Email idea. Next step.

[LinuxJedi]

The point is not "another website", at least to me... not sure the OP's view. I think we need something that is a type of political SVN + Project Management, which I do not believe exists at this moment. Yes, the concept might be fleshed out into a website at the end, but the driving technology would be fairly unique. Collaboration is required at a massive scale, and I don't think that even open-source projects (including the Linux kernel itself) achieve this.

Yes, there is Facebook... there are other websites that have served well to get things this far... but I don't know of any technology (or site) that really would help coordinate at the scale required to transform a country. I think the more ideas that bounce around as to what such a tool would look like, what we are doing right and wrong, the better we are able to prepare for the future.

 

[parocks]

I'd be interested to know what ideas all you out there think is the next step. How do we connect with each other and grow the movement?

The campaign is winding down, C4L is a non-event, facebook will likely dry up after the campaign, the meetups are already dormant. What is it that we need to do to sustain our efforts? What is the fabric that's gonna hold us together? It's easy to sit back and wait for someone else to take the first step and jump on board later. It's easy to say "we're decentralized and the free market of ideas will manifest into something". It's easy to say join your local GOP become a precinct leader and have an every man for himself attitude.

But how are we going to keep communications? Who's going to notify who of what's happening? Is it not time for us to have some semblance of organization that isn't solely based on the campaign of the day?

The way I see it, we've had 5 years since this all began. We've latched on to these social networks but I don't think they are doing the job that needs to be done. We've gone from creative grassroots organizing to simply following and commenting on news pieces. How many threads are actually grassroots related? Shouldn't there exist something after all this time that allows supporters to easily plug into it and get the info they need.

Thoughts?

Thoughts?

You're basically right. But another website isn't gonna help. You put up a website, you think it's great. It might be great, it might suck. Doesn't matter. Because nobody knows it's there. And there are already websites that people use. And you won't get enough traffic to make it worthwhile.

If you have a lot of money, you can possibly buy ronpaulforums. you can possibly buy daily paul. And if you owned one of those websites, you can add the features you want, and it will be successful.

The question is: how does a website become successful when there are already many many websites doing the same basic thing?

The answer is: money. Buy the other, smaller Ron Paul websites. Combine them and roll them up into one with a large user base. Or buy rpf or dp.

 

[LinuxJedi]

You're basically right. But another website isn't gonna help. You put up a website, you think it's great. It might be great, it might suck. Doesn't matter. Because nobody knows it's there. And there are already websites that people use. And you won't get enough traffic to make it worthwhile.

You could say this about pretty much any website. I think the point is that the website should be an interface to a special tool to help do the coordination, think webapp not website.

 

[wizardwatson]

[I rearranged your quote a bit]

You're starting from a spot where you're completely unknown. In an area where there are already many alternatives. Facebook does exist. Facebook is what most people use already in their day to day lives. People naturally gravitiate to Facebook. In 2008, people used meetup. They still do use meetup. And there's Ronpaulforums, and Daily Paul. And 50 smaller Ron Paul sites. Many of the Ron Paul sites have the community features, the ability to send email features, etc etc etc.

The barrier is that. There are too many already.

From a practical standpoint, the way to go is to try to fix the existing sites instead of creating a new one, unless the new one is extremely good, far superior to the existing site, and extremely well funded and/or has a lot of people who want to spend a lot of time doing work to get users in the database.

Since we're all here on Ron Paul Forums, the best way to get this organizational site to happen, and for it to work, as opposed to being yet another pointless jerkoffery site is to get Ron Paul Forums to add these features.

I agree that too many sites is the barrier, and I'm totally on board with pimping out RPF with more organizational tools. My point about the newsletter idea though is that we need something more simple, direct and easier for people who aren't internet savvy (or simply don't have the time) to participate in. I'm not really talking about a new website or a new tool but simply taking a step back and looking at what we aren't doing and what we aren't using. I think people are getting caught up in thinking more "organization" exists than there actually is.

This discussion is very similar to 6-9 month old discussions where the topic was "we need to be organized. how do we do this?" There were a lot of those conversations. This conversation is very similar to those conversations.

