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Just to clarify - this is not simply a petition. We're using a script that the late Aaron Swartz wrote to deliver emails directly to Congress via the contact us
by sinak 13y ago
Just to clarify - this is not simply a petition. We're using a script that the late Aaron Swartz wrote to deliver emails directly to Congress via the contact us pages on legislator's websites. That means there'll be hundreds of thousands of emails delivered to Congress in the coming days.
It's amazing how practical some of the things that Aaron worked on are.
- brk 13y agoSo then, it's easy for them to have a consistent block of text to filter on? Is there any data that sending template emails works? It seems like its too easy to write off as people investing minimal effort, and not sending a unique message. I honestly don't know,, but this does not feel 'effective' to me.
- marshray 13y agoSo have you written your own personalized emails then?
- MarcParadise 13y agoI have. I got a form letter in response. There's some irony there.
- brk 13y agoMy experience as well, but at least I wrote a unique email.
- deepblueocean 13y agoI believe that the staffers of many elected representatives typically count the number of constituents who were agitated enough even to send a form letter. Think of it like a poll. Would you make the claim that politicians are willing to write off people who respond to polls just because they all answer the same question or the question isn't somehow the "right" one? Probably not. Of course, it's not a poll because people self-select. But even still, if the report to the representative says "this week, we had 37 letters about gun control and 43,742 about surveillance", well, it's clear what the politician wants to say that he or she is doing something about when he or she next sees a reporter.
- Aloisius 13y agoYet a phone call that takes a staffer's actual time probably is 1000x more effective than a form email that are easily ignored because it requires so little effort to actually generate. If the most you can be bothered with is typing in your name and hitting send, why would any Congress member even believe you'll bother to vote in the next election? Or donate? Or convince other people to vote for their opponent?
- cboppert 13y agoIf you can be bothered to type your name in and hitting send, why would any congress member doubt you'll vote in the next election? It's clear you're paying attention to at least something, you're voicing concern with over 100,000 other individuals. You can also customize the e-mails if you're so inclined. Despite that, if you receive 20,000 e-mails from constituents in your districts, perhaps you'll perk up to that. And if you think phone calls are a good idea, why not create a simple website making it easy for people to find the numbers they need and promote it to the stop watching us people (ask if they'll promote you if you promote them to achieve the same goal). It's truly a good idea. Phone calls stopped SOPA most likely. And a huge internet black out.
- tn13 13y agoAnd how is that supposed to help?
- paddy_m 13y agoIt would be great to have a program that does the same thing for telephone calls. A web app that let's you record a message, that is then called into a representatives phone lines. I'm Paddy Mullen, and instead of donating $50 to your campaign, I donated it to the EFF. I did this because you ignore the rights of the citizens and haven't held the NSA responsible for the infringements on privacy. Let the staffers get 100s - 1000s of calls that way.
- cpa 13y agoI'm not sure it's a good thing to do. Because this can happen: https://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/european-parliament-blocks-emails-containing-the-word-gender-on-internationa-womens-day/ https://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/european-...
- mercurial 13y ago> Just to clarify - this is not simply a petition. We're using a script that the late Aaron Swartz wrote to deliver emails directly to Congress via the contact us pages on legislator's websites. That means there'll be hundreds of thousands of emails delivered to Congress in the coming days. > It's amazing how practical some of the things that Aaron worked on are. I predict such large-spectrum email delivery will: - either arrive to the designated inbox, and get ignored - or get stopped by a spam filter If you want something to happen, at least write a personalized email, or better, call. It's more difficult to answer calls with a form letter.
- flyinRyan 13y agoSo as the GP said; this is all a big waste of time.