I do not mean this to be a criticism of PFA or OSA or the overall mission of both. We absolutely need to do this and I support the mission 100% and plan on joining you all in Washington DC. With that being said to realistically expect to achieve even 1,000,000 attendees, the group is going to have to depend on this effort going viral. There are some limitations to being able to get everyone onboard in this effort related to the website and social networking.
1. PFA/OAS needs to get the website off of Ning and moved to a domain name and a hosted account. When, and if, this effort really takes off, with members in the hundreds of thousands, Ning will not be able to handle the traffic. And, when the technical administrators experience a load on the server that this website is hosted on they WILL take the website down. That's not a "might happen" but a "will happen" if we all do our jobs and get the word out to as many people as possible. And it will happen at the absolute worst time, as the final organization of the movement is taking place.
The only way to avoid that is to obtain a domain name (less than $15/year) and a hosting account (approximately $100/year). There are several good, free forum scripts available, along with free chat scripts, memberships scripts, etc. It IS a little bit of work but I believe for this effort to ultimately succeed, this MUST be done.
It is also difficult to find specific information quickly on Ning and the dissemination of information is what a website is all about.
2. Social media is a MUST to get this effort going viral and the creation of a YouTube channel, a Facebook page and a Twitter page are exactly what needed to be done. The Facebook page was, however, set up as a "personal" Facebook page for someone named "Calling". This should have been set up as a "business" page which would allow better expansion of the message among those seeing any Facebook posts. You can also set it up to automatically accept new "friends" instead of having to wait for someone to approve them. I put in a friend request an hour or so ago and have still not been approved.
3. Please, people, when you post to Facebook, Twitter or comment on YouTube, spellcheck what you are posting before committing your post. Some of the posts I have seen have so many spelling and grammar errors that they make little sense, which detracts from the effort by a lot of people. We all make mistakes and I am not trying to be the spelling or grammar police here but some posts make the group look pretty bad.
4. It would really help to have people visit all of the sites that Colonel Riley linked in one of his latest forum posts periodically and respond to some of the negative comments people post in response to an interview or posting. Some of these posts are made by liberal plants I'm sure from their tone, others are made by people that have gotten the wrong idea based on the website the comments are being made.
Again, I am not criticizing the group with these comments. I want this to succeed as much as any of you do but time is running out. I would hate to see the official channels of the group be unreachable right when people need to be having direction from the leadership.
Replies
Well said.........your observations are appreciated............I'm ready to expand out if what you say is the way to go. Who could do it? You.........??
I think you'll agree we have a good Social Networking team..........they are committed to using every opportunty we can muster to further the mission.
Your observation of NING limitations seem to ring true with me........but I'm no expert at anything Internet wise.......and for sure we do not want to crash and burn as we go down the road..........
I hope our Social Media team with contact you and discuss your thoughts...........time to do the right thing, not ponder who is right or let egos, personal agendas interfere.........we are "moving to action" in D.C.....that is what we must focus on everyday with regard to national survival.
I do believe the Social Networking Team is doing a pretty good job getting the word out. I would suggest expanding and getting someone to plant posts on every applicable forum and blog that allows it. I would stay away from some of the "fringe" websites as they may cause negative exposure rather than positive.
If the PFA/OSA gets a domain name and Linux hosting account, I would commit to to install and configure the software. On operating a forum, I would suggest seeking out an Administrator to assume overall management of the forum and some reliable (and level headed) Moderators for the forum. We could also set up a subforum for each state that would facilitate state organizing efforts.
The hosting account should be high availability Linux, with unlimited bandwidth to prevent running out and suffering a "throttling" (at best) and a shutdown or suspension (at worst).
What you need is a hosting account that will allow multiple domains to be hosted, without any additional hosting charges, in case you at some point want to separate some of the websites. For example, as the leader, you might want to have a personal blog for yourself (maybe a blog) under one domain name, a domain for the PFA (could also be a blog format) for official PFA business and another for the OAS (at minimum, a forum and chat room).
I would also strongly suggest, Colonel Riley, that the domain name and hosting account be made in your name so you don't run the risk of losing it due to a "separation of ways" at some point by the person listed as the owner of record of either/or the domain and hosting account. The person that registers these are the absolute owners of the website.
To help cover the costs of these items, you may want to setup a PayPal account and put up a "Donations" link. Members would not have to donate anything but I expect that many would be willing to kick in something so you are not shouldering the burden personally.
Please disregard the part of my comments above regarding donations. While at the time I thought it might be a helpful suggestion to help defray the costs of putting up a website, with the complications that it would bring into the effort, seeking donations is NOT a good idea.
Col Riley If I may say something about this. I have access to servers in Atlanta GA and Chicago IL that I will donate free of cost. As for the domain name I may be able to help in that aspect also. If someone could get a hold of me at larry.mcparland@gmail.com we can talk.