This is nice thought experiment, where people type ideas about organization and why it is good.

I'm aware of this and I've been a party to these topics over the last five years. These ideas and convos generally get buried because ideas that will actually move us forward ultimately require work and people generally feel someone else will do the work and they can sit on the sidelines and watch and occasionally comment on it.

I've started many "idea" threads and I know they don't work for the most part. It takes effort. You have to convince individuals. Individuals in public forums like this are perhaps the hardest to convince. Especially if you're trying to convince them that they need to do work. It's ironic that we spend so much effort typing and typing and posting and posting and it seems effortless, but whenever we're presented with a path to action immediately there's a resistance. It's psychological. People aren't on here to be active and "grassrootsy" for the most part they are on here and on every other forum to be social.

So yeah, mostly these end up being "thought experiments" because that's the extent to which your average forum poster is willing to commit. So it's no mystery to me why threads like these die or get resistance the way they do. Sending me email and contact info for instance raises all sorts of alarms in people I think, one of which is the idea that I may actually contact them and ask them to share the workload.

 

[wizardwatson]

Maybe before asking how to connect, we should figure out why. What will happen? Publicizing events is great. Who is planning these events? What is the purpose of the events? I too am trying to figure out the best next step.

Well, in Topeka where I live there is very little that happens on a day to day basis. GOP here has maybe 10 to 15 significant events in a year. Probably in most towns very little at all happens. That's why I talk about expanding the base of activists that we include in the list. Combine everyone's event info in the same newsletter, why not? Liberts, reform, dems, reps, I see no reason to filter event info. If anything I see a lack of local happenings even IF we combined all local political happenings.

Yeah, you need to moderate offensive or spammy info, but I'd be interested myself in knowing all that was happening around me. I might take the time out to go to a dem function if nothing else was happening that week.

 

[wizardwatson]

The point is not "another website", at least to me... not sure the OP's view. I think we need something that is a type of political SVN + Project Management, which I do not believe exists at this moment. Yes, the concept might be fleshed out into a website at the end, but the driving technology would be fairly unique. Collaboration is required at a massive scale, and I don't think that even open-source projects (including the Linux kernel itself) achieve this.

Yes, there is Facebook... there are other websites that have served well to get things this far... but I don't know of any technology (or site) that really would help coordinate at the scale required to transform a country. I think the more ideas that bounce around as to what such a tool would look like, what we are doing right and wrong, the better we are able to prepare for the future.

I'm not talking about another "site". I'm just trying to solve the problem of getting local supporters familiar with one another and working together. I think there are a lot of roadblocks for individuals to do this from where they are outward and I think some national grassroots organizing is in order to solve this problem. Succeed where C4L failed basically. I'm open to others ideas, I've posted mine.

 

[Barrex]

Well I was saying this (and more) even before Iowa (you can see my started threads). Most of the problems are obvious and self evident (to me)... but people were/are simply not interested (grassroots section got 5 /generous/ grassroots related threads).....

In short from my "ultimate rant" :o threads (copy/paste summary):

-Could this entire section "Alternatives to Official Campaign" be moved to grassroots and be entirely dedicated to activism,planing and action. Zero news, zero meaningless conversations, zero irrelevant stories.... just 100% activism.
-have active line of communication with other RP sites and exchange ideas. So when there is good idea all can jump on board and help;
If we had little box on homepage called (for example) "action of the day" (1-2 at the time) where people are encouraged to do something productive before posting in meaninges threads:
Example: letters to the Editor of newspapers
All these actions would take less than 1 min and there are so many people here online that it would be significant contribution.Also they are all FREE FAST EASY. Collecting information and -dont see real database of relevant information;
building huge contact database:
-email, faxes etc. of every media (TV,radio,amatuer radio,newspaper, hologram,TV shows,radio shows,every reporter...) in USA.
-there is failure to recruit new people;
-There is serious lack of organization;
-there is lack of coordination;
-there is way too many comments "what you are doing is crap in comparison what I am doing";
-waaaay to many threads created in grassroots central;
-Make it easier for projects to be realised by having links to all projects and short explanation of them in 1 thread (made sticky) or on home page (would be better);
-On homepage there could be box with positive articles that member should click on so that those articles show higher in web searches;
-have 1 or more moderators only for projects....who would give help to people who would realise projects or got ideas;
Are you beeing coordinated in any way?(Remember Ron Pauls words: COALITIONS!)
If not why not?
-Lack of organization;
-Lack of leader/s;
-too few people are involved;
-lack of coordination;
-preparations not done on time;
-money-bomb website problems;
-buy me beer....

