Your suggestions requested! Revamping the Daily Paul

it is not the same firm that did infowars.con.

It would be great to see some option to add tags to posts and comments. Later on someone that missed the post or comment could search for it by one of the tag keywords. http://del.icio.us/ is a good example of this with links and tags.

I love your site. Just some more security and troll fighting..but not to the degree of complete censorship...in disagreement.

What about allowing 1/3 of the page to be banner ads so that you could generate more revenue (instead of the latest articles and recent blog posts)? The ads could be neatly stacked on each other and there would be room for more of them. I just think it would look a little cleaner to separate the ads from the posts but I don't know how realistic this is for you.

you could seperate your online users into states, or have their state they reside in after their nickname. This would help us to be able to contact people in our own state and possibly unify us a little more. Maybe we could all change our dailypaul info to include the state behind our nickname. This would allow us to maybe meet locally. Keep up the great work.

Hi Michael:

I've been thinking about your technical problems for a while and highly suggest you watch this video from Cuong Do, one of the original architects of YouTube that talked about the difficulties of scaling, and optimizing finite resources to serve more users.

http://video.google.com/v...

It's about an hour long, but is completely worth watching and hope that you'll get some ideas/inspiration from it. Do's main point of the talk--eliminate bottlenecks at every possible level--from the app level down to the network. It's the same advice David Heinemeier Hansson gave Twitter people about bottlenecks in Ruby on Rails. Simply put, YouTube runs on Python.

From an aesthetic standpoint, it'd be great to see a more text-based site that takes full advantage of the browser window instead of having all the content within a middle column. The site should be optimized for rapid dissemination and discussion from the community. Offload all graphics and image assets onto a separate server or a CDN, but the site must be fast.

Also, while I haven't contributed much to the forum, again the whitespace bothers me when I'm looking at article comments. There's too much whitespace and I would like to see greater density in text in the space provided.

Dare I say that Daily Paul should look more like Craigslist, but perhaps with some nice slick AJAX implementations? I like the look of a clean site that's optimized for information and doesn't have much ads.

Not sure if I want to get a poster or just make a donation, but hope you'll find this information useful. Thanks and keep it up!

Spreading accurate information, developing a concerted effort and focusing the REVOLUTION on practical goals should be the mission of DailyPaul.

Please get moderators to help out to limit those who attack others when people ask questions or disagree with an issue.

Also, look at the Ron Paul Grassroots projects and be sure to promote them.

Perhaps you could get State Coordinators to pass the information from the boots on the ground level all the way to national exposure.

I have lots of ideas but quite busy, if you'd like to talk directly to me please message me. I'm very involved in the movement, host meetups and do way too many things rather than work :) (I need to be working though)

Employ the currency of whuffie, as put forth by BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow in his novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, an excellent book available as a free download and for derivative uses under Creative Commons. Details of how whuffie works is here, but the basic idea is this:

"Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow's sci-fi novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. (...) A person's current Whuffie is instantly viewable to anyone, as everybody has a brain-implant giving them an interface with the Net. (...) "Whuffie recaptured the true essence of money: in the old days, if you were broke but respected, you wouldn't starve; contrariwise, if you were rich and hated, no sum could buy you security and peace. By measuring the thing that money really represented — your personal capital with your friends and neighbors — you more accurately gauged your success"."

Obviously, we'd forgo the brain-implant portion of it (ha!!), but the concept of whuffie is one that many are clamoring for here, as expressed by desires for "karma" or "digg-like" voting, etc.

And who can disagree that "whuffie" is more fun than "karma" or "Digg-like voting"? ;)

Yes, indeed, great idea. A limited line length for the Active Forum Topics would be just the ticket that would allow more topics to be displayed in that column space.

The karma (silver, gold stars?) idea could encompass performance ratings, etc. The Libertarian web site has the world's shortest political test. Something akin to that idea - short and sweet. The beliefnet.com has a short quiz that categorizes religious belief systems. (It could be improved upon.) That idea could be converted to a political evaluation and coupled with performance evaluations on this site.

always been partial to http://www.invisionpower.... myself. Wish every blog/board/forum used it.

