5 ms·

How specifically to you plan to reach voters? Would these be ad buys? You might consider sponsoring youtube videos from prominent creators with audiences likely

How specifically to you plan to reach voters? Would these be ad buys? You might consider sponsoring youtube videos from prominent creators with audiences likely to be interested. When i went to the site i was expecting to see cleanly presented and organized analyses (538 style). Condensing data into concise, impactful, and shareable content will probably be essential to your success. Personally i expect to see demonstrations of that capability before i would consider donating. Nicely articulating a cause in essay format isn't enough unless you're just trying to sell your skills as an essayist.

yummypaint 6y ago
An example might be making baseball card style images for each candidate which also contain some sort of supporting data. Anyone can trivially fire up an image editor and put checkmarks or crosses next to someone's name. The value is in the persuasive capability of the analysis. I just wanted to echo other commenters suggestions to present as much of the data as possible. The content you make should provide people with information that they can use to persuade others. If someone juat tells me that x organization supports y candidate, i generally couldn't care less. That has to be immediately followed by "because"
- r3trohack3r 6y ago
  Very much agree with this. We have started some early data collection. I tentatively feel there is a very strong "because" for some of our representatives. An example: We strongly oppose candidate X because they permitted the unconstitutional Presidential Surveillance Program while sitting on the Senate Intelligence Committee. You can run ads in their district "Your government is actively breaking the law. Candidate X is allowing it. Vote them out." The November 2013 Senate Intelligence Committee meeting (recording available online) has some pretty good quotes that would line up nicely with the supreme courts ruling on the program.
  - pvg 6y ago
    Candidate X is allowing it. Vote them out Can you actually do that with unregulated money you've raised for issue advocacy?
    - r3trohack3r 6y ago
      I'd like to get someone who knows more than me to weigh in here, but as a 527 I'm raising the money to directly influence elections as a primary purpose. Most 501s can only focus on issue advocacy and can't run ads like this without losing their non-profit status. From what I understand of election law, we should be in the clear for running ads supporting/opposing representatives.
      - pvg 6y ago
        A 527 that advertises 'vote them out' has to comply with state and federal campaign finance regulations. A 527 that doesn't explicitly do that doesn't. I'd like to get someone who knows more I want to say this as politely as I can but... shouldn't you have that sorted out before taking money from people?
        r3trohack3r 6y ago
        > Shouldn't you have that sorted out before taking money from people? I believe I have, though haven't done a great job of sharing that context! I've gotten input on our structure from folks w/ experience and legal background saying this is sound, but very much welcome additional input. I understand that ignorance of the law doesn't retroactively exempt you from the law. The more eyes we have on our structure the better; I suspect we will come under quite a bit of scrutiny as we make progress and would like to have our house in order when that happens.
        pvg 6y ago
        I guess my question is, if you're raising money not-for-a-campaign but on issues, how are you then going to use that money for explicit advocacy for a candidate's election, where limits actually kick in. Isn't that the whole point of 'superpac' style 527s - that they don't do that and are thus not subject to those regulations? Can you talk a bit about this? 'Vote for this person' is precisely the type of ad these orgs don't make because their financing is regulated.
r3trohack3r 6y ago
Agreed and appreciate the feedback. Today is our official launch, we have a long way to go. I'm not happy with the state of our data. We had the trade-off conversation about waiting to ship until we felt it "complete" and shipping now to get feedback and spread the message. We have a bet that we aren't the only ones who are disturbed by what our mission addresses. We wanted to condense our mission down into an articulation of our take on the problem domain and try to spread it. This articulation is meant to cut to the core of the problems in an easy to follow way. Today is part litmus test of our mission and part litmus test of our articulation. I've updated the homepage with our current strategy. But this is early and we are looking for help in cultivating that strategy.
- yummypaint 6y ago
  Another thing that came to mind: typically i think of the EFF as being front and center in many of these fights. Even if you don't mention them by name, it might be good to communicate if you have capabilities they don't that can be complimentary.
  - schoen 6y ago
    Note that EFF is a 501(c)(3) and can't support or oppose candidates in elections.
- pmiller2 6y ago
  I have to say, right now, it looks like some kind of parody site. Every single senator and representative has 3 red X's next to them, and there's nothing to represent any of their opponents, or any third party candidates. I think I would have left that part off entirely at this point, since those pages have effectively zero information content. OTOH, https://everytwoyears.org/mission.html https://everytwoyears.org/mission.html is great.
  - r3trohack3r 6y ago
    You're right. They were placeholders that showed future intent. I shouldn't put my TODO list on the website. I'm taking it down now. I appreciate your feedback.