I noticed these things after few weeks on this forum. 12-11-2011 was my first attempt to point at them; 01-10-2012 was suprised how things are not organized and ineffective; around 04-17-2012 I became peaceful about it (God give me strenght to change things I can and peace of mind to accept those that I can not.)... peaceful but little sad because this place had great potential....

I had few new Ideas and observations but I see no use in posting them...

EDIT:
***If you decide to look up my threads please dont revive them I consider them dead and I dont want to derail this thread.

 

[parocks]

Well I was saying this (and more) even before Iowa (you can see my started threads). Most of the problems are obvious and self evident (to me)... but people were/are simply not interested (grassroots section got 5 /generous/ grassroots related threads).....

In short from my "ultimate rant" :o threads (copy/paste summary):



I noticed these things after few weeks on this forum. 12-11-2011 was my first attempt to point at them; 01-10-2012 was suprised how things are not organized and ineffective; around 04-17-2012 I became peaceful about it (God give me strenght to change things I can and peace of mind to accept those that I can not.)... peaceful but little sad because this place had great potential....

I had few new Ideas and observations but I see no use in posting them...

EDIT:
***If you decide to look up my threads please dont revive them I consider them dead and I dont want to derail this thread.

Yes, by and large, we suck.

One example - there's a very common theory here that if we ENJOY doing something, it's a good thing to do.

Watch for the word ENJOY. That's a big red flag right there.

I could type and type. Epic fail does not necessarily lose to win here.
I suspect many here are trolls, more than one would think.

 

[parocks]

Well, in Topeka where I live there is very little that happens on a day to day basis. GOP here has maybe 10 to 15 significant events in a year. Probably in most towns very little at all happens. That's why I talk about expanding the base of activists that we include in the list. Combine everyone's event info in the same newsletter, why not? Liberts, reform, dems, reps, I see no reason to filter event info. If anything I see a lack of local happenings even IF we combined all local political happenings.

Yeah, you need to moderate offensive or spammy info, but I'd be interested myself in knowing all that was happening around me. I might take the time out to go to a dem function if nothing else was happening that week.

I'm in Maine. I'm not interested in losing the plot. I know that Ron Paul supporters are on state committee for my county, and I'm in touch with them. I've offered to help them, and want to be in the loop for things like county committee votes. I'm not all that interested in going to a lot of meetings, but I do want to go to the important ones.

Point being. Hierarchical structure. Based on Geography.

Maine is likely the easiest state out there. Small, and a lot of Ron Paul people there.

Would like to avoid situations where people come on here saying things like "I'm in state X, the election is tomorrow, and I'm completely clueless".

Each state should have a leader. That leader should have a list. The data on that list should be on a website. State / County / Town. We should be to tell anybody - check that website - be in contact with your town, county, state leader for instructions.

 

[wizardwatson]

More nuts and bolts

More nuts and bolts [UPDATED 06-07-12 CHANGED EMAIL GROUP IDEA TO GOOGLE GROUP]

Basically I envision the system working with 5 basic documents. One is the contact list which should include at a minimum name, email, city and state. County, phone, and other data could be added but I'd say it doesn't really matter at the initial stage. Two is a organizational document explaining what the project is and how to participate. A basic instruction manual on what we're doing/trying to do and how to participate. Three is a "map". This would be THE go to document for supporters to find out all the information they'd want/need to know for what's happening, who's who and where to participate and discuss. Four is an archive document of all the emails that have been blasted out to supporters. Five is a log book of who is doing what and will be internal to the committees to basically record rep and will be used to replace people in the committees who are inactive.

