LtL Core Members
If Lose the Label was a car, LtL Core Members would be the driver. If you join, you'll get email reminders about meetings or questions about when/if we should have one, ideas about tweaking the site, organization, focus..content issues, etc. If something's going wrong, you're the first to know about it.
Fuck Off, Lose the Label
Just kidding. But I do want to step down as Facilitator and just write for awhile. In case you didn’t notice, I haven’t been around the last few weeks. There’s been so little activity I figured nobody would mind. In the meantime, I’ve been watching the election, writing, recording some music and taking better care of myself. It’s been good for me, and I’ve decided this is a path I need to follow.
META.end.of.07
Here's a list of things I think we should do in January.
1) Give the textbook boycott a chance. Remaining questions are how to do it, when to launch it and who to target.
2) Change from daily to weekly open threads. Most of my daily ones aren't getting comments/..and are therefore useless.
3) Establish a schedule for front page posts. Not necessarily a full weekly rotation, but just enough to make sure there's something fresh every couple days. We did OK in November.
4) Have 2 or 3 meetings.
5) Outreach. Nothing fancy... just posting links to our front page blog posts within relevant Facebook groups. Also, recruiting for the textbook boycott group.
6) T-shirt contest legality. We should get through the obstacle of legality questions so we can A) launch it in February, or B) scrap it.
Thoughts? Additions? Subtractions?
A Plan
How about this?
We make some amazing t-shirt designs to raise money and put it in a fund for new projects. We then announce an activism entrepreneur contest. People post their ideas on Lose the Label and the community decides which ones to fund. We can promote the contest on Facebook (through notes, and a group we invite a ton of people to), the blogs (I can make some posts announcing it, and maybe we can afford some banner ads), YouTube, Digg and whatever else we can think of.
We could repeat this project a bunch of times and probably expand it, too.
Idiot proof general strike plan
Here's a step by step description of how we can stage a massive antiwar strike using Facebook. Yes, really. I think our target number should be 130,000 because that's the number of troops stuck in Iraq right now, plus it's much easier to reach than the original goal of 250k.
FIRST STAGE: Getting to 130,000
Step One: ASSEMBLE CORE. Build group of 30 core organizers/recruiters. Have it on Facebook so more people can easily join later.
Step Two: CREATE MAIN GROUP. Create Facebook group with a catchy description, simple demands, and a link to the organizers group.
Step Three: LAUNCH. All 30 core organizers invite 100+ friends to group, AND each convince at least 5 friends to invite 50 of their friends. ("Chain invite" -- remember?)
Step Four: NURTURE GROWTH. Make posts advertising strike group on the walls of liberal groups all over Facebook.
And hopefully this creates explosive growth. If it doesn’t, we try other tactics, or pull the plug, or go at a smaller level (50k?). We make decisions like this by posting discussion threads on Lose the Label, which should be the planning area because we have control here; no worries about trolls or interference from Faceb$k administrators. We can also do more with email here.
the front page
The last thing I think we need to do before we relaunch is clean up the front page. We've all been making pretty short posts lately and while it's nice that they get to the point really fast, when you put it all together, imho, it looks terrible.
Apathy
My recent absence from the site hasn't occurred out of my own free will. The quarter system and 19 units is kicking my ass, plus I'm working and trying to have somewhat of a life as well. I'm not trying to gain any sympathy from anyone, I'm just saying that I understand why some people are so apathetic about the world.
So why the hell did everything turn blue?
Because Grant installed the new theme for the website. There are more changes coming -- he hasn't turned on profiles, walls, or messaging yet --- but it should be all done by the weekend. In the meantime, enjoy the blue. AND you can rate comments and blog posts now, which I'll be doing like a fiend.
If you have any feedback or error reports, please post here. Thanks.
Blogroll, Links We Like
One of the things we get with the new theme is a blogroll. I think it'll be on the right side of the front page. I'm not sure how much space we have...maybe enough for 20 links, maybe 30, maybe 60. We'll see. We have wiggle room. Anyway, first things first, we need to come up with a bunch of links to stuff we like.
