St. Petersburg Web Design Blog

Posts Tagged ‘politics’

With methodology that’s typical of both Microsoft and the GOP, these two spent millions making and promoting this huge web application that proports to be just what the people want, ( a “virtual town hall meeting”) which doesn’t work and isn’t what it says it is…

For the record I am NOT a Democrat nor a Republican and I am, like most Americans NOT happy with either party.  This story is not about politics, but instead about what happens when you don’t plan, test and launch a web application successfully.  further this article will speak a little about honesty in marketing.  Any comments that try to say that I’m saying these thing because I don’t agree with the politics of the web site will not be published, as will any comments that rant about one political viewpoint or party.  We welcome all comments that focus on the marketing or technical aspects of this web application.

First we’ll address the “doesn’t work” part, then after the fold we’ll address the part where it isn’t what it says it is.

On the first day I heard of it, I went to check it out. It displayed nothing but a blank screen. I checked the source code, there was the complete source code for a blank html page. Well stuff happens I guess. So I checked back a few hours later, same thing. So I tried in the wee hours of the morning, same thing.  I don’t know how they think this is okay, but if this was my web application, it would have been ready for the massive amount of traffic on launch day, it would have been thoroughly tested before release and any errors that somehow made it through this process would have been fixed promptly.  If not, my efforts would be considered and absolute failure. Given the GOP and Microsoft have access to so many more resources than me, these failures are completely unacceptable.

Now it’s three days later and I go there and, lo and behold, we get a front page. But that’s all. All the pages linked to on this page, return the famous asp.net error screen (which some say is a huge security hole in asp.net web applications). See screen shot above.
There is a video on the front page. It does work. Sadly it’s hosted by youtube and has all Google’s tracking systems intact. Really? The GOP can’t afford to and Microsoft doesn’t have the know how to host it’s own video? They really think it’s okay to give up all that info on it’s users just to avoid hosting their own video?  BTW, youtube.com is owned by Google which is Microsoft’s #1 competitor.  I’d have to say that using youtube to host this particular video on this particular web site and Epic Fail, wouldn’t you?
The video goes on and on about how they want the public’s input on policy. The info the founder (Kevin McCarthy) released to the press used the phrase “virtual town hall meeting”. The site couldn’t be anything further from that. But it is designed to make it look like one.
Here’s some of the differences between a town hall meeting and this web application:
Continue reading “Microsoft and GOP team up to Fail” »

That’s right, 55% of Americans used the internet to research candidates and issues in the last election.

If you are going to run for any office, from a local school board to President, remember this one thing:
It takes around 12 months to get a decent search engine presence.

the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 55% of Americans used the internet to not just ceck out a web page but:

• 45 percent of Internet users watched online videos related to politics or the election
• 33 percent of Internet users shared political content with others
• 52 percent of those on a social network used it for political purposes

By the way, it was only 11% in the 2000 elections. What do you think it’ll be by the 2012 elections?

If you have any doubt that a strong internet presence and an engaging website helped Obama secure the Presidency read this quote from the study:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama used the Internet to mobilize an army of volunteers that helped him defeat Republican John McCain in the November 4 election.

Obama supporters tended to be more engaged online than McCain backers, the study found. While 26 percent of Obama supporters active on the Internet posted their own thoughts or other content in an online forum, only 15 percent of McCain-backing Internet users participated, for example.

Still think you can run for office without at least one website?
Well, than keep thinking that, I guess we don’t need leaders who are so out of touch with the populace.

Writing about the Coleman data leak is going to be tough to do without sounding like a paranoid extreme left winger or an extreme right winger. Let me assure I’ve alway been disappointed with both parties and I am a confirmed independent.

With that out of the way, lets get on with the paranoia:

The Main stream media is definitely reporting untruths about this story. They are saying that the data leak was the result of a hacker and that federal crime has been committed. This is entirely untrue. the only person that’s even saying this is Colemans attorney, well I’m sure some extreme supporters are saying this too.

What really happened.
The developers running colemans site asking for donations to his legal fund screwed up the site. It left the website down for an extended period of time.
While investigating Adria Richards stumbled across the websites database completley unsecured. she did this with a web browser and nothing else. This is not hacking. This is “surfing the internet”.

links:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19912.html

http://www.google.com/search?q=Adria+Richards&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

http://butyoureagirl.com/2009/01/28/did-norm-coleman-fake-his-own-website-death/

http://washingtonindependent.com/33674/norm-colemans-donor-database-exposed-campaign-claims-political-motives

Here’s a message to our President elect. When Britain comes around asking for America’s help in further censorship of the internet. Just say NO.

It seems the UK’s government has taken it upon itself (no, the people don’t want it), to censor the internet, yup, the whole thing.

• They are pushing a plan to set up a government mandated movie style rating for web sites.
• Force ISP’s to display material appropriate for children only after a certain time of day.
• OR just not display any material not suited for children, ever.
• Changing laws to make it easier for someone to sue for Libel if it occurs online.

Does anyone remember when the last time we changed the rating system for movies in America? They made it easier to get the new “X” rating for a movie, calling it NC17 for movies that weren’t porn but were for adults. Theaters all across the country embraced these movies at first, (The cook and his wife were a big NC17 hit). Within one year the Christian “Conservatives” pressured all the major chains and then independent theaters into never showing a NC17 movie again. Now they just won’t make movies like that.

The same thing will happen with the internet if they do the same thing, duh.

Later I’ll add some links to sites that will probably get the new “X” (not “XXX”) rating, whatever they will call it and will probably thus be banned by every state in the union.
Sure, ever since the Civil War, we Americans have lost the ability to control our government, but we can’t fix that now (ever). Sure, our leaders say things like, “I don’t even know how to check my e-mail” (G.W. Bush and John McCain both have said this). But to maintain appearances of a Democracy, our government sometimes listens to large public outcries. It’s also true sometimes they make laws that sound like they are giving us what we want, but really actually giving the bad guys what they want (The CANN SPAM Act ring a bell with anyone?). Now is the time for one of those large public outcries.

link