The committees

The whole thing will hinge on the committee. It will be the basic unit of the organization and eventually each geographic area will have a committee. At first we just need one national committee of say 10 or so people. These people should be "web warriors" in that all they really do is maintain the above mentioned web documents, answer emails, and email supporters summaries of what's happening locally/currently. It would simply be a google group (mailing list). Whenever someone wants to join the list they email the committee. When someone wants to promote a project they email the committee. When an email needs to be propagated out to supporters someone in the committee uses the contact list and sends it out.

So you want to join the list, you email the committee. Someone on the group replys to all "i got this" that person updates the contact list and sends a "done" email to the group after responding to the original supporter and the item is deleted. Same for a project, someone from the committee updates the "map" and after its handled and supporter is notified item is deleted.

[ADDED 06/07/12] This scenario can easily be done using a google group. The committee sets up a google group and invites committee members to join. Only can join the group via invite. All the posts remain private but anyone can email the group (using the groups email address) and create the post/action item. Committee members take responsibility for an item with an "i got it" post after making sure they are the only one handling that item (see logbook description below). Having this group makes it to where the supporter can be assured that someone is handling their item and that it will be handled quickly.

In Gmail this could be structured as follows: Someone from the committee has an alias email address that supporters email, say [email protected]. That's the email supporters use. That address has a filter that forwards to all members of the group. Members of the group take responsibility for the item by a "I got it" reply all email and a follow up one after the task is complete. In this way there's redundancy and the supporter can be assured that someone will take action. When you just email one person they may be away for however long and the feedback loop might be too long.

The map

There needs to be one central document where all the important info can be recorded and linked to. This document could be a google doc that all members of the committee can update. Things could be broken down as header info and events/projects/people/information broken down by area. Header info would be links to the organizational document, and would have links to drill down to other map documents for specific areas maintained by respective local committees. The header would also have the email addresses for the committees so members know where to send information to. The body of the document would be project/event/people/information SUMMARIES, not all the information. The summaries should simply state date, status, description, and a link to a forum or other website/network where the details can be found. When too many projects exist and are outdated or inactive they can be archived (link to archives on map doc).

Email and email archive and contact list

The actual emails sent to supporters should include actionable items that are important and current. It's the committees job to view the map and pick out things that are actionable/notable, perhaps some brief descriptions of local news items (but limit this) and meta-info about how this project is going, how many members/committees etc. All these emails should be recorded in an archive document so supporters can play catch up and view info that might be outside their area. Again, SUMMARIES and LINKS, not giant emails describing everything, let the supporter decide what they want to drill down to. When supporters are actually to be emailed someone from the committee takes responsibility and imports (this is Gmail way) the list into a contact group and then sends it, simple to do. Doesn't have to be the same person every time it's not difficult importing emails into a group in gmail.

Organization document

Like I said this is just the advertising and instructional manual for this project. This task I'm going to spearhead. I'll be on the national committee and people with feedback or improvement ideas can email the committee and then the doc can be updated/expanded.

The logbook

Committees should all have a logbook where they can update how much time they've spent doing work in say a weeks time. This will be a good barometer to know who is doing what and inactive committee members can be replaced. Nothing personal but to be on the committee means to do work, if you don't have time for that someone who does needs to be in your place.

[Added 06/7/12] Another function of the logbook is to make sure tasks aren't being duplicated by committee members. Before a committee member begins a task they enter it into the logbook (date, senders email, subject). Since it's a shared doc the committee member will know/see if someone else is trying to do the same task, only when you're sure you're the only one handling it will you send out the "got it" email.

Projects and links

It's important to point out that the committees and their members are NOT project organizers. They are informational and communication agents. If you or someone else has a project they should notify the committee to get it part of the map. The map should link to say a forum post. That forum post should have contacts listed for that project organizer/coordinator. It's the committees job to propagate info about events and projects that are taking place NOT TO HANDLE RSVPS.

