PROGRESSIVE PAGES UPDATE: Much good news, but we still NEED YOU!

[Sapphocrat]

Bear with me at 3:15 a.m. West-Coast time (so this may not be as coherent as I'd like!)...

As many of you know, we (that means ALL of us) are building The Progressive Pages -- a searchable database of both "blue" and "red" companies/businesses, non-profits, and other resources, designed to help progressives make an informed decision about whether or not they (we) want to fork over our hard-earned dollars to socially-conscious businesses, or to nasty, freeper-ful, anti-everything * supporters.

If you run, work for, or patronize ANY business establishment in the United States (which pretty much covers everybody), YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED to make The Progressive Pages the definitive guide to "blue" and "red" companies all over the nation.

fudge_striped_cookays, foreigncorrespondent, and I have been working like mad to build this database from the ground up, and more than a few other DUers have contributed invaluable information -- but I am going to keep pestering everyone to help us make this the "yellow (dog) pages" we all need in order to support our progressive-minded brothers and sisters, and to starve The Beast that's nearly screwed our beloved nation into the ground.

Go HERE:
http://www.globalblogs.com/progressivepages/index.html

...and click the big, blue HELP link to learn how you can benefit the cause!

DUers who own, operate, or have any influence whatsoever with Web sites of ALL types: PLEASE POST the link to the front page of The Progressive Pages ( http://www.globalblogs.com/progressivepages/index.html ) on your Web site, and drive traffic our way!

(There's an extra bonus when you link to PP: PP automatically records every hit from your site, and immediately posts it to the PP page that was hit. In other words, you get an automatic linkback from the PP!)

MANY THANKS to B4-TheBell.com ( http://www.b4-thebell.com/index.php?showtopic=6576&st=240 ), OpEdNews.com ( http://www.opednews.com/ ) and BlueLemur.com ( http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/ ), among others, for giving us a much-needed traffic boost!

More good news: While the PP isn't completely ready for ready for prime time, I already submitted it to Google -- knowing from experience that it can take MONTHS to get indexed. Well, guess what? Less than 24 hours later, we were Googled (!!!) -- and we're already getting hits from folks looking for info on such search queries as: "Kraft Food en Puerto Rico" - "Nabisco air crisps" - "progressive pages" - Wal-Mart" - "alternate company names" - "altria shot snack" - "doo dad snack mix by nabisco" - "food enhancers divisions" - "kool aid slushies mix" - "kraft foods postum" - "list of companies support progressive causes .org" -- et al.

So, for the naysayers who claim this can't be done: It IS being done, and we are already getting more traffic and feedback than I've seen in nearly a decade of launching full-blown Web sites with a LOT more planning and forethought than this one!

But we still NEED YOUR INPUT!

The Progressive Pages is as much a "cooperative" site as any you will ever see. So, as valuable as your contributions are to the DU Economic Activism forum, PLEASE take a moment and add a listing, a comment, or a rating to the Progressive Pages. You won't only be helping the folks behind the PP -- you'll be performing an immeasurable service to the 48% of the American public who are "mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore."

If I were religious, I'd sign off with "Bless..." but I'll just say, "Peace out!"

-- Sapph

P.S. Yes, I'm donating space (and money I don't have, out of my own pocket) for this project -- and no, I am NOT making money from it, nor do I expect to. Yes, there are Amazon links on the site, in the small hope that any revenue from commissions will help offset server costs (which are a killer for a longterm layoff casualty like me). The truth is, this is a labor of love -- love of country (or what's left of it, anyway).

P.P.S. Could the insomniacs please keep this kicked for the morning crew? I'm around half the night, but I'm spending more time massaging the PP database than I am checking DU at the moment. Thanks!

[sherilocks]

1. Thanks for all of your hard work

I just looked through the databse and I'm lovin it and the whole concept

But I have one question. Is anyone allowed to go in there and post? I don't mind for the comments part, but just allowing free reign might make it chaotic and subject to freeptardness.

Anyway, can I just go in into the website and put in the research that I've done from our group's thread on the subject or should I send it to you first? If I seem kinda dense, forgive me, but how do the graphs get there and what do the votes indicate?

[foreigncorrespondent]

3. Hi, sherilocks...

...from what I understand all submissions etc have to be approved by PP admin before they appear in the search engine. So basically if any freeps decide to send some nasty, of no intelligence insults, they won't get past the first stage.

