Slashdot Hits Made Easy

[sillyperson]

Slashdot is read by hundreds of thousands of people, a big portion of whom lean Libertarian.

Most slashdotters are geeks that work in the computer / IT industry.  Most of them are fiercely independent, and reject the authority of the federal government over their freedom to get information on the internet.  The FSP is a dream come true for them. Moreover, they are likely to be able to move to NH sooner rather than later. Many of us (including myself) found out about the Free State Project because it was mentioned on Slashdot, during the media blitz when NH was chosen as the Free State.

Since then, myself and others have tried to get FTL and/or the FSP mentioned on slashdot, to varying degrees of success.

The good thing about slashdot is, anyone can post a comment, and Freedom-related issues are discussed on almost a daily basis.
The bad thing about Slashdot is... for people to see the comment, it needs to get moderated "up", and fast!
We can have thousands of readers on any comment.The key is, to get those comments posted quickly, and get them moderated up quickly -- minutes count!

I've tried several times & several ways to get pro-FTL and pro-FSP comments moderated up to where thousands of people will see them.
After several moderately successful attempts I have come up with what I believe is a highly effective solution.

Here's how it works:

• I have set up a "secret" Yahoo group. It's by invite only: to join the group, contact me (PM or email).
• When you join the Yahoo group, pick "immediate message notification" (ie, do not get messages bunched up "digest")
• Any time you have "moderator points" on Slashdot, post a message to the Yahoo group, saying you have them.
• Any time you post a pro-FSP or pro-FTL comment on slashdot, post a message to the Yahoo group, along with a link to your comment.
• If you have moderator points that day, use them on people's pro-FSP/pro-FTL comments.
• If you don't have moderator points that day, post follow-up comments to the pro-FSP/FTL comments. Active, engaging discussion is very important!

I expect there would not be more than 5-6 emails per day as a result of the above. That should be quite manageable.
If a dozen or so of us do this, we should be able to get a pro-FSP comment moderated up to +4 or +5, within minutes of its posting, every day or two.
That would in itself generate more high-quality FTL & FSP interest than tens of thousands of dollars worth of advertising.

Let's Slashdot for Freedom!

[sillyperson]

Here's how slashdot works in a nutshell, with links to the FAQ:

• People submit articles
• If the editors accept the article, it moves onto the front page, where people can post comments
• Anyone can post a comment, but your comment will be from "Anonymous Coward" unless you login with a (free and easy) account
• Comments get a moderation score ranging from -1 (Offtopic) to +5 (Insightful, Interesting)
• People are selected more or less at random to be Moderators.
  If you are selected as a moderator, you'll see a message like "You are a Moderator with 5 moderation points. Use 'em or lose 'em!"
  You then have 24 hours in which to moderate up to 5 comments.
  Please use this opportunity to moderate UP ("Insightful","Informative","Interesting") peoples' pro-FSP comment postings.
• You can't post a comment to a story you have moderated, or vice-versa. Post a comment, or moderate, but not both.
  That's why it's useful to let other people know when you have moderator points, and when you've posted a pro-FSP comment.
• When posting a comment, make sure it follows the guidelines
• It's a good idea to post follow-up comments to other people's pro-FSP comments. Answer any questions people have, point them to this or other pro-FSP forums, and generally keep the converstaion going!

[sillyperson]

We now have 8 people on board. I figure 4-5 more would be the minimum for us to achieve a potent "critical mass".

Though we're not yet at critical mass, we have tested the basic system, and it's worked.
Here's the discussion thread. (note that these comments only made it to +2; heavy readership does not ensue until +3 or +4)

To give you an idea of how fertile the slashdot ground is, here are some of today's active headlines:

• video game regulation
• Japan's video game rating system
• Wiretapping
• Sewden's raid on a filesharing service

We can comment on any of these.
Those comments can include links to FTL content.
With "critical mass", we can be assured that our comments will be moderated up, so that thousands of libertarian-leaning people will read our comments... and even engage us in public discussion.