The original plan obviously worked. As a PAC donations were limited to 5k (outside of campaign donations) and under that premise almost 500k was pledged so I see no reason why that plan had to change.
I think what has happened here is that the 15 minutes of fame really got the best of Trevor. This became obvious to me a few weeks back when a poll where 89% of respondents said the daily email for the teaparty was a bad idea was completely ignored by Trevor. I pleaded with him through emails, posts, pm's about reconsidering his daily email idea as I knew a bunch of people that weren't signing up because of it. For every X number of people that didn't sign up because of this I am sure a certain percentage will forget to donate on the 16th. A simple reminder a few days before the event and the day of the event would have encouraged more people to sign up and not alienated those that didn't want to receive daily spam.
89% of poll respondents saw this, yet Trevor arrogantly told me that he owned a marketing company and he knew what he was doing and the daily email was a good idea. At that point I completely lost faith on the guy and lost my enthusiasm to contribute to any aspect of the grassroots that involved him. I could tell his ego was going to his head.
Another insignificantly small detail that proves my point is the fact that he signs his daily teaparty spam "Trevor Lyman" at the bottom. Do we really need to know his name? Why not sign "A Ron Paul Grassroots Effort" or something to that effect? It is obvious he has been trying to make a name for himself from day one. The teaparty is a grassroots effort it is not a Trevor Lyman effort, so why sign the daily spam with his name?
The November 5th idea was not his idea, he took it from someone else and the same goes for the Teaparty idea. He is an average web developer at best as we have seen with all the problems the site has encountered, how long it took to go live, the fact that the counter is still not updated automatically, the fact that the footprint of the page is enormous affecting bandwith, etc.
His ego is now sinking the blimp idea which would have been a great innovative media attention gathering event. There was no need to form a private company...other than the need to continue to further his own Trevor Lyman cause.
He will argue that to collect the millions needed to fly the blimp for a year the private company was needed to circumvent the 5k per donor PAC limit. Well I strongly disagree. First of all the major impact of the blimp will be the first month it flies as the media will be all over it, after that period I am not even sure that the 350k for each subsequent month couldn't be better spent elsewhere. Under the PAC premises in a few days 500k was funded and I am sure at least 2 months (700k) could have been collected without having to get any donations larger than 5k. Those two months would have carried the blimp into the majority of the primary elections and probably into the SuperBowl. After that point Ron Paul will either have won the primary or not. If he wins it plenty of new supporters will join his cause and plenty of new money would become available to keep funding the blimp still under the PAC, if not, the blimp is no longer needed.
An individual's greed is causing a lot of turmoil in what has been to date an amazing grassroots effort. I am not trying to cause waves here but I am very dissapointed at how Trevor has let his 15 minutes of fame completely derail this cause. The grassroots need to follow a new leader for future moneybombs and other major GRASSROOTS efforts. I have no idea who that new leader is but I have seen several posters on the boards that would probably step up to the plate. I really wanted to see this blimp fly but I am very discouraged by what has happened.
I think what has happened here is that the 15 minutes of fame really got the best of Trevor. This became obvious to me a few weeks back when a poll where 89% of respondents said the daily email for the teaparty was a bad idea was completely ignored by Trevor. I pleaded with him through emails, posts, pm's about reconsidering his daily email idea as I knew a bunch of people that weren't signing up because of it. For every X number of people that didn't sign up because of this I am sure a certain percentage will forget to donate on the 16th. A simple reminder a few days before the event and the day of the event would have encouraged more people to sign up and not alienated those that didn't want to receive daily spam.
89% of poll respondents saw this, yet Trevor arrogantly told me that he owned a marketing company and he knew what he was doing and the daily email was a good idea. At that point I completely lost faith on the guy and lost my enthusiasm to contribute to any aspect of the grassroots that involved him. I could tell his ego was going to his head.
Another insignificantly small detail that proves my point is the fact that he signs his daily teaparty spam "Trevor Lyman" at the bottom. Do we really need to know his name? Why not sign "A Ron Paul Grassroots Effort" or something to that effect? It is obvious he has been trying to make a name for himself from day one. The teaparty is a grassroots effort it is not a Trevor Lyman effort, so why sign the daily spam with his name?
The November 5th idea was not his idea, he took it from someone else and the same goes for the Teaparty idea. He is an average web developer at best as we have seen with all the problems the site has encountered, how long it took to go live, the fact that the counter is still not updated automatically, the fact that the footprint of the page is enormous affecting bandwith, etc.
His ego is now sinking the blimp idea which would have been a great innovative media attention gathering event. There was no need to form a private company...other than the need to continue to further his own Trevor Lyman cause.
He will argue that to collect the millions needed to fly the blimp for a year the private company was needed to circumvent the 5k per donor PAC limit. Well I strongly disagree. First of all the major impact of the blimp will be the first month it flies as the media will be all over it, after that period I am not even sure that the 350k for each subsequent month couldn't be better spent elsewhere. Under the PAC premises in a few days 500k was funded and I am sure at least 2 months (700k) could have been collected without having to get any donations larger than 5k. Those two months would have carried the blimp into the majority of the primary elections and probably into the SuperBowl. After that point Ron Paul will either have won the primary or not. If he wins it plenty of new supporters will join his cause and plenty of new money would become available to keep funding the blimp still under the PAC, if not, the blimp is no longer needed.
An individual's greed is causing a lot of turmoil in what has been to date an amazing grassroots effort. I am not trying to cause waves here but I am very dissapointed at how Trevor has let his 15 minutes of fame completely derail this cause. The grassroots need to follow a new leader for future moneybombs and other major GRASSROOTS efforts. I have no idea who that new leader is but I have seen several posters on the boards that would probably step up to the plate. I really wanted to see this blimp fly but I am very discouraged by what has happened.
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