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My local (Washington DC) protest has 312 people "going" according to Facebook. With any given Facebook event, I've found there's usually a huge dropoff between

by imjared 13y ago

My local (Washington DC) protest has 312 people "going" according to Facebook. With any given Facebook event, I've found there's usually a huge dropoff between those who have RSVP'd and who shows up. I think the spirit of this is great but "mass protest" might be a bit of a misnomer.

Kylekramer 13y ago
The lack of "mass" is going to be a real problem. If you add up the visible numbers of people following their social sites, it is hovering under 25,000 with about 20,000 of that number coming from their subreddit. It would be fine if this was pitched as an ongoing, building movement like OWS or the Tea Party, but the focus is all on a one day protest that currently looks to be ill attended. This could quickly turn into a prototypical slactivism joke.
- abraininavat 13y ago
  Also, the interactive map on http://www.restorethefourth.net/ http://www.restorethefourth.net/ is completely broken. Clicking on any of the locations for more information leads you straight to a 404. Judging from the comments on the subreddit, it's not something I want to get my family involved with anyway. There's an unfortunte lack of serious effort here.
- utnick 13y ago
  Yep pretty unfortunate... Its hard to build a large protest using just reddit. You really need large organizations to get behind you, MoveOn, Unions, A.N.S.W.E.R, but all of these groups are of course very quiet because its a democrat in the white house doing this. If Romney or Bush were in charge, I think the protests would be much greater.
  - jlgaddis 13y ago
    Yeah, the last one[0] really had a crappy turnout. We only got enough people together here to fill two buses and travel ~800 miles one way to attend. It wasn't just Reddit, of course, and obviously it had a couple of fairly well-known media personalities promoting it but the majority of the organizing and attendees I saw was because of Reddit. [0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_to_Restore_Sanity_and/or_Fear http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_to_Restore_Sanity_and/or_...
    - utnick 13y ago
      Yes the initial idea may have started on reddit, but then comedy central, moveon, afl-cio, and other large democratic groups started promoting it and thats when it got big. If those groups don't hop on, your just not going to have a big in-person protest. And the eff is the only group I have seen promoting this
- sneak 13y ago
  The day after Snowden disclosed his identity, we rallied at noon in Union Square. 50 people showed up, and half of them were press. :/
lifeguard 13y ago
It is about social signaling. There will be many sympathizers unaware of the event until they see people gathering.

by imjared 13y ago

Kylekramer 13y ago

The lack of "mass" is going to be a real problem. If you add up the visible numbers of people following their social sites, it is hovering under 25,000 with about 20,000 of that number coming from their subreddit. It would be fine if this was pitched as an ongoing, building movement like OWS or the Tea Party, but the focus is all on a one day protest that currently looks to be ill attended. This could quickly turn into a prototypical slactivism joke.

abraininavat 13y ago
Also, the interactive map on http://www.restorethefourth.net/ http://www.restorethefourth.net/ is completely broken. Clicking on any of the locations for more information leads you straight to a 404. Judging from the comments on the subreddit, it's not something I want to get my family involved with anyway. There's an unfortunte lack of serious effort here.
utnick 13y ago
Yep pretty unfortunate... Its hard to build a large protest using just reddit. You really need large organizations to get behind you, MoveOn, Unions, A.N.S.W.E.R, but all of these groups are of course very quiet because its a democrat in the white house doing this. If Romney or Bush were in charge, I think the protests would be much greater.
- jlgaddis 13y ago
  Yeah, the last one[0] really had a crappy turnout. We only got enough people together here to fill two buses and travel ~800 miles one way to attend. It wasn't just Reddit, of course, and obviously it had a couple of fairly well-known media personalities promoting it but the majority of the organizing and attendees I saw was because of Reddit. [0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_to_Restore_Sanity_and/or_Fear http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rally_to_Restore_Sanity_and/or_...
  - utnick 13y ago
    Yes the initial idea may have started on reddit, but then comedy central, moveon, afl-cio, and other large democratic groups started promoting it and thats when it got big. If those groups don't hop on, your just not going to have a big in-person protest. And the eff is the only group I have seen promoting this
sneak 13y ago
The day after Snowden disclosed his identity, we rallied at noon in Union Square. 50 people showed up, and half of them were press. :/

lifeguard 13y ago

It is about social signaling. There will be many sympathizers unaware of the event until they see people gathering.