Wisdom needed from the Election Reform crew...

So I'm calling together an impromptu meeting of the ERD regulars and anybody else who wants to helpfully drop in.

The last two volunteer drives have not been all that successful for the Daily News Thread.
The one before last just barely covered all the shifts with one person per day and no back ups other than internal back ups.

This round has a Thursday shift open if the other folks are willing to hang in there and not one single new recruit.

Very sad...

Any suggestions? :kick:

maybe we can out at least why...

a poll?

rather than to gather useful data.

This actually puts me in mind of a comment I once heard at an important but poorly attended group meeting where we were despairing about how few folks had actually shown up...

A wise woman there suggested that the poor attendance figures were not a reflection of the importance of the work or peoples' desire to have that work done but rather a general reflection on the concept of finding time to attend any more meetings whatsoever or create time for any more additional tasks in already full lives.

The effort yall put into it was telling.

But now that the election frenzy has subsided the passion has cooled?

Maybe three times a week is enough for now, and be ready to ramp it up say about a year from now as votes are cast again?

- Election Fraud, Irregularity, and Reform Headlines -
-- Media article links from Nov. 2004 to April 2005 --
Some media outlet links expired, so, rather than maintain links,
I zipped all the Headline HTML files in a single folder:

Download Election Fraud, Irregularity, and Reform Headlines
http://jqjacobs.net/politics/archive.zip

For months, all useful headlines were collected on these pages, now archived. As the DU threads developed, it was phased out. It is a useful chronology immediately post-2004 voting to inaugration and beyond.

More on topic, "Isn't everyone familiar enough with the ER NEWS thread to do one per week?"

How do you do it technically.

I don't think once a week is enough. I think that if Thursday is open and the rest of us hang in there, then we're set.

I'm very interested in how you do this, whatever it is;), becasue it might make it much easier for everyone doing this. We all search ourselves, different key words, etc. and preferred sites.

However, if there's a program out there to get specific headlines per day we could come up with a dialy feed on agreed up on terms and have something truly awesome.

The key words would need to include "voter suppressoin" and "voter disenfranchisement" which are covered here but not as well as we'd like, I'm sure.

Anxiously awaiting tecno-illumination.

Aren't we all. There are automated search capabilities on Google, but I have not tried them.

The original Headline files in the archive were done the "old-fashioned way," searches and following all known election news websites.

Regarding once a week, I meant the thread itself can be a weekly thread, such as Week of Feb. 25, with everyone doing as they do now, adding stories. This might present a more coherent picture of the ER news, and precise day of posting is less important as long as the news gets on the list.

you, Thanks for all your great work.

Since most post the ERD in the AM, for people who work that is tough to do. That is why I chose Saturday. I wouldn't be able to do an ERD during the week. Maybe we could make clear that the thread does not have to be a morning thread, or we could have a couple of days be designated the ERD evening news. It would make it a little tougher for the person the next day to find current news that wasn't posted the day before, but at least every day would be covered.

Another idea is to make a thread or two a week an open thread. One person could get it rolling in the morning, with just the opening post, and the rest of the day could be where anyone can post election news, announcements, etc. If it was clear it was open to anyone, more people might post, and it might help keep all the news in one thread, rather than spread out in GD, etc. (Some people might hesitate to add to the daily ERD until late in the day for fear of getting in the way of the original poster???) For discussion purposes, people could start their discussion thread wherever they wanted to, and add the link to their original post in the ERD.

edit to add: We could do an "ad campaign" to let people know this was going to be done, how it would work, etc. Since no one has volunteered for Thursday, we could try a pilot post next week. If everyone thinks this would be a good idea, I'd be happy to contribute to the "ad campaign", and/or the opening "Open Thread".

It is is telling that our own crew does not know this. It also used to be a lot more true in the old days that more folks would contribute on a daily basis.