First encountered it at http://www.unexplained-my...

My suggestions would be.

1: Get rid of the flag button and add an ignore button instead because the flag button is used for the wrong purpose : example : It allows 7 non supporters to flag and shut down very important information that needs to stay up.

2: Ad 1 or 2 or 3 moderators to help keep some order here that can be trusted to keep the integrity of this site where it needs to be and keep the bad people that are spreading misinformation in this critical time.

Dr. Steve Parent

The ones I like are Slashdot, Dailykos, and Kuro5hin. Each has some advantages, and some problems.

First, the front page. It would be nice if there were an easier way to move things to the front page that are popular. these other sites allow user moderation, so that if a story gets enough votes, it will go to the front page - this can cause trollwars, but it also encourages people to put more time into there posts. There can be a section of simple short posts that is different from the front page.

It would be nice to have moderated and unmoderated sections, where the better posts can make it to the front page, hit some newsfeeds, etc. and the day to day rattling can be unmoderated, and buried a page into the site for subscribers.

I'd also suggest you consider a small subscription fee. This could be $ 10 - 15, and would allow people to post items that, if they survive moderation, would get to the front page. Non subscribers could only post Comments, not original stories.

From what I have seen on other forums, the subscription fee is important, not just in insuring payment for bandwidth, etc if the use of the site goes down for a short time, it also provides a check against people that would sign up for multiple accounts to moderate their stories up, or others stories down.

I suppose another method would be to go for something more like a E-zine, with editors, etc. and a forum one page inside for members.

1. It's understandable that people want to talk about all kinds of things here; they need to vent, want to be heard, want to help out, and have useful stuff for us all.

But for that reason this site has become an information management nightmare (nobody's fault) and so it's very hard to keep a coherent picture in view of who is doing what, where, when, and what is more important, less important, etc. It has become one part useful and two parts confusion.

The site needs to be directory- and subject-driven, so that all related material is easily accessible, and in chronological order—a relational database type of format is what I'm trying to say. Web-enabled relational database programs are common and well developed; I don't see why this site needs to be written from scratch. Rapid development tools such as FileMaker Pro should work just fine...

There also needs to be security—not just in the sense of being hacker proof, but a secure way to discuss certain matters privately... don't have any idea how that would work.

2. While a project of this sort creates certain nominal expenses, and we certainly should be prepared to cover them, I also believe there must be some HTML, Flash and other types of "coders" out there who could donate their time and skill in lieu of cash contributions. Don't be bashful about putting the call out to them.

I could volunteer to help with the structural and/or visual design of the site, and guarantee tangible results quickly.

Let's go....

yes?

People can rate a post....1 to 10. That would be a way of "bumping" a post without making a comment. Leave "Active Forum Topics" as it is, but add "Most Popular Forum Topics" as well. If possible, make the ratings expire after a week to keep it fresh, but only the best posts will stay at the top and the turnover will be much lower.

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"No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal
rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him." --Thomas Jefferson

I think you have an excellent site, like all computer programing projects you are really never finished because there are always some tweaks you can make.

I have three suggestions:
1. Create more defined forums like campaign news and tactics, political philosophy and history, and the kitchen sink. This will provide a more constructive organization and keep from mixing topics like the philosophy of Lincoln with the intricacies of gardening.

2. Establish some rules of free speech that reflect the constitution and positions of RP.

3. Establish some direct link with RP HQ like someone from HQ who officially visits at a regular time where they can directly converse with the DP constituents.

Thanks Again
Sargent Pepper

PS - An automatic spell checker would be nice too!

Trackable posts by email.

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"It is not the abuse of power, it is the power to abuse."
- Michael Cloud, Libertarian

I've noticed good posts getting pushed off the main page by many new and often pointless and off topic posts. Increase the length of the Active Forum Topics column would help with this. The way it is now infiltrators and trolls can too easily push good posts out of sight by posting numerous not-so-good posts.

Where the bullet is on the Topic Title listed in the Active Forum Topics put the number of replies and a rating number. Add a button or hyperlink to open a tiny window to view the first lines of the post without having to actually track it down or switch pages to see it. This one feature would help with bandwidth issues. Add a "See Similar" button or hyperlink to a data dump of similar posts posted within X time frame.

