Pledge" is small or big, top or bottom.  As long as the people who are complaining about too much data gathering will scare some people away will be happy.  And then Dusman, in the long form, can gather all the data we want.

----------


## parocks

> I could include in the pledge form a checkbox that says something like "I want to get more involved" and if they check that, the CMS creates a username with their e-mail address and sends them off a password to login.


I would say "good" to that.  Even better perhaps is if there's no check box, and everyone has a username and password created and sent to the email.

----------


## dusman

> What I picked out was this "who prefers to mainly focus on design."
> 
> Your designs are good/great.  They look a lot better that the average.
> 
> My argument I guess is that it seems like it might be more difficult to implement more functionality with MODx than with joomla / drupal.  
> 
> With joomla you can just browse the extensions.
> 
> http://extensions.joomla.org/
> ...


It might be worth reiterating this: "Those systems do have a lot of plugins; however, part of that is because everything *must* to be plugged in, whereas you can basically accomplish the same things on the fly in MODx". I guess the only difference really is that Joomla forces a pre-packaged format and business logic, whereas MODx doesn't have that restraint. Having to either modify that format/logic vs. building on the fly in MODx.. there isn't much difference in efficiency that I've ever noticed. In my experience, starting from scratch has been faster for me. However, as you pointed out that is likely because of my emphasis on design.. so that might be unique for my necessity to modify Joomla's plugins in most cases. 

It seems you are leaning toward more a social solution? I should emphasize that I'm completely open to what you are suggesting here; however, I need more details on the benefits you see it generating and how that applies to each user coming to the web site. 

Would every person pledging be brought into a social platform or are the social features you are suggesting specific to volunteers for the web site? I guess what I am hung up on is "Each person would have their own community page." Can you define that better for me? What features should that provide? 

Thanks for taking the time to give your input.. it will be valuable in rounding out a final solution. 

In conclusion, I'm weighing all this against the ability to redeploy this system out for other moneybombs rapidly when needed and Joomla simply doesn't provide much in that area. What I see is the potential that if this really shows an exceptional result vs prior moneybombs.. we can establish a single database to manage ALL future moneybombs and create a snowball effect by focusing more on retention of the user base built from prior moneybombs.. starting with this one. 

So, for example.. when someone sets up a "community page", as you suggest, that profile would be accessible to the user from this and all future moneybomb web sites. So, if there is a high percentage of retention moving into say the Tea Party Moneybomb in December, I aim to eliminate the need for redundancy of our support base... they'll just be able to login to their account as they always have and we won't have to recapture those people.. both for pledges and volunteers.

----------


## parkway3000

> Any thoughts on this?


Hey man, I think this idea is awesome. It would
Give the moneybomb a unique feel to it
And would attract interest and build momentum.
I have followed Ron Paul for years and tell everyone
I meet about his thoughts. People are coming around.
I think what you guys are doing is really
Great. Keep up the good work!
I hope NYC comes around and supports Ron
Paul. He is the truth!

----------


## parocks

> That sounds fine.  Later in the campaign, the RP2012 site will set up a volunteer area for canvassing and we'll want to be able to direct these people there.


We'll want to send the rp2012 people to the moneybomb page.  Sounds good.

If RP2012 is going to put up a good community/volunteer/events/groups portal, all the better.  There's no reason why it shouldn't be up right now.

Dusman could come up with a great moneybomb portal right here with this.  With all the functions, all the bells and whistles.  Or I could,  Or someone else.

----------


## teacherone

every joomla module and plugin is open source so you can alter a you can alter all the source files to fit any design.

----------


## pen_thief

Ah, that's a relief. I saw the link in a youtube vid and tried to go there and then was a bit worried it'd been shut down. Shall check back later then

----------


## ItsTime

> I was a bit confused by it too. I guess I assumed it would go to the event page.


Ok no worries, can't hurt to have both

----------


## parkway3000

sorry guys i am new to this! 
I think we should try do this idea suggested
By dusman, we should make the media 
Pay for trying to control what is put in front
of us instead of letting us make our own decisions!
They really are a bunch of arrogant bastards,
We have to make them realize we are not 
mindless drones we are individuals! NYC for Ron Paul!

----------


## dusman

> every joomla module and plugin is open source so you can alter a you can alter all the source files to fit any design.


Keep in mind.. I'm a prior Joomla/Drupal developer and abandoned both all together for MODx. It's difficult to explain the justification, without completely overwhelming this thread with that topic.

----------


## teacherone

> sorry guys i am new to this! 
> I think we should try do this idea suggested
> By dusman, we should make the media 
> Pay for trying to control what is put in front
> of us instead of letting us make our own decisions!
> They really are a bunch of arrogant bastards,
> We have to make them realize we are not 
> mindless drones we are individuals! NYC for Ron Paul!


are you related to Aratus by any chance?