Meeting Sunday
Let's have a meeting Sunday night to talk about the new theme and all the wonderful things we can do now that we're not waiting for anything anymore.
Who can make it? Hypothetically, say,...930 ET, 630 Pacific?
New Theme discussion
So Grant installed the new theme for a few of us to try out. If the site
looks the same as it did last week, no worries. But if everything looks red and weird, that's you. What kind of
feedback have you got? Please try stuff out and leave a comment here.
I also have a few specific questions.
Police Brutality (or, Sometimes the World Makes Me Want to Purge)
So this is probably getting around by now, but I want to post this anyways.
Very recently, a UF student-Andrew Meyer, was arrested and tasered by UF police at a John Kerry speech in Gainesville, FLorida. After having his mic cut, Meyer was dragged from the mic by the police, while yelling "why am I being arrested?!" and "help me!". As the police dragged him from the auditorium, he began to resist the officers (All 5 of them) and so they threw him to the ground and tasered him. I linked two videos below, and you can hear the taser go off, as well as Meyer's screams of pain.
GREEEEEEEEEEEN
So, a few weeks ago I told you what steps I was going to take to help ease my impact on our precious planet. I haven't had a water bottle since then and have consistently refused plastic bags while shopping. No ATM receipts, and if the company I bought something for asks, I tell them no receipt as well. Showers - its been hard but I've drastically cut back on shower time. I can't say I'm down to 3 minutes or less yet, but I'm headed there. My recycling, or precycling I should say, has drastically picked up.
Dig on This
So I just got this e-mail today. I think it poses a good question. What are everyone's thoughts?
"Dear activists, colleagues, and friends,
Well Fox News went to new lows in their analysis of Petraeus' testimony last week, when our friends at Media Matters let us know that they had 7 to 1 analysts in favor of escalation. It was hard to believe, even for FOX!
Updates, Announcements, Questions, Meta, Etc
Key words bolded for skimmers.
September marks Lose the Label's first anniversary. The initial Facebook group launched early Sept 06 and the website idea came soon thereafter, in a discussion thread. I still think it's cool how this whole thing started completely spontaneously, from scratch, through an f'ing Facebook group. Of course the website didn't go online until a long time afterward, when Grant came around, but the project itself launched in September. So happy birthday.
Grant's been working on the new theme. Check out the rough version here. We're going to need to work it over a little bit over there before we implement it here, but I like the jist of it already. The biggest improvement will be to profiles. Any preferences on color? Another thing --- we're going to have the Resources page to fill, so now's a good time to come up with some content ideas to fill it up. I have my posts about fliers and burnout activism to contribute, but we can do a lot better than that. We're also going to need to compile a good list of links to other websites we like (news, activism related + ???) so we can build a blogroll. I'm thinking that'll be on the right column of the front page. Any thoughts on the new theme?
Can we cook up some new projects?
Outreach/promotion --- not much going on. The page I set up for Facebook promotion is empty. Also, T-shirts and stickers --- what's up? Was I supposed to do something? I honestly forgot.
Also, just a reminder ---- here is the top page rotation schedule (after the jump). I missed my last 2 Thursdays but will be back this week. If anyone needs to pull out, please speak up. Likewise, if anybody wants in. Weekends are still open.
Out for the Week + Antiwar Tuesday help
Hey guys, I'm going on a road trip for a week starting tomorrow and just wanted to give you guys a heads up, and also ask a little favor if anyone's willing.
Since I'm going to be Internet-challenged, I won't be able to do Antiwar Tuesday. Like, at all. Would anybody be willing to put up the discussion thread and send the message out for me? You guys know how it works... I put up a discussion thread asking what everybody did, and then I send a message to the group with a link to it. And that's it. Takes 5 minutes. Can anyone do it? Pleeease? And I'd also need a volunteer for next week, too, since I'm probably not going to be back in until Wednesday. Maybe the same person, maybe someone different...either way.
Meeeeeting
{bumping this post back up top so maybe some more core members will see it --- nudge nudge. -jake}
Jake and I were talking about an Outreach meeting that would take place sometime this week. I know it's short notice, guys, but what does everyone feel about Wednesday? Maybe 7:00pm eastern? Or if that's too early for you west-coasters, we could push it to 8 or 9? Post your availability...
