Our ads have been accepted by both LP News and Liberty. January issue for the first and February for the latter. To see what they look like, go here. Neither of these are full page ads. They are 1/3 for Liberty and 1/4 for LP News. If you think we should run bigger ads, send money. Ditto if you think we should run ads in your favorite libertarian leaning publication. (Hint, Reason is considerably more expensive. Send lots of money if you want to see ads there.)

December 2, 2005

This page is semi-deprecated since there is now a "What's New" on the home page. In the past month+ several things have happened.

First, there is a new home page. No longer does www.ReformTheLP.org get you a redirect to www.ReformTheLP.org/home/intro. Instead, there is a special home page, which has a different format from the other pages. There is both new information in the center, and a summary of what we are about on the right sidebar.
The PAC is operational! Donations are accepted!
Ad Words have been purchased from google. (This has not been very productive so far.)
Advertising has been ordered for the February issue of Liberty. We are doing a full column ad that you can look at in the donate section.
Advertising has also been ordered for a quarter page ad in the January LP News. (We haven't gotten a confirmation of this order yet. The email went to the editor yesterday.) Once again, you can see what the ad looks like by going to the donate section.

October 2, 2005

I have created a new marketing category under Theory. We now have two categories on positioning: one of moderation as positioning, and one on triangulation. S. Michael Moore's "Incremental Freedom" and Bill Woolsey's "Moderate or Radical?" have been moved to this location.

The "In the News" section has been largely superceded with archives of our newsletter. Notice to small number of newsletters. If you subscribe, we will not fill up your inbox!

You might notice that the "Donate" section refers to a "Libertarian Reform PAC." Hopefully, we will have this running this week. We would have had it last week, but the bank wanted yet another number due to the USA PATRIOT act. Hopefully, we have a less bureaucratic bank lined up, and we can get the account opened this week. Once we have an account, we can turn in the paperwork and be in business.

We have already looked into advertising options. Print ads run from $30 to over $1500, depending on size and which libertarian publication. Thus, even small donations will be significant, yet big donations will allow bigger things...

Finally, please note the corrections regarding the Multi-Party convention in New Hampshire.

Sept 4, 2005

What's New has been significantly automated! If you go back to the home page, you will see four links under "What's New" on the right sidebar. There are four pages: new essays, new platform proposals, new comments on essays, and new comments on platform proposals. The latter two provide a way to see if anyone has commented on one of your comments.

Any of the four pages can be launched into a small popup which then controls the main page. This allows looking at more than one new thing without having to use your "back" button.

This page will be now be reserved for new features vs. new proposals and essays.

Speaking of which, it is possible to pop up a printer friendly version of any page. Look at the bottom of the page in the center. There will be a link entitled "Printer Friendly Version."

August 28, 2005

User profiles can now be more nicely formatted, using the same tags that are used to submit essays, proposals and comments. Please consider updating your profile.

If you need to change your email address that you have registered with us, you can now do so. See the Member's area.

Events! There are events coming up which would be great places to promote the caucus. It is up to caucus members to make it happen! If you plan to go to such an event, post a short essay under caucus/events and hopefully other people going to the same event will comment. You can then set up an outreach effort.

August 18, 2005

The platform plank and essay posting systems are now working end to end. Now, to take care of the backlog of editing tasks...

If you are thinking about writing something but have a hard time getting the right words out, see Decent Writing: A Practical Guide. It is a long article, but there is lot's of good stuff there.

August 9, 2005

Comments! We have comments! Members can now comment on all essays and platform plank proposals!

August 9, 2005

Hmmmm, been a while since I have written anything here. The flow of new proposals and essays has also been slowed down for a bit. There is a very good reason: I have been working on an online posting system. Email has proven to be cumbersome for the editors and the webmaster.