It's my feeling that all these projects and event info should link to discussion boards. Even if its an election campaign. Let the discussion board link to more drilled down info like the candidates website, who to RSVP, etc. This way from receiving an email about a project users are only 2 or 3 clicks away from participating and discussing and aren't blasted with a page worth of text via an email. For important events/projects it probably would be good to send the email to RSVP to with the summary as many people (who use their phone for email) might want to get involved but don't have direct access to the web.

Going forward

Like I said, initially just one national committee, I think 10 or so people could handle a significant amount of information and when it becomes too much we split it off into regions at first and then state by state. The map document is the hub though for linking and directing people to the right address to send the info and join the list.

This is the basic outline I see, it's achievable and simple enough for everyone to see how it works. We don't need a "leader" or a president or a corporation. We do however need people to do the work. I see a lot of potential for all us web warriors to make up these committees considering how much effort we expend online doing very little in the direction of liberty. I'm working on cleaning up the documentation and ironing out the details (still a work in progress) but I think this is the path we need to take so I'm trying to stay focused and committed long term.

I'm going to form this initial committee and when I get the documentation together and an initial list of volunteers who are willing to spend a few hours a week working on this and get the documents shared and put up, I'm going to go more hardcore into pushing it out and asking for stickies and blasting out to meetups/facebook and whatnot. Still not at that point yet. Again feedback is appreciated and let me know if you'd like to help and in what capacity, I've got a short list right now and I'm not playing email tag with everyone yet but I'm getting there.

 

[wizardwatson]

Well I was saying this (and more) even before Iowa (you can see my started threads). Most of the problems are obvious and self evident (to me)... but people were/are simply not interested (grassroots section got 5 /generous/ grassroots related threads).....

In short from my "ultimate rant" :o threads (copy/paste summary):



I noticed these things after few weeks on this forum. 12-11-2011 was my first attempt to point at them; 01-10-2012 was suprised how things are not organized and ineffective; around 04-17-2012 I became peaceful about it (God give me strenght to change things I can and peace of mind to accept those that I can not.)... peaceful but little sad because this place had great potential....

I had few new Ideas and observations but I see no use in posting them...

EDIT:
***If you decide to look up my threads please dont revive them I consider them dead and I dont want to derail this thread.

I agree with most of your observations. However I think the solution is to put forward ideas to solve the problems that are more direct and clear and make sense to people. Yes lack of organization is obvious but the cure is not. I think that's what frustrates people. We know we can do better but what do we rally around? What is the "next step"? Yes we all want to be creative and independent but at the same time we know we need marching orders and we need to do mundane stuff. Once we have something functionable that lots of people are contributing to, then we can all spread our wings so to speak

I'm in the same boat as you are. I see the problems, the inefficiencies, the wasted effort, the constant noise of irrelevant posts and threads, and all the rest of it. All I can say is we have to keep looking for a way out. Don't give up. There are other people on here, I would say hundreds on this forum alone, that see the potential and are looking for a way forward that capitalizes on the assets we have right now (a large online community). This project is ultimately about connecting with those people and showing them a template of what could work. And not just that "it" could work but that "it" is something that fills a critical need in the movement.

I'm no visionary, I'm just someone who's been thinking about this for a while now and I think I have a good idea. It's not perfect and its not even finely tuned yet but I think I'm barking up the right tree, and with the feedback I'm getting others are agreeing.

 

[wizardwatson]

Yes, by and large, we suck.

One example - there's a very common theory here that if we ENJOY doing something, it's a good thing to do.

Watch for the word ENJOY. That's a big red flag right there.

Definitely people have that theory. It's fun to be a part of the Ron Paul movements social following. It's a self-esteem builder. This is why it's hard to get grassroots projects off the ground. They inevitably begin with "we need to [insert work here]", which a lot of people instinctively shy away from. There's positive self-esteem feedback involved with work too, even more so, but it requires work. This project requires work, it requires work INDEFINITELY as any long term venture does. In the beginning some people will inevitably do more than their share. Only after it's taken off will the burden be shared more evenly.