If you start Thursdays I 'll contribute a couple of posts. We can keep asking for folks to help out in the mean time..
Did I mention how magnificent you are? :yourock:

I think that sometimes people don't post because they think the thread starter might be working on it, and don't want to accidentally post the same article until they are sure the OP is done. By then, they may have posted it elsewhere, or just read the article and moved on.
It is possible that many people do not know they can/should add to the daily ERD. I was thinking of a formal kind of announcement that one day, Thursday, for example, would not be completed by any one person...anyone, everyone should add to the post, along with a reminder that people are free to add to the posts on any day.
I think BradBlog does something like this once in a while. Just sort of an open thread where people post their ideas, articles, etc.
It would be like Thursday's Open Thread ERD...post here before you post anywhere else....hurray, hurray, hurray...get your red hot election news posted first...can we get the news from all 50 states??
(Ok, now I'm getting silly, but, that was my thought.) :crazy: :silly:

Edited to add: I'll work on an Open Thread thingy, post it here when I'm done, and anyone interested can make suggestions, changes, or rip it to shreds if they wish. I'll even supply the :popcorn: and :beer: for the discussion.

:yourock: too! Hey, the whole crew do, too! (Ewwww...bad grammar, me thinks.)

Explain what this means.

anything in particular by it.

It is sounding like the folks who are doing the daily threads want to keep things going as best we can. Livvy has given us a way to patch things for now. Getting more folks to add to the thread on a daily basis would lighten the load for everyone.

Suggestions for being clearer that everyone can participate would be good. I post directions on how to post items on my thread each time but rarely see much response.

However - the time to act is now! Any changes We The People would want to ask for takes time to implement - and the changes the "officials" are inflicting on us is ongoing!

This is rough, so any suggestions are most welcome. I'd also post a picture or something along with colored text to jazz it up.

Welcome to the New Official Weekly Open Thread

Although all members are welcome and encouraged to post to the Election Reform, Fraud, and Related News any day of the week, we thought it might be nice to have a day that was really open, and the responsibility of all interested parties to contribute their ideas, and any related articles, commentaries, political cartoons, etc. We thought we would try this idea out, and see if it works. If it does, and you like it, it could become a regular weekly thread. Additionally, if you have any thoughts or ideas to make it work better, let one of the regular daily posters know.

So, you are not only welcome and encouraged to participate, you are needed to make this Open Thread work.

Please:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web. Google terms like “paper ballots”, “election reform”, or “campaign finance reform”. Don’t forget your local newspapers.

2. Post stories using the new Spring 2006 Edition of "Election Fraud and Reform News Directory" listed here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x407240

3. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU, providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster, too.

4. Start a discussion thread in other forums, and add the link to your post in the Open Thread.


Don’t forget to recommend for the Greatest Page. Now how often do you get to recommend your own posts?

Be the Media for open, transparent, and accurate elections!



(Oh, yeah...here's the popcorn...

and the beverages....

white wine is available upon request, as are many flavors of soda, and mixed drinks as well.)

here...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=256420&mesg_id=277132

Let's see if we get any nibbles...

cheers

:toast:

L.Coyote had a very interesting technical option upthread, automated gathering of information.

That could be done daily with agreed up on search terms and we'd just need to go through headlines.

Weekly, nope, that's giving up the whole point of this exercise. It would be a shame.

Now here's an idea to make it more useful.

Post it to GD daily, a summary, standardized and point to the fuller thread.

I'm not at all in favor of dumping off to once a week. That's not the mission.

Did you think we were discussing this idea for everyday, or reducing the ERD to just one thread a week, or did I just not understand your post?
The rest of the days would continue as usual with the remaining crew. It was just a thought so that something would be posted on Thursday, since no one has volunteered to take the day.
I would have time to post an opening thread on Thursday before I have to go to work, but not enough time to do the search for articles. By the time I get home in the PM, the day's news is old news.
Best choice is a new recruit for the day, but there's been no volunteers yet. :(

My bad, I thought it was a once a week thing.

Forget Thursday, let it go dark one day. That way nobody over does it by trying to fill in
Thursdays. That's my thought.