----------


## ItsTime

> are you related to Aratus by any chance?


Just reading the post I thought it was!

----------


## dusman

Can I get suggestions on how to integrate into rp2012.com?

----------


## parkway3000

No I don't know who that is. I am studying for my
LSAT right now, but sometimes I can't help
following Ron Paul and the developments in the
News!

----------


## Eric21ND

> I dont know how it is confusing. But in any case here is the event page http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php...81997088537471


There weren't fan pages for the other money bombs.  It distracts from the event page which is the critical one so people can invite their friends.

----------


## Eric21ND

> I completely agree. I'm probably going to build a slider feature for the donation amount to make it a little more neat, instead of just a typical dropdown box or rely on the user to format the amount field properly. Kind of like a fail-safe measure. 
> 
> What are your thoughts on collecting ZIP? I'm still at odds with that one. However, location would be really useful for something like a map and feeding results into a map.


I love maps and seeing things represented graphically.  Collecting donor zip codes could make for interesting mapping.

Something like this http://lobbydata.com/Donors

Or a donor heat map.

----------


## teacherone

> No I don't know who that is. I am studying for my
> LSAT right now, but sometimes I can't help
> following Ron Paul and the developments in the
> News!


what's with the premature line breaks? maybe you need to see a doctor about that.

----------


## parocks

> It might be worth reiterating this: "Those systems do have a lot of plugins; however, part of that is because everything *must* to be plugged in, whereas you can basically accomplish the same things on the fly in MODx". I guess the only difference really is that Joomla forces a pre-packaged format and business logic, whereas MODx doesn't have that restraint. Having to either modify that format/logic vs. building on the fly in MODx.. there isn't much difference in efficiency that I've ever noticed. In my experience, starting from scratch has been faster for me. However, as you pointed out that is likely because of my emphasis on design.. so that might be unique for my necessity to modify Joomla's plugins in most cases. 
> 
> It seems you are leaning toward more a social solution? I should emphasize that I'm completely open to what you are suggesting here; however, I need more details on the benefits you see it generating and how that applies to each user coming to the web site. 
> 
> Would every person pledging be brought into a social platform or are the social features you are suggesting specific to volunteers for the web site? I guess what I am hung up on is "Each person would have their own community page." Can you define that better for me? What features should that provide? 
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to give your input.. it will be valuable in rounding out a final solution. 
> 
> In conclusion, I'm weighing all this against the ability to redeploy this system out for other moneybombs rapidly when needed and Joomla simply doesn't provide much in that area. What I see is the potential that if this really shows an exceptional result vs prior moneybombs.. we can establish a single database to manage ALL future moneybombs and create a snowball effect by focusing more on retention of the user base built from prior moneybombs.. starting with this one. 
> ...




Let's see.  About joomla vs modx.  I completely get that you don't like how many of the plug ins look on joomla.  you tend to play around with the css on the plugins, yes?  and because you do this, because you want it to look just right, it is almost always a time consuming pain in the ass.  Because you're coming at it from a design perspective, it's really important that  it not look terrible.  I look at is from a functional standpoint.  If the icons for one component look entirely different from another, it's bad design, but I don't care. 
My care is functionality.  I get what you're talking about though.

About community page.  I did a 5K member community site.  We were giving away free downloads,  complete albums, free and with the support of the bands.  So, we could get the user data.   There would be a link - called members, or community.  That page would have a search page, to search the members, and a number of different ways to sort the members.  And also a cool looking list of members - 50 most recent members perhaps.  If you are in PA, you can search the database for other PA members. 

Then each person who gave you their email gets their own community page.  They may never use it.  But it would have features like "my groups" "my events"  private messaging, etc.

This website - if it's good - SHOULD be used for all money bombs.  That's the idea.  

Honestly, the best of the websites should be doing constitution day.  If the THIS moneybomb page is better than the Constitution page,  all the moneybomb specific URLs could be pointing to the best site.

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## ds21089

> what's with the premature line breaks? maybe you need to see a doctor about that.


Atta boy. That's how we're supposed to treat newcomers here. Way to be a _teacher_ and show everyone here how we treat the new guys - with personal attacks. That's how we win this election. That's how we expand our base.

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## teacherone

> Atta boy. That's how we're supposed to treat newcomers here. Way to be a _teacher_ and show everyone here how we treat the new guys - with personal attacks. That's how we win this election. That's how we expand our base.


lol...wut?

seriously?

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## parocks

> I love maps and seeing things represented graphically.  Collecting donor zip codes could make for interesting mapping.
> 
> Something like this http://lobbydata.com/Donors
> 
> Or a donor heat map.


Yes about getting zip codes.  Integrate with google maps.  Get everyones full data, and every contributor will have their location on a google map.
street address, zip code.  Google can take that info, and put it exactly on a map.