Humanity
So let’s imagine the apocalypse. Let’s assume that global warming – to put a contemporary (and highly probable) spin on it – has become irreversible. The climate is fated to change and change and change until the earth winds up, as Stephen Hawking put it, much like Venus— 250 degrees Celsius and raining sulphuric acid. We are doomed from this moment on. It’s a prospect that’s extraordinarily frightening. To face death is one thing. It is a personal struggle, but able to be handled because (and I am speaking for myself here, but I feel that it’s true with most) we have the knowledge that life will go on without us. We may die, but others are born and others live, and then they die, and more still are born, and so on. But death in the face of apocalypse?
Flyers Are Up
Alright, so for the past few days or so I've been tinkering with some flyer ideas. Right now I've got three uploaded. Anyone feel free to download these, tinker with them to your heart's desire, change them radicially, print them, post them, hand them out, etc. Obviously these are more visiually direct flyers that do more "advertising" than explain what the site is, but feel free to make flyers that are descriptive, wordy, purely pictoral, or even just plain evokative. Be creative!
Outreach Ideas Outline
Here are some of the outreach ideas I've devised thus far:
Facebook/Myspace
Essentially, we search current political/social activist groups (and keep an eye out for new ones) on Facebook and Myspace and then promote! Post on walls with links to Lose the Label, maybe a short blurb about us or why it's relevent. Also, we should do this on friend's walls, naturally. And, while we're posting in groups, we should keep an eye out for other plugs that link to related sites-- we might be able to get that site to link to us or post mention to us / use an ad banner of ours.
Website Links / Ads
New Group
Since the meeting last night, I've gone ahead and created a new group for all you members who might want to help in the outreach department. Basically, it's a place for us to get together and think of ways to help get our name out there, and then do it. For starters, I'll be creating more groups on facebook and myspace, and doing a lot of promo stuff on those sites.
Join it on up.
Reminder --- meeting TONIGHT 930/630
To participate, send me a message on AIM (screenname "meteoriot") a few minutes before we start --- 930 ET/ 630 PT. We'll work off what's posted in this thread. Please take a look at it if you haven't yet.
Hey Core Members
Roll call --- core members, who's around and can make a meeting either this Sunday night or next Sunday night? By my count, Tricia, Liz, Joe, Ali, Chris, Grant, me and even Jerome have been coming by lately which tells me it's time to get rolling again. June-July were f'ing lean but we're still on the air and now there are enough of us that we can start pulling plans together again and since Grant's back we're not helpless in the tech department anymore, either. So here's a LINK to the meeting thread. Please RSVP.
we should have a meeting soon
Possibly this weekend, to talk about stuff from this post ("Things Lose the Label Needs"). It looks like most of us are back from stuff, so this is when we can get a jump before schools are back in session. Who can make it on Sunday at 9 ET/6PT?
Things Lose the Label Needs
Summer’s almost over and I’d like to hit the ground running in fall. Here’s a list of what we need (note: please add anything else you can think of). In no particular order, except for the first one.
Outreach Idea: On Facebook walls, post links to LtL blog, forum posts
Just a thought, but what if whenever someone makes a cool blog post or forum topic on LtL, we post a link to it on a Facebook group we're in? A relevant place, possibly with a short description of what it is and why it's relevant to people passing through, or just the title.
We used to have a lot of success with posting "www.losethelabel.org" on walls, but I think this has even more potential since it'd be more of a micro-targeting thing. Thoughts?
Victims, Activists and Obstacles
As someone whose identity has basically been co-opted by activism, this confessional diary is going to be awkward and messy. I have a love-hate relationship with a lot of things and activism is certainly one of them. I think it’s because my personality isn’t cut out for it --- I’m shy, introverted and cynical --- but I’ve kept myself going by leaning on my extremely inflexible (admittedly, arrogant) core beliefs about how the world should be. I can’t just give up as long as things like poverty, war and curable diseases take lives every day. People obviously didn’t sign up to be victims, so why’s it fair that the rich should live in comfort, constantly getting richer and more powerful, allowing so much pain to exist, even causing it to a large degree? Well it’s not fair. But most Americans do their best to accept it so it doesn’t overshadow their personal lives and make them depressed all the time, but I think that’s bullshit, and can’t live that way. The status quo fills me with rage, and I’ve found the only place I have to (constructively) channel it is activism, formerly through campus organizing and now through music, writing and Lose the Label.