Now, if you wish to post a platform proposal, log in and go to the directory where your proposals should go. On the bottom of the right sidebar you will see a button that says "New Version". This button will launch a form. Write your proposal in the form and submit. Then, over the next few days, editors will check over your proposal and make corrections. In the Members' pages you will find a list of your pending proposals. After editors make corrections, you can make corrections to those corrections, or approve them as is. One you and the editors both approve, it is time for me, the webmaster, to post the proposal.

Alas, I am still working on that last part. Hopefully, should be done this coming weekend. I got distracted working on something really cool: the ability for users to comment on platform proposals! This capability is now up, but links to it exist only from some of the proposals. I should have it up in general in the near future.

July 2, 2005

I added a "Useful Links" page on the left sidebar of the home chapter. If you know of a link that should be included, write me.

June 21, 2005

We have our first gun rights proposal (under Platform).

June 19, 2005

I have been a busy bee this weekend. That's because some of you have been busy writing essays and platform proposals. We have new proposals on Taxes, the Economy, and the Statement of Principles. We also have three new essays. Bill Woolsey points out that even "moderate" Libertarians are not all that moderate (theory->positioning). He also provides a ten year plan for getting Libertarians elected in the Top Down vs. Bottom Up section (strategy->top). Finally, we have a humor piece from Dr. Myron Pauli (theory->humor).

This was a bunch of work to get posted, but part of the work was writing some code to partially automate the process. I have more to do. Methinks I will make some type of entry form for plank-by-plank platform proposals...

June 14, 2005

We have quite a collection of possible LP membership pledges for you to choose from. Does the Pledge mean that we all agree to apply the non-initiation of force principle to government? Or does it mean we will use peaceful means to achieve our ends? Bill Woolsey offers several possibilities to clear up the confusion.

June 9, 2005

The essay guidelines and platform proposal guidelines are finally up! Look under Caucus.

June 8, 2005

We have a new essay under party/pledge: "The Pledge Problem and How to Fix it" by Phillip Schmitt, Vice Chair of LP Oregon. Some might argue that platform reform is a violation of the current Pledge. Others say the Pledge is simply to reassure the government that we don't intend violent overthrow. This essay proposes a new Pledge to clear things up.

The pledge in this essay is also up for voting under platform/pledge. Several other pledge proposals are in the pipeline.

June 4, 2005

Navigation has been improved. The top menu highlights which "chapter" you are in. In the Plank-by-Plank sections under "Platform", the "Previous" and "Next" buttons will take you to the prev/next plank after you look at all the variations of the plank you are in. This allows you to work down through the many planks of the existing platform and decide which you think should be changed.

June 1, 2005

It is done! I have written scripts (in Ruby, the world's coolest scripting language) to break up the LP platform into planks, and create directories for each plank with "Keep the Current Plank" and "Have no Plank" pages. I even got all these into the database using scripts.

May 27, 2005

Word on the platform and essay guidelines proceeds. Drafts are available. If you are planning a submission, write us. Been doing assorted error fixing on the site. Also have more icons available in the Caucus/promote section for those who want to link to us. Hopefully, this Memorial Day weekend I can get more things up: a general writer's guide and stubs for all the planks in the existing platform are on my wish list.

May 10, 2005

Have begun a new format for some of the intro pages. Intro talk has been reduced. Instead, there is a directory of essays with short intros. Also posted some of the articles which had been made into fliers: "Incrementalating 101," "Incrementalating 102," "What it Takes to Win," and "A Realistic Vision of Victory." Look under Theory and Strategy.

May 8, 2005

Fliers from the LPNC convention have been placed in the Caucus area. If you intend to go to a state or regional LP convention, please consider printing some out and handing them around.

May 6, 2005

We another essay by S. Michael Moore entitled "Incremental Freedom", under theory/moderation.

May 4, 2005

Much effort of late was put into our appearance at the North Carolina state Libertarian Convention. Big things happened there! I had some very good conversations with National Chair Mike Dixon and with LNC Member (and founder of Real World Libertarians) Chris Farris. Fellow editors Bernard Carman, Nick Wilson and Will Baumeister worked the crowds and handed out fliers (soon to be posted on the site) promoting the caucus. Alas, we were not able to sign up people at our table as there was no Internet hookup available near the meeting hall.

