[pp.int.general] EU elections and website

[Andrew Norton]

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Greetings all,

As many of you know, my day job is working as researcher and community
manager for Torrentfreak. One of the things we're obviously looking at
is covering the EU election. So, guess whose job finding all that info
became?

Yep, Mine.

Many of you may have received emails from me, asking about candidates,
or for statements, or comments over the past month. There are a few
reasons for this, but mainly it boils down to one thing.

For a "tech" party, our websites are mostly TERRIBLE.

Since mid-March I've been through every website listed on the PPI wiki,
and that I could find via twitter, for the 28 EU nations. Not every one
has a party, not a problem. However, those that do, the websites are
often poorly designed, or half-abandoned. Often there's no clear
information that said party is even participating in the election, even
if it is, let alone any candidate info. When there is information, it's
often buried 2-4 pages deep on the site

This is basic stuff. It should be pretty much 'top banner' on the main
site, clearly marked.
Next, distinguish it a little - set up a quick sub-domain if possible,
to focus everything internally. It's much easier for people to remember
http://eu14.partyname.com than
http://partyname.com/number/number2/eukandidate
If I'm searching for it, and I know it's there somewhere and getting
frustrated, then how will regular voters feel about it if they're just
curious?

Next, contact info - this is a MUST. A lot of the sites have poor
information here. Many don't list who the important people are in the
party (like the leader) and often don't list contact information.
Instead they'll have 'contact the party at info at partyname.com' and
that's it. Or worse, a forum/wiki. No-one wants to join a forums to ask
a simple question.
Also, if you have a real-time communication medium on your site (such as
an irc webclient) make SURE it's used. Nothing is as off-putting as a
webchat window that has no-one else on. It gives the party the look of a
ghost-town.

This might not seem important, but it's VITAL for the media to contact
you, as well as interested people. Journalists are lazy, if they can't
easily find the information they need, they won't bother.

Finally, parties NEED to update their pages on the PPI wiki. Member or
not, each party should at least have a page. On that page, it'd be nice,
if there's a list of officers (as in the elected/appointed party
positions) as well as a link to statutes, some contact addresses
(including press contact), and maybe a brief overview of what those
positions entail, and their responsibilities. Like the UK's NEC is
day-to-day operations, while the UK's board of governors deals both with
the party constitution, and with arbitration/discipline within the
party. Even provide primary methods of communication (be it irc, mumble,
etc.)

This makes it MUCH easier for someone like me (with my news reporting
hat on) to find who I should be looking at/talking to and so on.

There's one month before the EU elections, and it really needs to have
been done a month ago. 20 minutes from 2 people per party is all the
last point needs, the initial points will take as long as it takes, but
the sooner the better.

Andrew
US Pirate Party Vice Chairman
Georgia State Pirate Party (US) Vice Chair
Pirate Party of UK Governor
(speaking for myself, and not on behalf of any of those organisations,
or on the behalf of Torrentfreak)

- -- 
Andrew Norton
http://ktetch.co.uk
Tel: +1(352)6-KTETCH [+1-352-658-3824]
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