This is why I'm not rabidly spamming for emails at this point in time. I don't want an initial list of 300 people if only 10 of them are actually interested in doing stuff. I want to find those 10 people first, then, when we've got some people ready to work we can spread out into people that are only interested in propagating some info here and there. That's also why I elaborated in post #30 above about committees. The whole purpose of having a group of 10 people getting emailed action items is to make sure someone takes action. Peer pressure. Having ten people singularly handle events for their respective area alone I predict would simply atrophy WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO C4L IN MY STATE.

So yeah, we suck as far as organizing goes but I think it can be fixed. What I think we need to sell to people is a clear path to action. Everyone's tired of reading and seeing noise and not seeing action. Many of us want a clear path to action, and that's what this idea is about. Creating a shortest path to action as possible.

 

[wizardwatson]

I'm in Maine. I'm not interested in losing the plot. I know that Ron Paul supporters are on state committee for my county, and I'm in touch with them. I've offered to help them, and want to be in the loop for things like county committee votes. I'm not all that interested in going to a lot of meetings, but I do want to go to the important ones.

Point being. Hierarchical structure. Based on Geography.

Maine is likely the easiest state out there. Small, and a lot of Ron Paul people there.

Would like to avoid situations where people come on here saying things like "I'm in state X, the election is tomorrow, and I'm completely clueless".

Each state should have a leader. That leader should have a list. The data on that list should be on a website. State / County / Town. We should be to tell anybody - check that website - be in contact with your town, county, state leader for instructions.

see post #30 added a few of my ideas

Essentially yes, I'm talking hierarchical geographical based list management and two-way email information propagation. However, it's not about a "leader". I think we have geographical based committees responsible for maintaining their list and keeping track of projects/events and blasting this info out to supporters. But no GOP or Libert or Reform party "leaders" are part of the scheme. Those people I would simply consider "project" leads.

The overall idea is to separate individual projects/initiatives from the actual organization of the idea/project I'm talking about. A state GOP chairman or whatever would simply send his project/event info to his geographical committee who would then add this info to the master document and would blast out emails to supporters. The point of the newsletter idea is not to actually force participation or put people on the spot but simply inform them efficiently of what's going on. It's still the supporters job to take action on those items.

A state level GOP guy for instance would use the network to get his meeting info out, but if he wanted a direct list of supporters he'd have to build it himself. The committees job is simply to inform the supporter of the GOP guys projects and events, he isn't going to be able to co-opt the list.

The idea in general is not about micro-managing every project that comes down the pipes but rather to organize and document it along with others. People from all across the political spectrum would be part of the supporter list, and it wouldn't make sense to allow direct access to our supporter list. How would we even manage that? There's no efficient way I can see to decide whose project is important enough to allow direct email access. That's not the goal as I see it. The goal is building a network of activists who are informed and given a clear path to action. We lead them to water we don't make them drink.

 

[ninepointfive]

Mailing lists are the bread and butter. Trying to get a consolidation of email lists is noble, but too many egos at work will destroy this plan.

famously happened on this board last year with some key players

 

[wizardwatson]

Mailing lists are the bread and butter. Trying to get a consolidation of email lists is noble, but too many egos at work will destroy this plan.

famously happened on this board last year with some key players

Yes they are. This plan is more than a list though. I'm not familiar with what famously happened on this board, you got a link? It wasn't famous enough for me to know about it. Those key players need to get back in the game, why give up? What is going to happen outside the grassroots? The only thing that destroys a plan is having a bad one.

I think the "ego" problem can be overcome by not putting singular people in charge, hence groups/committees. Without knowing what you're talking about though I can't compare this to that.

 

[Barrex]

Mailing lists are the bread and butter. Trying to get a consolidation of email lists is noble, but too many egos at work will destroy this plan.

famously happened on this board last year with some key players

Agree. Bread and butter.... When I said that there needs to be database of emails of activists, every local news media contact, database for everything people mentioned that Mossad (Israeli secret agency) would hack them. I was new on this forum then and said "ok"(I didnt get it but I didnt wanted to push it because moderators were against it too).