Meeting Soon
Now that more of us are around for a week or two, I think we should have a meeting to see what we can do before the core breaks up again. When can you make it?
Notes on Summer Activism
Three types of activism Lose the Label can launch this summer:
Divestment campaign
Boycott of a specific corporation
Fundraising for existing groups/causes/individuals
If you can think of others, please leave a comment.
A little more about the first three approaches:
Funding
Unfortunately, this isn't an idea for how to get funding. This is an idea for a way to use it.
We could offer money to projects. Like, we have a 'projects fund' set aside. And we parcel it out as needed whenever someone needs a boost to make something happen. We could decide democratically; there could be a finance committee with 4 or 5 people responsible for parceling it out.
Here are some pros and cons to the idea.
On the plus side:
front page rotation schedule
So we're going to start doing top page rotation again. If you can do a day, please leave a comment indicating which one.
This isn't a permanent schedule per se, but how about we set it for the next 4 weeks, starting on Wednesday?
I want Sundays. Personally, my posts are going to be a series about DIY activism tactics and ideas. If you can do a series, that's cool, or you can just do something different every week. There are no hard guidelines for what to write; just keep in mind your audience is:
front page guidelines [edit, please]
All blogs can be found on the blogs page. All events can be found on the events page. All forum topics can be found in the forums.
The moderators [link to list of current mods] promote the best posts to the front page.
So what the hell does “best” mean? Simply put, the ones that most effectively contribute to Lose the Label’s core objectives of fighting apathy, generating student activism and empowering our generation.
This is the set of guidelines that the moderators use to determine “best”. They’re not ranked, except for the first one:
Meeting
Meeting on AIM. Message me (screenname -- meteoriot) a couple minutes before and I'll get you in.
Core members: GOTTA make this one guys.
Agenda... what do you think are our biggest priorities right now? There are a lot of things we need to talk about, but I'm not sure what comes first.
If you can make it, please use this thread to RSVP, plus build an agenda.
Tuesday Progress Report
I'm more pessimistic this week than I was last week, but unwilling to write another post like that.
If you want to give me the chance to write something positive next time, go here and take some initiative.
meeting notes
- We talked a lot about how to make the site more user-friendly. Some of the problems: the front page is very cluttered right now, so we're going to be more active about maintaining it...
- ...so I'm going to write guidelines for front page promotion, and post that as a blog, and then you can make changes.
- We also gave more members mod power so they can implement the guidelines once they're done. Now, Jerome, Ali, Liz, Delia, Joe, Grant, Michael and me have admin/mod powers.
- We have 2 new email lists, one for core members and one for mods. So you'll never see a blog post like this on the site again. If you want to be added to the core email list, message me or Grant.
- We might be getting a new theme.
Meeting Sunday
Main purpose of meeting is to develop a better outreach/promotion plan. Will probably feature more discussion of how to arrange the site so it looks better, but I want to keep the focus on how to bring in more people. Please bring ideas.
In addition to whatever everyone else wants to talk about, I want to discuss info from these threads:
fixes A, B, C + comments section here.
Also, is anyone willing to take notes and post them in blog-form later?
content arranging idea
Now that we have so many projects spinning, there's a lot of content going through very quickly. What if we reserved the front page for action oriented items like ideas and calls for assistance? Then we could use the blogs page for news. For example, the open thread would go on the blogs page instead of the front page, but something Delia posts about the SSV group would go on the front page. So news would go to the blogs and activism would go to the main page.
Thoughts?
Tuesday Progress Report
The big difference between this week and last week is the project activity. Last week, we had 2 going and they were each pretty quiet. This week, we have at least 5 active ones; I’m happy to admit I’ve lost track of what everybody’s doing.