And please, just go straight over to PP and begin submitting what ever research you have. Sapph will approve them tomorrow (oops, today now... LOL) once she is awake. :)

[Sapphocrat]

9. Hi, sherilocks...

fc is right -- all submissions and comments/reviews are approved by yours truly before they show up in the database. (The freeper garbage that's already been screened would almost be amusing if it were at least creative! But I guess that's too much to expect from said freeptards. LOL)

The only thing that appears without any interference on my part is a visitor's red/blue vote (the 1 - 10 "rating," with 10 being far-right-red). That seems harmless enough, as voting is limited to one per visitor/IP -- and I always have the ability to ban entire IP blocks and/or reset ratings if it looks like the voting is getting freeped.

The little bar graphs are the results of the votes/rating a given entry has received. I do realize that the way I set it up, RED comes out on the LEFT, and BLUE comes out on the RIGHT. LOL I'll probably switch it to the other way around, but for the moment, I'm more concerned with getting the database populated than opening up The Gimp* and playing around with the rating images.

Yes, feel free to just enter the research you've done -- it's not a dense question at all. :)


* "The Gimp" being my choice of a FREE, non-corporate alternative to Adobe Photoshop. I don't have anything against Adobe Corp. (I haven't researched them yet), but I don't have the big bucks for PS 7.x either.

2. Delete

[foreigncorrespondent]

4. Why did you change your post for?

When I first read your post you were saying how you made your submission, but complained because people say your site isn't progressive? Now, you suggest Sapph takes a training course?

Hmmm! What is that smell around here?

[foreigncorrespondent]

5. Oh how nice...

...you insult someone then you do a self delete. Guess you realized you had gone too far, huh?

[kayell]

6. Sapphocrat, I can do some research starting after next weekend

(big family stuff). Would you be interested in assigning people to particular sections? I'd be interested in anything in food production, food processing and sales or agriculture related areas. Is there a possibility of adding some other factors (such as fair trade, union support or busting, environmental practices) into the database?

[Sapphocrat]

10. Hi, kayell...

You ARE a sweetheart, like fc said. ;)

I've been tossing that idea around, about assigning people to sections, and for the moment, I'm holding off, only because we don't have enough volunteers even to cover the top-level categories yet. Too, I've realized how far afield research on just one company leads into X number of other companies that should by all rights have entries in half a dozen other categories. (I hope that made sense -- these late nights are making me less than coherent at times.)

On the other hand, I would hate to see any work duplicated, as I know how much effort goes into a comprehensive listing for a single company. So (and I think I will add this to the help page tonight), if you have in mind a list of specific companies/businesses you'd like to "own" (regardless of category/ies), you can PM me here or e-mail me at admin-at-globalblogs.com with the list, and I'll make bare-bones entries (e.g., company name only) -- so that they appear in the database as a signal to other visitors not to submit them as "new" entries. Then you can submit entries for these co.'s as usual, and as they come in, I'll replace the "placeholder" entries with your new submissions.

Does that makes sense? I need a major clarity-check, as I'm thinking out loud here. LOL

Re "other factors (such as fair trade, union support or busting, environmental practices)": Absolutely. You'll see that many of the companies listed even in the past few days make mention of these issues, usually in the "Description" field, as the "Red Activity" field is meant for short items, such as campaign contributions.

I won't be adding any more separate fields to the records, as that would slow down searching and make for a more intimidating entry form, but I think there's enough space in the "Description" field to go into depth about any relevant trade/union/etc. practices. (Some of the descriptions -- especially those I've entered - LOL -- are already monstrous, but, I hope, useful.)

[kayell]

18. Thanks. For now I'm going to try just entering one a day until

the big thanksgiving event is over. After that I might take you up on the offer of some placeholders if it looks likely that there might be accidental duplication of effort. Right now the description field is only taking 255 (or 355, don't remember) characters, so not much space there. I will add a bit on the company I did today in comments one it goes up.

Thank you so much for all the work you're doing on this mammoth project. It is already showing it's potential!

-----------
PS. Very minor issue. "The Who's been linking to" text displays very, very small in Mozilla. It looked fine in IE, but you might want to check it in Netscape.

[Zorra]

7. Awesome, thanks!

I'll be gone for a few days.

kick for the road.

[PretzelWarrior]

8. OMG! Technical question: is this on an Oracle platform?

are queries beind driven through SQL Plus? Or is this a limited Access database?

Are you scripting via java or C sharp? or other?

just curious. want this DB to work well.

[Sapphocrat]

11. MySQL...

And I didn't write the code -- I've only hacked it to little-bitty pieces to get it where I want it.

And a good thing I didn't code it from scratch, either, or I'd still be on the phone with my ISP asking why CAN'T they install a FoxPro compiler for me?

Oops, just dated myself there, big-time. LOL

[Lorien]

12. I'll start researching after the holidays

overwhelming with work and impending house guests, but I won't forget!

