It’s been a while since we have done one of these, so I thought I would throw the floor open once again to IPR readers to make suggestions on how to make the site better.
This can include suggestions on how to better utilize our twitter, facebook, and possibly other social networks; offers to write for IPR; and other ideas you have. Keep in mind that we may not have the ability to implement your suggestions.
Of course, you can always send your ideas on this to [email protected] as well.
For casual readers who are not fully familiar with what we do: if you sign up to write for IPR, please only post stories related to alternative political parties and/or independent candidates, and don’t post your own opinion columns. Opinion columns by other people writing about alt parties/independents, or by people who have been or are significant in that field, are welcome. IPR does not pay writers.
If you have any questions about what we do, how or why, feel free to ask in the comments here as well.
-paulie
Here’s a dime
Go suck on a lime
Yes, I used to do crime
But your rhyme’s not sublime
Listen to what I’m telling, it’s really compelling;
To really start geling, you must ditch the felon!
You can, but only if you sign up to write for IPR. I don’t know how to extend that to anyone else, unfortunately.
As long as we’re at it… I wish there was a way to edit a post once it has been submitted. I hate it when I catch a misspelling or incorrect punctuation AFTER I have already hit “Submit”.
Well, that’s not a crucial point. For the most part, I think the site is very user friendly. I think we need some moderation sometimes, and you do a good job of it, Paulie.
Fixing that would require server access, which I don’t have.
I wish that the articles we post would say “Posted by” rather than “Written by.” Most of us are posting article we’ve found, so then it’s confusing to give credit to who really wrote the article. Or, could it be interchangeable?
You can look, but no throwing rocks — ie no public comments, http://www.robertwmilnesforpresident.com/
If you really feel compelled, you can write to him on the PLAS threads here which are still open for comment and he can write you back on his site.
However he will not be allowed back here since we know of no way to allow him to comment only on his thread and he won’t restrict himself voluntarily.
I would check in just to see his rants. Beyond entertaining. Can’t you put him somewhere? Like in a cage that we can look in and throw rocks at occasionally.
I want IPR to upgrade the comment section to the kind that includes a ‘thumbs-up/thumbs-down’ feature for individual comments.
Dunno how to do that. Know the name of a plugin that does that?
More “Independent” & others, less Libertarian…
Already addressed that above.
I think you should start a facebook PAGE and close the GROUP
I will try to start a page. I see no reason to close the group though. Why close it?
Alaska Constitution Party // Oct 1, 2011:
‘More “Independent” & others; less Libertarian ………..…”
yeah, as an independent, non Dem / non GOP, with a large libertarian stripe, I think Libs do a lot on knee jerk things which turn QUICKLY to be counter productive …………
and it is not just the things they do, it is also the way they do things …………
I want IPR to upgrade the comment section to the kind that includes a ‘thumbs-up/thumbs-down’ feature for individual comments. Then I want IPR to bring back Milnes & Ogle so they can get the punishment they deserve.
More “Independent” & others, less Libertarian…
libs can be pushy and over whelming!
greens can be [repeatedly] under whelming ………..
Green Party Watch [says they were] concerned over the wave after wave of Lib, Conservative, and bible beating comments ………..
I think you should start a facebook PAGE and close the GROUP – the page would allow you to have all IPR articles posted to the fan page using an app such as Networkedblogs or RSSgraffiti
A lot of what I would suggest would mean paulie would have to be paid to get it done.
I favor banning Milnes and Ogle, or anyone who hijacks posts with things that are related only to themselves or their pet projects. I wouldn’t surprised if the initial poster is one or the other of them?!
Like several people have said, if I had more time …
I think as the 2012 elections get closer, I think there will be more interesting thinsg from more places.
I think there is plenty of posts abt Americans Elect, for now they seem to be just promoting themselves. And as for Working Families Party, they are rpedominantly a side car for the Democratic Party. Lately they have been running a few candidates in opposition to Democrats, so in that case they would qualify as a “third party”.
I don’t use twitter so I have no idea how to make better use of that. Maybe Facebook could be used to recruit more posters? How I am not sure? Post recruitment proposals on the FB page?
I’d love to say I could post here, but the reality is that I’m overcommitted and, if you sign me up to post, I’ll stop doing so very quickly. Thanks much for the offer, though.
i knew youd like it:)
Thanks for that video
Very nice 🙂
I believe paulie should be encouraged to facilitate conversation here. I agree with #5 that he should be paid some compensation from this site to allow him to devote more time to it.
me_ hell yes , lets face it , when P doesnt come here often , noone does, he keeps it going plain and simple…P sent you a vid to ur email
Yes. He kept popping up on IPR under different names, and not in his thread, so he’s outta here.
Did Ogle actually get banned?
IPR ought to do more stories on the Working Families Party, and more stories about Americans Elect.