All in all this forum and its format is excellent and if you ever get it where you want it perhaps the software can be made available to others for use on their web sites and specific topics?

PS: I think the "karma" idea would be great from a moderator's standpoint - if you can make it work properly, fairly and appropriately.

I'd like to see a reasonable limit to the length of comments. When a comment gets to be three pages long that's just too much, and should be posted as a new topic or something.
Thanks for all you do!

I really don't know how you've kept it going for so long!
WELL DONE.

Not sure if your developers are familiar with CMS Joomla but I would recommend that. It is open source and would allow you very easily to empower trusted users and achieve all the things listed below.

It is also very scalable and will grow at the speed you need. As it is open source there is also a massive development community so skills are plentiful.

We build all our sites in Joomla.

If you need any more info just ask.

I think the onestop shop idea is good. I have read posters say they stopped coming here because it was getting too Alex-Jonesish, too many fights, bad language, too much flagging and deletion (not enough freedom of speech).
Someone had the suggestion of a calendar in the middle to show upcoming events – which is a good idea.

SEPARATE FORUMS BY TOPIC – this will reduce ideological conformity, make it harder to post off-topic, nutty, trivial and ‘personal’ threads, allow people to focus on their interests more and areas of real knowledge.
I think you should allow ‘freedom of association’ here if possible as it is a big tent. Someone said it should be like Daily Kos which is a good idea. DK is big enough to get lost in which is what you need although they are ideologically very narrow so it is different.
Also social conservatives, libertarians and liberals needn’t rub shoulders if they don’t want to. A lot of liberals used to come here and say they liked Obama and Kucinich and they would understandably get hammered so they didn’t come back ( I was guilty of that – whoops). If there was a “Liberals for Paul” or “Democrats for Paul” area it would give them ‘permission’ to be here. They might not come though. And there should definitely be an area for truthers and other controversial topics.

LIBRARY, RECOMMENDED READING/VIEWING AREA - In the other thread you posted in January, I put that I thought having an Amazon/Library type area for book, video, pamphlet recommendations and also make it so you can see which posters recommended which books and maybe with an Amazon style review function would be a good idea. I can spend hours reading reviews at Amazon and I think you would get some quality posters recommending some really good books and writing really intelligent reviews. This would encourage us and newcomers to read them too. And do this with videos and articles, commentary etc. This would be one section that wouldn’t get drowned in trivia which the forum can. I also think this should have the ability to comment on the review (you may need an amazon-sized server though, I don’t know) so people could discuss. DP needs to attract quality posters and retain them. What newcomer to the RPR would want to read some of the unbelievably stupid junk that has been posted here over the last few days?

MODERATION – within each separate forum, off-topic threads should be ruthlessly deleted. This will stop the forum going hysterical over one ‘troll’ or starting threads attacking another poster. Otherwise whole threads should not be deleted unless they are nutty ‘let’s all go buy a gun’ or full of bad language. People should only be able to flag individual posts.
If the whole thread is deleted it should be done straight away so that people don’t get a discussion going only to return and see the thread is gone. Have a general thread maybe for posters who need to complain or whatever. Clearly some people love chasing trolls, talking about trolls, speculating about. Either the moderators deal with the trolls by not allowing others to attack them if they are just people who have an eccentric opinion or the posters will chase them around like a mob after a pedophile ‘Get him!!!!’.

I think you cannot tolerate what happened to onevoiceforreason. Either delete this user quickly if they are obviously bad or caution the other users against ‘gang-attacking’ him/her in every thread (ok, that’s a bit melodramatic). NO PERSONAL ATTACKS/VENDETTAS/VIGILANTE JUSTICE. It makes this place looks like it’s run by the inmates so to speak. If it’s possible to have an ‘ignore’ function maybe you should get one. I think you should probably ban bad language (although it might be too late to do it now) as I think it makes it too easy for people get into fights.

News – how about encouraging news sites to do what antiwar.com do and get their own userid and post stories or events – so the Libertarian party could post something occasionally, the American Freedom Agenda or even places like DemocracyNow if it is about the patriot act or something.