I sent out a Facebook message yesterday that resulted in a huge traffic spike--even bigger than the one we did about a week ago. But the difference is that in the last message I asked people to invite friends and it resulted in 100+ new members. This time, I asked people to invite friends and only a couple people did; we actually lost a few members. D'oh!
Meeting
Meeting to talk about some stuff. 930 ET/630 PT or however that translates for you.
If you've never done one before, now's a good time to jump in; I think we'll be talking in more general terms than we usually do. The way it works is you just send me a message on AIM (screenname "meteoriot") a few minutes before we start and I invite you into a chatroom where we hold the meeting, which is basically just a chat. Bigger meetings are more chaotic, but I like them because we get more done. So please join in if you can.
Agenda:
Ready for a Fight
So, last week I was all geared up and ready for a fight. I was going to embark on a great activist crusade, fighting the man and getting all fair trade coffee in my school cafeteria. I was a holy warrior with a mission. However, I thought that I should begin this campaign the way I always say campaigns should begin, by playing nice and asking. I decided that I should go into the dining services office, and propose that they put fair trade coffee out there. I considered this more a warning shot than anything else, a declaration of intent before I really started fighting.
open front page slot(s) this week
nm, Delia and James are on it.
We have one or two open slots for the top of the front page post this week if anyone wants them. Thursday is up for grabs cause Grant's on vacation and Friday might be (James, where you at dude?).
Here are the basic guidelines. As for what to write, it's openended... use your best judgment, bearing in mind your audience is made up pretty much entirely of student activists, whether they're regular visitors to the site or first timers. Any takers?
the facebook group... past, present, future
Here are my thoughts on what to do with the Facebook group. Now that we're doing most of our organizing on the website, we don't need it for that like we did before. So it's only purpose now is as a promoting and recruiting tool.
When we started the site 4 weeks ago, we had about 70 members in the group. People started trickling in when we did our big round of wall posts and by last Wednesday March 21st, we had 120 members.
I then sent a message asking everyone in the group to invite 5 people so we could get up to 200. Not everyone did, but one of you invited a TON of people and it made up for it and now we have 280 members.
Salud. :-)
So a few minutes ago I sent out another message asking the same thing: please invite 5 people.
Hard vs. Soft Activism
I think that most politicians are corrupt, and work the system as a business rather than a calling, and that is a crime against the American people, depriving them of governance that works for them. Political cronyism, insistence on toeing the line, and too much focus on the party system has severely damaged the ability of even the good lawmakers to be really effective in changing things. In short, I believe that the system is broken, and it desperately needs to be fixed.
front page rotation reminder thread
If you're signed up to write a front page post for the week, please leave a comment confirming it here. Here's the schedule:
Mon – me (jakethorn)
Tues – Liz (liza.fullerton)
Wed – Joe (kensai)
Thurs – Grant (gdobbe)
Fri – James (blujay)
Sat – Jerome (jerome)
Sun – Tricia (tmgielmtt)
If you can't do it this week, please say so. Delia said she might be able to fill in for somebody, so announce yourself here and we can work something out, whether she takes your spot or I do or someone else volunteers.
90!
Nice job everyone! We officially rock! We hit the 90 mark of LtL members - let's get ten more and then keep going, eh?
Mission statement revision / update (+ 2ND DRAFT)
(note: I'm sticking this blog up top until 4 pm Pacific Time to get input on the second draft before it falls too far down the page... if it looks ok to you, I'm going to install the new statement at 4.)
Tagline Discussion
I think we should change the tagline to something that sums up the group better. Anybody have a 4-6 word slogan we might use?
The goal is to explain the group to strangers in a way that sums up what we're trying to do in a humble but catchy way.
Please throw ideas out. We can use the comments section to figure out front runners. Later, we can create a poll to vote on it.
Begin at the Beginning
This is my first of a series of frontpage posts. (I feel awkwardly important) Hopefully I'll be posting more or less weekly on the frontpage for a while, rambling about politics, society for a mercifully short page a week.
But, I'm going to begin on a personal note. I'm a daoist-Catholic-socialist from upstate New York, going to college in the South Shore of Massachusetts and this is the story of how I got to here.