Also, we have a new proposal under "World Government." We have a new essay by Robert Capozzi entitled "Is it Time for the LP to Take a Moderate, Populist Approach?. We also have a new essay by S. Michael Moore entitled Thoughts on Abortion.

April 19, 2005, 12:30pm

We now have another tax proposal to consider as well as a proposal to change the Statement of Principles.

April 10, 2005, 12:30pm

Did lots of polishing up today. Split the "Organization" chapter into "Party" and "Caucus." Added material on how caucus members can help promote the caucus. Under "Home" added sections on LRC "In the News" and finally added a "Contact" section. Finally, I added a Frequently Asked Questions chapter.

Yes, this is a lot of cosmetic effort, but there is more real content in the pipeline. And people are signing up. We just had a former Vice Chair of the party sign up yesterday!

April 5, 2005, 12:30pm

The database system still seems to be working. Last night we had a rather raucus meeting discussing style and format. Tonight, I made some stylistic tweaks that hopefully will appease the editorial board. I have cleaned up the instructions for platform proposal voting and hopefully made it clear how to find all the options. I have also made the site a bit more friendly to people who don't have 21" monitors.

April 3, 2005, 12:30pm

I had the database/login system working. Hope I didn't break it today. Made a bunch of cosmetic/readability upgrades in the platforms section. Existing platform planks are now spelled out instead of just a pop-up link to lp.org. Have made some progress promoting the site, a great deal more to do...

March 28, 2005, 12:30pm

Nearly done with the back end!! I have a working system on my home machine in which one can join, log in, vote on proposals, and rate essays! I still need to make the "My Votes" pages under Members, and do some other housekeeping tasks. However, I think I will go ahead and copy what I have to the public server. Almost in business!

March 13, 2005

I have gained sufficient mastery of SQL over the last couple of weeks to be able to make user and admin tables and to make users and administrators. Now, work begins in earnest to fully set up the voting system. Should be done in the next few weeks.

February 23, 2005

OK, I think we are nearly ready for prime time! The Statement of Purpose has been edited, re-edited, argued over and polished. I think it is time to set it in stone.

I didn't note it on this blog, but the signup form has been functional for a a couple of weeks now. I am still saving the data to a flat file instead of into a database, so you won't get an email with a password for a while yet. However, I can use the data to put together a mailing list as well as post our membership, so please sign up! The sooner you sign up, the sooner we look like a force to be reckoned with.

As for that database, I have been reading up on MySQL with PHP, and I am nearly ready to start playing. Unlike a true hacker, I actually read manuals before writing code in a new language.

January 2, 2005

Trying out a new logo. Got the pics from the Library of Congress' documentation of the Statue of Liberty restoration. I will add credit links later.

December 29, 2004

The site map is now complete.

December 26, 2004

OK, I think I have something for all the links. I also got one of my favorite essays Excuses for Liberty posted. I hope it enlightens more than it offends.

I also began work on a site map.

December 24, 2004

OK, OK, so the colors were too bright. I have faded them down and got rid of the purpleness. I have also shrunk the banner and right sidebar a bit so as to make the site a bit more friendly to smaller screens.

The big change is that the links on the sidebars are now actively generated. The current page is now highlighted and no longer a link.

December 23, 2004

Another Xmas break day! I am going to try to have something stubbed in for all the home pages before days end...done.

December 22, 2004

I have Xmas break so a real chance to work on this draft of a site. Much beautification done on the format. Entered in the first five sample platform changes along with the essay What is a Platform?

This web site is beginning to look like something.

December ?, 2004

Began work on this site. Made a partly-polished Statue of Liberty logo and a Flash banner. Doesn't look right. Nick generated an alternative site that looks better. Going to take some of his ideas and integrate into this one.

Got the home page done. Seems the members like my draft proclamation OK. I suspect it will get tweaked later.

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