See previous reply.
I go out of my way to find stories, information sources and other writers to cover those. Would you like to help us out with that? Keep in mind that there are times when I am not here much (another one probably coming up soon) so the best way to insure that the stories you want to see covered get covered is by signing up to post stories here yourself.
Banning is most certainly a last resort, and comments very rarely get edited. Overall, we still allow almost anyone to say almost anything they want.
There are also some people who confuse automated spam filtering with censorship. Actually, it is an automated system which screened out about 130,000 spam comments last month as opposed to only 2,000-somehing non-spam comments. No one at IPR, myself included, has the time to sort through that many comments to find a handful of legitimate comments that get snared by mistake.
I would love for IPR to pay me. I seriously doubt they would be able to pay me enough to actually live off of it though. I don’t think the site makes enough money for that. If any of our readers who like what I do here would like to send me some money, I could sure use it.
Trent gets paid, but it is not just to manage IPR but also dozens or maybe hundreds of other sites.
I’m posting as many as I find whenever I have time. I’ve invited numerous Greens to post here and even signed up a few. Would you like to post articles to IPR? Know others who would?
I make a conscious effort to post stories about a variety of parties and independents and to invite other people to do so. I don’t know what else I can do as far as that goes.
The tag cloud is the 50 most frequently used tags out of 7 thousand something. They do change from time to time, but slowly. Each article gets tags (or not); the cumulative weight of those tags determines the tag cloud, which is basically a compilation of the most frequently talked about subjects in the whole history of IPR.
I think they serve a useful purpose and fill a need that existed before we created them. Before we created them, we had discussions and other people felt the same way. Anyone else agree or disagree?
I am not filibustering. There is no mic or podium where only one person at a time can speak. I wish more of our writers could post articles more frequently and more of our readers would join the conversation more often.
There have been times when I have been virtually absent for weeks and even months at a time. The pace of other people posting did not pick up – quite the opposite.
Although I have never said whether or not I banned Milnes or USParliament dude, or who it was if it was not me, the order of operations is something like this:
1) When we notice that a person keeps hijacking numerous threads to constantly harp on one subject or idea, and we receive numerous complaints from readers about this, they eventually get their own special time-out corner (IE dedicated thread). It took many months of complaints and a discussion by IPR writers as a group arriving at a consensus decision before this started. Then it took quite a few more months of numerous violations of this policy by just two of the individuals who got their own “special” threads but continued to intentionally spam numerous unrelated threads. We kept getting complaints and they kept getting warnings. At some point, enough was enough.
For any of you who would like to keep up with Mr. Milnes, go to his website, which has turned into a sort of blog (no comment area, unfortunately). For any of you who want to play US parliament fantasy politics, I do believe they have feedback mechanisms where you can sign up – or more accurately be signed up by them (or him) whether you wanted to be or not unless and until you ask to be removed.
Yes.
Over 400 people are signed up for out twitter and over 200 signed up for our facebook. Other people here may also have ideas on how to use these technologies better (along with other social media).
Unlike #1 I believe paulie should be encouraged to facilitate conversation here. I agree with #5 that he should be paid some compensation from this site to allow him to devote more time to it. I would like to see more balance in the alternative parties represented. This site is far more LP oriented than anything else (and I consider myself a libertarian as well as a constitutionalist). As to #1’s complaint about banning people; I was not aware that anyone other than Robert Milnes has ever been banned. I do agree that banning should be a last resort and that any form of censorship should be judiciously applied. Other than that… let ‘er rip and keep up the good work!
More Green Party-related stories would help. I can’t stand GPW — too cheerleader-y — so I’d like to be able to read about the Green candidates (especially the Presidential ones) here.
Also, I think Paulie should be editor-in-chief at this point. If the site paid him, it’d be easier to keep him posting regularly.
From: This sender is DomainKeys
Every August have a dedicated ‘911’ thread ……………
Know that Libs can EASILY become ‘counter productive’ ………. don’t turn into ‘Libertarian Political Report’
On 3), as an infrequent writer I can say that Paulie provides a very neceesary service to IPR. We all have other obligations- I am very busy with school and the other site I helped start, for example. He keeps the cogs of IPR turning.
Update the tags cloud thingy on the side. Seems like they’ve held still since only a few months after this site was born.
Here’s some suggestions
1. Less open threads and segregated threads, actually..why not just get rid of them?
2. Less filibustering by Paulie!
3. You already have enough writers. Shut up every once in a while and they might post more. Same goes double for comments.
4. Stop banning people. Bring back Milnes and the US Parliament dude. Especially Milnes; have some respect, he is a presidential candidate and he was here before you!
5. Did I mention less filibustering by Paulie?
6. Nobody gives a rats ass about your facebook and twitter. Seriously dude…are you shitting me?!
OK that’s it for now. Thanks for asking!