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## parocks

> I completely agree. I'm probably going to build a slider feature for the donation amount to make it a little more neat, instead of just a typical dropdown box or rely on the user to format the amount field properly. Kind of like a fail-safe measure. 
> 
> What are your thoughts on collecting ZIP? I'm still at odds with that one. However, location would be really useful for something like a map and feeding results into a map.


Definitely collect full address.

There's a lot of data you want to collect.  Do they go to college, and where?.  Someone is going to have to organize every college in the US, and it's best that this data gets gathered as quickly and as often as possible.

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## parocks

> This might have gotten confused. The pledges won't be reliant on that whatsoever. That would only apply to those who chose to get more involved directly with the web site. For example, if we wanted to bring in publishers to manage certain parts of the web site.


I don't know why people need to be concerned about logging in.  Everyone is logged in here on rpf.

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## ItsTime

People should not have to login to pledge. You want it EASY to do.




> Yes about getting zip codes.  Integrate with google maps.  Get everyones full data, and every contributor will have their location on a google map.
> street address, zip code.  Google can take that info, and put it exactly on a map.


Great idea. Have it an option and not a must.

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## parocks

> Another idea for this moneybomb:
> 
> Allowing users to report misrepresentations by the media. Each report will get screened and published on the moneybomb site. Each story could be individually shared out through social media and every page would have a pledge form, which would be tracked. 
> 
> In this way, not only does it increase exposure to the moneybomb, but it also gives us really great details on how each story influences pledge totals. 
> 
> As an example, say that the New York Times does a nasty hit piece and that one story influences 500 pledges and $50,000 in potential donations. We could then take those details right back to them and instead of lashing out at them, like usual... we can thank them for putting $50,000 more into Ron Paul's war chest. Oops, that backfired!
> 
> If the mainstream media has an agenda to stifle Ron Paul's campaign... knowing that their own stories are basically creating millions in donations.. you have to imagine that might change their tone quite a bit. The more they misrepresent, the more they add fuel to the fire. Knowing that their agenda is self-defeating.. it might just stop them in their tracks.
> ...



I think that you're talking about a new feature of the website.

I'm all in favor of new website features.

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## parocks

Another feature.  Instead of going to this website, could there be a "quick pledge" widget that can be placed anywhere?  The "quick pledge widget" could simply be an email list signup code surrounded by "pledge here now"  We embed this widget whereever we want, and you get the email addresses.  You get the email addresses, and you send the person who entered their email an email talking thanking them for their pledge, telling them that they'll get a reminder email on the day of the moneybomb, and telling them about all the great other features of the site, and how they should come over to the site, and continue filling out all the details we want from them.  If they fill out all the data, send them a sticker.

A QUICK PLEDGE WIDGET  vs  FULL REGISTRATION

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## parkway3000

> lol...wut?
> 
> seriously?


Didn't really get the joke but it's cool. Just here to support Ron Paul.
When I get into law school I will try to spread his message even if he isn't elected.
But i hope he does. I hope nyc'ers aren't so thick headed to listen to a good argument.
Assuming that I do get into law school and in NYC.

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## teacherone

i'm just playing...welcome to the forums

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## parkway3000

Thanks I appreciate it! *Yes it was a typo I corrected it immediately!*

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## teacherone

> Thanks I appreciate it! *Yes it was a typo I corrected it immediately!*


just joshing again! edited my post!

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## dusman

> People should not have to login to pledge. You want it EASY to do.
> 
> Great idea. Have it an option and not a must.


Again, no one will have to log in to pledge. However, there is no way around needing a login for volunteers specifically for the internal functions of the web site. That is what the login is all about.

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## dusman

> Another feature.  Instead of going to this website, could there be a "quick pledge" widget that can be placed anywhere?  The "quick pledge widget" could simply be an email list signup code surrounded by "pledge here now"  We embed this widget whereever we want, and you get the email addresses.  You get the email addresses, and you send the person who entered their email an email talking thanking them for their pledge, telling them that they'll get a reminder email on the day of the moneybomb, and telling them about all the great other features of the site, and how they should come over to the site, and continue filling out all the details we want from them.  If they fill out all the data, send them a sticker.
> 
> A QUICK PLEDGE WIDGET  vs  FULL REGISTRATION


Yep, this was part of what I intended to create. It would derive out of the mobile version of this web site I will create once I'm wrapped up on the main site. This will include badges other web sites can use to promote the moneybomb. Taking pledges from other web sites would be a fantastic feature to deploy.

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## dusman

Collecting ZIP code sounds like we have a consensus on. However, collecting full address I'm against because I wouldn't even do that and I'm pretty liberal about privacy concerns.

