A post at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3765101#3768333 proposes a possible DU-organized on-line newspaper, tenatively called "Page One," to help publicize the stories we think are most important.
A post at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x374303 is to the effect that we should develop coherent talking points regarding election reform.
I'd like to call attention to both these ideas, which I think might be very helpful. Pls check out the original threads--I don't want to repeat them, but they contain many useful ideas.
Right now, when I have time, I probably spend at least an hour per day just trying to catch up on major stories here. If I decide to e-mail acquaintances or post action items elsewhere to solicit signatures for petitions, etc., that might take another hour. And even spending two hours at it, I do a half-baked job.
How many folks here are spending 2 hours a day trying to do the same thing? A lot of duplicative man-hours, perhaps.
Part of what's so time-consuming is just slogging through trying to identify the most impt. news.
It's hard to agree on what those critical stories are, or how they should be formulated. But it's worth a try. Maybe one solution would be to have a rotating roster of editors--individuals could sign up to "digest" certain issues on certain dates. This would ensure a variety of editorial perspectives.
If someone could digest for me, and even better if someone could also formulate talking points, I could get the word out more consistently.
I favor bulletins that can actually elicit action. To do that, I've found eloquence is helpful, but brevity is imperative. For many folks nowadays, if they can't figure out what you want them to do within the first 5 sentences or less, you'll probably just be deleted. Best to give a link to a petition or site a.s.a.p. up front, and explain later.
To the moderators: Wasn't sure where to post this; pls move it if you think more effective elsewhere.