 

[ninepointfive]

Yes they are. This plan is more than a list though. I'm not familiar with what famously happened on this board, you got a link? It wasn't famous enough for me to know about it. Those key players need to get back in the game, why give up? What is going to happen outside the grassroots? The only thing that destroys a plan is having a bad one.

I think the "ego" problem can be overcome by not putting singular people in charge, hence groups/committees. Without knowing what you're talking about though I can't compare this to that.

Hmmm - I can't give you a link - But basically people were really dogging on Trevor Lyman for not sharing his email list outright.
It had to do with promoting Black This Out moneybomb.

Trevor Left RPF entirely after the way he was treated.

 

[wizardwatson]

Agree. Bread and butter.... When I said that there needs to be database of emails of activists, every local news media contact, database for everything people mentioned that Mossad (Israeli secret agency) would hack them. I was new on this forum then and said "ok"(I didnt get it but I didnt wanted to push it because moderators were against it too).

Yeah, I saw some of that on another thread about lists. People have to opt-in, there's no other way about it. I think some limited promotion would be acceptable though even if it's through email. Take a forum for instance. A forum owner might decide that the project is a good idea and encourage members to support it via an administrative email. I think this kind of "spam" from someone who owns a list would be acceptable, but no we wouldn't want anyone to just "give" a list over to a project.

Hmmm - I can't give you a link - But basically people were really dogging on Trevor Lyman for not sharing his email list outright.
It had to do with promoting Black This Out moneybomb.

Trevor Left RPF entirely after the way he was treated.

Yeah, that's not the way to go. Who is he going to share with? Who is the entity that wanted that list? Was it a specific person?

There's a way to go about it. I don't see nothing wrong with people being emailed to opt-in to something as long as it's from someone they've already signed up with as a general concept. I get "opt-in" email requests from all sorts of companies I've shared my email with. But the "opt-in" stage is necessary, you can't just grab someone's list and started plugging your agenda.

I think this is a well understood and is standard operating procedure. I get emails from my video store and netflix for instance all the time but I don't get a lot of "spam" because likely these companies are not just selling or sharing my email willy nilly.

 

[LinuxJedi]

I have some feedback to provide on the organizational structure, but first: it is critical that there is some sane way of keeping a healthy environment in place. I myself have left RPF for periods of time after being brutally insulted by "supporters" who are here to destroy others working. It is absolutely vital that some way of calling out this bad behavior is in place, people use pseudo-anonymity on the Internet as an excuse to behave in a completely unacceptable manner. It is important that people be able to talk and discuss matters, but it is something else entirely when an angry mob is developing with pitchforks calling for blood... and they take out their frustrations on other supporters nearby.

I know that the original intention was to discuss some form of committee / mailing list thing... and there are some refinements that can accompany that. However, it is important to figure out how to address some of these issues. Do you moderate messages up until some threshold, where people have "proven" themselves? Do you encourage locals to moderate each other when they step out of line? Is there some form of process for addressing these types of actions?

For a concrete example... what do you do if some member (perhaps even on one of these proposed committees) starts to throw a tantrum and alienating others with conspiracy theories or general bashing?

Also, I think there is a good opportunity here to really adopt rules of order in a digital form. Perhaps if we mirror this organizational structure with that of how the GOP should be run, people will be more familiar with it when they go to conventions?

 

[Paul Fan]

So basically the idea is Ron Paul Event & Project News - but pushed out by email rather than being actively sought. I still think that the first step is to make the news available on a website and invite people to opt in. If the news is interesting, then people will opt in. Think about Townhall. You can go to the Townhall website and see all the news. Or you can get it emailed to you if you opt in. But you don't opt in until you have checked out the website a couple days or weeks running, and decide that this is information that you want in your inbox.

I like this idea, it has a different focus from the "social forums" (RPF & DP). It might give events and projects more visibility and more support. They tend to get lost in the chatter on the forums. Perhaps the main challenge may be getting the word out to the people who are creating and running the Events and Projects, to tell you about their events/projects so they can be included in the news. Who are these people? How will they know to contact you? This is where you need to come up with a plan for reaching out to existing state people and get them to agree to give you info.