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## ItsTime

> Yep, this was part of what I intended to create. It would derive out of the mobile version of this web site I will create once I'm wrapped up on the main site. This will include badges other web sites can use.


Ok sorry, hard to keep up with this thread 




> Collecting ZIP code sounds like we have a consensus on. However, collecting full address I'm against because I wouldn't even do that and I'm pretty liberal about privacy concerns.


Yeah zips only but only if there is a map function.

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## dusman

> Ok sorry, hard to keep up with this thread 
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah zips only but only if there is a map function.


I know! I'm excited all the input.. I'm trying to keep up with my notes and scratch marks! 

Yes, ZIP code is unessential without a map. A map kills the idea that we are some isolated group in one specific locations. I'd want our pledges to look like our meetup group maps.

In fact, can someone take up that effort? This web site is obviously expanding into new ideas and I am putting aside other important efforts to fulfill this one. All I really need for that is once the ZIP codes are pulled from the database, how it gets pulled into the maps and I can integrate it.

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## parocks

> People should not have to login to pledge. You want it EASY to do.
> 
> 
> 
> Great idea. Have it an option and not a must.



Well, I think that dusman agrees with this basic approach, as do you and I.

People will be registering to pledge.  But the way dusman sees it happening is like this:

Person enters, only, their email address.  And then hits a button.
Cannot be simpler.

Then the website sends an email to the email address.  That email thanks them and automatically assigns them a username and a password.
Tells them about the site, tells them the benefit of full registration.  

If they want to complete the full registration, they can.  If they don't, they don't have to.

But they are in the system, and their pledge will be counted, just by entering in their email, and clicking a button, which could say "pledge".

I'm currently looking at widgets.  Ron Paul supporters can grab the code, with the simple "sign up to the email list" code (we're calling it pledging) and paste that code anywhere they can paste code.   

People could simply enter their email and hit "pledge" whereever they see the code on the internet.  They wouldn't even have to go to the website.

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## parocks

> I know! I'm excited all the input.. I'm trying to keep up with my notes and scratch marks! 
> 
> Yes, ZIP code is unessential without a map. A map kills the idea that we are some isolated group in one specific locations. I'd want our pledges to look like our meetup group maps.
> 
> In fact, can someone take up that effort? This web site is obviously expanding into new ideas and I am putting aside other important efforts to fulfill this one. All I really need for that is once the ZIP codes are pulled from the database, how it gets pulled into the maps and I can integrate it.


ZIP codes are useful without a map.  Some geolocator function.  Search for users within a 20 mile radius would be useful without a map.  But they're both geolocating.

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## parocks

> Yep, this was part of what I intended to create. It would derive out of the mobile version of this web site I will create once I'm wrapped up on the main site. This will include badges other web sites can use to promote the moneybomb. Taking pledges from other web sites would be a fantastic feature to deploy.


What you're basically doing is having people signup to your email list.  but you're calling it "donate".  so if you're trying to find a function, it's an email list signup function.  or at least that's one way to go with it.

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## parocks

> Collecting ZIP code sounds like we have a consensus on. However, collecting full address I'm against because I wouldn't even do that and I'm pretty liberal about privacy concerns.


Someone mentioned something about sending free stickers.   Getting the full address could be optional.  But if people are registering with just an email address (and it seems like this easily could be the case), really, almost everything is optional.

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## dusman

> Well, I think that dusman agrees with this basic approach, as do you and I.
> 
> People will be registering to pledge.  But the way dusman sees it happening is like this:
> 
> Person enters, only, their email address.  And then hits a button.
> Cannot be simpler.
> 
> Then the website sends an email to the email address.  That email thanks them and automatically assigns them a username and a password.
> Tells them about the site, tells them the benefit of full registration.  
> ...


Exactly right. Actually there really isn't even a need to find a widget.. after looking at it, I can simply use an iframe with the form and let others embed the code, similar to how YouTube works.

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## dusman

Need an accessibility report from a few of you. After half a day of headaches with DNS propagation problems.. I think we are in working order for the most part. We still have potential 24 hour time period for propagation.. but can you all go to www.blackthisout.com and confirm or deny that you have access?

Also provide location if you don't have it listed.. if you don't mind please!

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## teacherone

i see the header.looks great!

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## parocks

nothing fairpoint maine

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## dusman

> nothing fairpoint maine


Thanks, if you don't mind keep me posted if and when it comes in. If not by tomorrow.. then there may still be issues.

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## TexMac

I see it.  Bridgeport CT

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## parocks

Please check back at a later time. We are currently revamping the web site. Pledging will be available shortly.  - got it

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## Paul4Prez

This is starting to percolate on the back burner, while 9/17 gets ready to boil on the front....

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## constitutionalism

You should add a section with links that would direct people to send comments and complaints to media outlets.

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