[fudge stripe cookays]

13. Sapphie, if I haven't mentioned it again lately, YOU RULE!

I'm so happy to see this thing getting majorly populated! Last night I think you were following along right behind me, and THAT was cool!

I've gotten quite aways through our Texan thread on businesses, and last night decided to work on Wisconsin for awhile just to shake things up.

Kayell, I entered a couple places from your "realmilk" site. That is VERY helpful!

It used to be hard to drag me off my laptop-- now it's going to be downright impossible!

Quick tip for anyone wanting to do some populating. Here's the fsc way:

1. Open up 5 browsers on your computer:
* The DU state thread or forum with valuable info you want to add.
* Sapph's DB opened to the spot where you want to add the info.
* Homepage of company if you can find it.
* fundrace.org for looking up CEO contributions.
* google for extra searches on contributions, names of CEOs (just do a search for "company name CEO"), and any other extraneous info you might need.

2. Enter your basics from the company Website (address, phone, Wesbite address)

3. Look up the CEO name and any info on the company Website. IF you can't find it, google it and see what comes up.

4. Check on fundrace for any donations.

5. Add key words from the Website.

6. Click Submit! See? Easy.

Thanks again for everyone's help!
FSC, bleary-eyed and needing WAY more coffee

[kayell]

16. Thank you for the instructions.

They made it a lot easier. I just entered one of the local grocery chains. I could find nothing either way, so I may have taken longer in my search. For big chain grocers in this area, this was actually kind of positive, since the alternatives are so much worse. I should even be able to do at least one a day of these entries with your instructions until I get a bit more time after Thanksgiving.

[fudge stripe cookays]

17. Yay!

Way to go Kayell--

I think I'm going for quantity over the big huge firms right now.

I'm trying to fill it up with some real small-scale meat and potatoes and small local companies to make it look like more until we can get some heavy data on the larger corps.

It's easier for me to concentrate on the places I know until I can get some more help!

Thanks for whatever you can offer!
FSC

[kayell]

20. I found another useful resource for your method

http://www.hoovers.com/free/

Very useful for finding out CEO, CFO etc.
Who owns the company, and who they own.
Brands, etc, etc.

[crispini]

14. Hi, I put a couple of entries in

(Snuffer's Restaurant and Baron and Budd Law Firm) and I have some feedback.

If you mess up and it error checks and you have to hit the BACK button, all the fields are cleared and you have to re-enter all of the information again. That's a big problem... I know in .NET you can store the fields off in a session state variable but I don't know what kind of stuff you're using?

Also, I was trying to enter some stuff for the law firm and the error message kept telling me the URL was too long. I'm pretty perplexed by this because the URL was a regular length. What else could have been the problem?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to using it and I'll make it my goal to enter one company per day! :)

[fudge stripe cookays]

15. I was wondering who the other Dallas entries were coming from!

:-)

The field clearing thing doesn't happen all the time; only in certain categories. I've entered quite a few, and it only does that 1 time out of 15 or 20.

When the URL says it's too long, you have to either carve up your description of the business, or your description of their red or blue activities. Just try to pare it down to the most important stuff, and dump the rest. You can always add it into the comments later.

How are you? Thanks for adding Baron and Budd-- they were one of the next ones on my list.

:D
FSC

[foreigncorrespondent]

19. Giving this a kick...

...for people who venture in here for their first time. I hope no one minds, but this is an important project which many at DU were talking about, just days after the election.

:kick:

[WolverineDG]

21. I just added an entry

for laredo: espumas pub & cafe. if you're in this neck of the woods (a) let me know & (b) check out espumas. i can vouch for the roast beef sandwich!!! it's yummy & filling!!

dg

[fudge stripe cookays]

22. Thanks darlin!

Much appreciated!

FSC :D

[foreigncorrespondent]

23. Kick!

Giving this one another kick for those whohaven't seen it yet. :)

:kick:

[foreigncorrespondent]

24. Kick!

Still need all the help we can muster to get this working properly.

[DemBones DemBones]

25. Good job, Sapphocrat et al.! I'm sure there are

lots of people who are tired of supporting the right wingers, people who would welcome handy print-out lists of who's red and who's blue. I have friends who don't spend much time online but are not just Dems but also very much opposed to the current government. Like most people, they probably don't want to spend hours researching this information but will use it if it's easily available.

[crispini]

26. kick

[crispini]

27. kick

for love.

[fudge stripe cookays]

28. We still need help!

Sapphie is enjoying a wonderful visit to Australia right now, but we can still use your businesses if you're not too busy over the holidays!

Come check us out!
FSC

[fudge stripe cookays]

29. BIG OLE KICK!

We need your help, and this is a reminder for all of you who were waiting for the holidays to end before jumping in with both feet.

Yoo hoo! :hi:
FSC