Anyway, none of these may be practical ideas – just thinking out loud.

Like for the April 1 Moneybomb?

And such events that wouldn't likely be found on the RonPaul website.

People have to keep bumping the moneybomb date post and it's hard to keep it current. Things like that should just be somewhere on the page for all to see easily.

And for the obvious negative anti-RP trolls, they should get a certain number of warnings then kicked off. It's really annoying to keep seeing them over & over and leaves you with a bad feeling; wouldn't work with just being able to hide their posts, they need to be warned then gone.

Thanks!

We should be able to vote on a given post or thread: up, down, or neutral (no vote). That way, the obvious and unwanted troll posts would rapidly disappear.

/Ignore

Better post/thread tracking. Maybe a rating system.

"It is like a finger pointing away to the moon, don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all the heavinly glory." - Bruce Lee

I think the best thing for this forum at this point in time is an IGNORE feature. That way we can ignore the TROLLS that are incessantly posting everywhere they can with the express purpose of being argumentative and anti-ron paul.

I actually read this post all the way through this time for once to check if anyone had suggested a Recommended Articles, Recommended Videos and Recommended books section. This would mostly be for newcomers and should feature prominently on top - this could have a ratings system with members giving a thumbs up thumbs down vote. So you could have a really useful 'library' of all the best stuff people have found. A ratings system would keep the number to a manageable level, with 5 or so recommendations to post something and then thumbs up/thumbs down rating would mean even if 20 people nominated something by Lyndon LaRouche it would have 35 thumbs down votes so newcomers would know this might not be great.

I find it very hard to explain RP's positions without sending people links to videos and articles. So something like the Money Masters youtube has been recommended and posted here many times but this gets lost as the thread gets old. Also Harry Browne's books are brilliant and I would certainly recommend them. There are pdf's available of works by Ludwig Von Mises and others and the links to them could be added.

I think after the general election you should break the forum down into topic areas like the Gold Standard, abolishing the Fed, Education (abolishing the Dept and homeschooling), a 'Congress' section with things about RP and Murray Sabrin and others, civil liberties section, an area for Christians, non Christians, potheads, pro-lifers and pro-choicers, War and foreign policy area and maybe a section for the more 'controversial' posts ie truthers, and other conspiracy theories.

I think this would encourage people to stay on topic, it would stop some of these 'fight' threads (you suck!, hes a troll! etc) and would allow people to focus in on their interests more so that every thread doesn't feature the same people.

I think YOU should nominate the moderators and then let them nominate others as some people here scream troll at everyone who disagrees with them, some of the posters who spend the most time here can be weird so they aren't suitable and some people (like me) would delete too much.

I think this site looks really good though. Maybe you can do a post here asking people to come up with a new name - will it be the Daily Paul after the general election?

I would like to see a page for Ron Paul politicians.

I want to know about people who are running on ideas similar to Ron Paul. We have to ban together and help those who believe in the same things we believe in get elected. Whether it's a mayor of a tiny town or a US senator we need to support these people.

Michael, you have a wonderful site here. On my own, I wouldn't suggest anything to change it; however, since you have posed the question, here are a few ideas that might prove helpful to all DP users:

- Top of page Log In button
- Date:Time stamp (timeline helps to follow the thread)
- Create Forum Categories:
Items would still cycle through the "Active Forums" on the front page, but would be contained within tagged forums -- this would make it much easier to search posts by topic relevance:
-- Strategy Forum (concepts / ideas / plans for grassroots)
-- Calls to Action (things we can work on "now!")
-- Media (YouTube, MP3s, etc.)
-- State Forums (state-specific info, action, legislation, etc.)
-- Fundraising (Money Bombs, etc.)
-- Ancillary (Non-HQ grassroots efforts: Blimp, RPRRadio, etc.)
-- Humor (we all need a break now 'n' then,; plus, all those Rickrolled and FakeCandidateForum.com posts could get shifted here...)
-- Misc. and other category forums as you deem appropriate

Perhaps posters could opt to categorize their post in more than one Forum (RPR Radio, for example, might go under both Ancillary and Media).

Regardless of how or whether you change this site at all...just, Thank You for providing it.