yummypaint 6y ago

An example might be making baseball card style images for each candidate which also contain some sort of supporting data. Anyone can trivially fire up an image editor and put checkmarks or crosses next to someone's name. The value is in the persuasive capability of the analysis. I just wanted to echo other commenters suggestions to present as much of the data as possible. The content you make should provide people with information that they can use to persuade others. If someone juat tells me that x organization supports y candidate, i generally couldn't care less. That has to be immediately followed by "because"

r3trohack3r 6y ago
Very much agree with this. We have started some early data collection. I tentatively feel there is a very strong "because" for some of our representatives. An example: We strongly oppose candidate X because they permitted the unconstitutional Presidential Surveillance Program while sitting on the Senate Intelligence Committee. You can run ads in their district "Your government is actively breaking the law. Candidate X is allowing it. Vote them out." The November 2013 Senate Intelligence Committee meeting (recording available online) has some pretty good quotes that would line up nicely with the supreme courts ruling on the program.
- pvg 6y ago
  Candidate X is allowing it. Vote them out Can you actually do that with unregulated money you've raised for issue advocacy?
  - r3trohack3r 6y ago
    I'd like to get someone who knows more than me to weigh in here, but as a 527 I'm raising the money to directly influence elections as a primary purpose. Most 501s can only focus on issue advocacy and can't run ads like this without losing their non-profit status. From what I understand of election law, we should be in the clear for running ads supporting/opposing representatives.
    - pvg 6y ago
      A 527 that advertises 'vote them out' has to comply with state and federal campaign finance regulations. A 527 that doesn't explicitly do that doesn't. I'd like to get someone who knows more I want to say this as politely as I can but... shouldn't you have that sorted out before taking money from people?
      - r3trohack3r 6y ago
        > Shouldn't you have that sorted out before taking money from people? I believe I have, though haven't done a great job of sharing that context! I've gotten input on our structure from folks w/ experience and legal background saying this is sound, but very much welcome additional input. I understand that ignorance of the law doesn't retroactively exempt you from the law. The more eyes we have on our structure the better; I suspect we will come under quite a bit of scrutiny as we make progress and would like to have our house in order when that happens.
        pvg 6y ago
        I guess my question is, if you're raising money not-for-a-campaign but on issues, how are you then going to use that money for explicit advocacy for a candidate's election, where limits actually kick in. Isn't that the whole point of 'superpac' style 527s - that they don't do that and are thus not subject to those regulations? Can you talk a bit about this? 'Vote for this person' is precisely the type of ad these orgs don't make because their financing is regulated.

r3trohack3r 6y ago

Agreed and appreciate the feedback. Today is our official launch, we have a long way to go. I'm not happy with the state of our data. We had the trade-off conversation about waiting to ship until we felt it "complete" and shipping now to get feedback and spread the message. We have a bet that we aren't the only ones who are disturbed by what our mission addresses. We wanted to condense our mission down into an articulation of our take on the problem domain and try to spread it. This articulation is meant to cut to the core of the problems in an easy to follow way. Today is part litmus test of our mission and part litmus test of our articulation. I've updated the homepage with our current strategy. But this is early and we are looking for help in cultivating that strategy.

yummypaint 6y ago
Another thing that came to mind: typically i think of the EFF as being front and center in many of these fights. Even if you don't mention them by name, it might be good to communicate if you have capabilities they don't that can be complimentary.
- schoen 6y ago
  Note that EFF is a 501(c)(3) and can't support or oppose candidates in elections.
pmiller2 6y ago
I have to say, right now, it looks like some kind of parody site. Every single senator and representative has 3 red X's next to them, and there's nothing to represent any of their opponents, or any third party candidates. I think I would have left that part off entirely at this point, since those pages have effectively zero information content. OTOH, https://everytwoyears.org/mission.html https://everytwoyears.org/mission.html is great.
- r3trohack3r 6y ago
  You're right. They were placeholders that showed future intent. I shouldn't put my TODO list on the website. I'm taking it down now. I appreciate your feedback.