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I've thought of starting a social media website where people can upvote proposed legislation to draw attention to it, and people can indicate their own preferen

I've thought of starting a social media website where people can upvote proposed legislation to draw attention to it, and people can indicate their own preference on legislation and track it. Then, come election time it could tell you something like "Mr Your Politician votes the way you would prefer 20% of the time" or such.

exoque 5y ago
In Switzerland there's http://smartvote.ch http://smartvote.ch. It's not exactly what you're describing but close.
jkestner 5y ago
I like it! Ping me if you want help. Draw the contrast between the popular policies and the reps that only pay lip service to them. Open API that might be a good place to start: https://openstates.org/tx/bills/?query=&session=87&classification=&sponsor= https://openstates.org/tx/bills/?query=&session=87&classific...
gotostatement 5y ago
the problem with this is that I think few people care enough to enter their preferences, let alone to come back and check. not to mention that most people don't really expect politicians to follow through on their promises, and anyone who does will probably figure out how they want to vote via other methods. the only way I see this idea actually becoming useful is if it starts being displayed somewhere people already go, like in a google results page
- Buttons840 5y ago
  We can't fix people not caring. It might help make it a little easier to care and keep track. Especially if there's some good flamewars happening on the site (half joking about the flamewars). Seriously, if you could make it a decent place for concrete discussion of the laws people would probably visit just to get in on the discussions, just like Reddit.
  - gotostatement 5y ago
    my point is that since people don't care it might be hard to get people to use the site. And you might have trouble getting enough people to use it in the first place to get these discussions going - why wouldn't they just do it on reddit or twitter where everyone already is?
- handrous 5y ago
  > the problem with this is that I think few people care enough to enter their preferences, let alone to come back and check. Game-ify the shit out of it? Farmville, but for electoral awareness? Somehow piggyback on the inexplicably-popular-and-viral "take this quiz to find out which X from Y you are" thing?
  - gotostatement 5y ago
    I think you'll struggle with a network effect issue. people aren't already on it - and already have plenty of places to discuss politics - so people won't come on the site and so people won't really care about the points they get on it

exoque 5y ago

In Switzerland there's http://smartvote.ch http://smartvote.ch. It's not exactly what you're describing but close.

jkestner 5y ago

I like it! Ping me if you want help. Draw the contrast between the popular policies and the reps that only pay lip service to them. Open API that might be a good place to start: https://openstates.org/tx/bills/?query=&session=87&classification=&sponsor= https://openstates.org/tx/bills/?query=&session=87&classific...

gotostatement 5y ago

the problem with this is that I think few people care enough to enter their preferences, let alone to come back and check. not to mention that most people don't really expect politicians to follow through on their promises, and anyone who does will probably figure out how they want to vote via other methods. the only way I see this idea actually becoming useful is if it starts being displayed somewhere people already go, like in a google results page

Buttons840 5y ago
We can't fix people not caring. It might help make it a little easier to care and keep track. Especially if there's some good flamewars happening on the site (half joking about the flamewars). Seriously, if you could make it a decent place for concrete discussion of the laws people would probably visit just to get in on the discussions, just like Reddit.
- gotostatement 5y ago
  my point is that since people don't care it might be hard to get people to use the site. And you might have trouble getting enough people to use it in the first place to get these discussions going - why wouldn't they just do it on reddit or twitter where everyone already is?
handrous 5y ago
> the problem with this is that I think few people care enough to enter their preferences, let alone to come back and check. Game-ify the shit out of it? Farmville, but for electoral awareness? Somehow piggyback on the inexplicably-popular-and-viral "take this quiz to find out which X from Y you are" thing?
- gotostatement 5y ago
  I think you'll struggle with a network effect issue. people aren't already on it - and already have plenty of places to discuss politics - so people won't come on the site and so people won't really care about the points they get on it