[Lnc-business] Request for Update on LP.org

Thu Nov 3 22:40:41 EDT 2016

Kevin,

	Thank you for your point-by-point responses here to my previously posted list of post-overhaul website issues. 

	I can understand from a technical perspective why you would classify most of these items as "design" issues rather than "bugs", but to my mind from a lay perspective they are all issues that resulted from the overhaul and that is what matters here. Also, things like changes to the language describing the party are not primarily technical matters of design – these go beyond mere considerations of style or marketing, but are matters of content and substance in which the LNC should be making the decisions. I don't consider it acceptable for staff or others to make major substantive changes like removing the "Party of Principle" slogan under cover of a website redesign without our prior approval. 

	Members of the LNC should also be the deciders when it comes to which photo of themselves they want displayed, and if anyone on staff has an issue with a member's choice, that concern should be brought forward to us as a body after following the member's wishes. 

	If you say the listing of email addresses in plain text attracting spam is no longer a significant issue, I'll take your word on that since it's not something I know much about. 

	Anyway, thanks again for your generous donation of time and effort on this project. In reference to what you said on that in your other message this evening ("I have noted that as I am not being paid, I will not be keeping up the hours that I have been. It's entirely unreasonable"), it makes perfect sense that you wouldn't want to continue to continue your present level of volunteer commitment indefinitely beyond whatever you promised LNC members last term when pitching the project. But assuming it eventually works out to general satisfaction, having played a major role in redesigning the website of the country's 3rd largest political party will be a nice feather you can stick in your professional web designer cap, poor timing issues aside, and that should help compensate for the work being unpaid. 

	Of course we can't and shouldn't require anyone to donate their time for this or anything else, but I do think it ought to be our general policy to seek volunteers before paying to have work done, whether the work in question relates to IT or something else. When we simply rush into spending money without first exploring volunteer possibilities, we are not acting as responsible custodians of party funds.

Love & Liberty,
                                    ((( starchild )))
At-Large Representative, Libertarian National Committee
                                  (415) 625-FREE
                                    @StarchildSF

On Nov 3, 2016, at 6:40 PM, Kevin Ludlow wrote:

> Starchild,
> 
> I did want to try and tackle your bullet points one by one here, just so you get a response from me on if / how they're being fixed.
>> 
>> • While the site looks good on the web, it looks terrible on my phone! The "Latest News" boxes show up as long, narrow, unreadable columns of type with a couple letters on each line. Considering how many people access websites on mobile devices, fixing this should be a high priority.
> 
> Again, this should be resolved.  Let me know if cache clearing fixed it.  If not we may have to look into a specific Android fix for the responsive theme, but this will be a low priority right now given the very low Android traffic.
>> 
>> • I don't see either the "Party of Principle" or "Minimum Government, Maximum Freedom" slogans shown anywhere (a search for key terms doesn't turn them up). Nor do I see the Nolan Chart except buried in a link. Each of these ought to be listed prominently, imho. The brief introduction statement when you click on "Libertarian Party" at the top of the main page is rather weak ("The Libertarian Party (LP) is your representative in American politics. We are the only political organization which respects you as a  unique and responsible individual.")
> 
> Currently a design consideration, not a bug.
>> 
>> • The more detailed description of the party has a conservative leaning. Under "The Libertarian Option" (at http://libparty.zocalodesign.com/about/ , a URL that like that of many pages should also be fixed so that it doesn't include the web design company's website), it reads:
>> 
>>> Consider voting Libertarian or joining the Libertarian Party because…
>>> We seek to substantially reduce the size and intrusiveness of government and cut and eliminate taxes at every opportunity.
>>> We believe that peaceful, honest people should be able to offer their goods and services to willing consumers without inappropriate interference from government.
>>> We believe that peaceful, honest people should decide for themselves how to live their lives, without fear of criminal or civil penalties.
>>> We believe that government’s only responsibility, if any, should be protecting people from force and fraud.
>> 	The first two points above appeal more to conservatives or people on the right (economic freedoms), while the second two points are more neutral in terms of left/right appeal. There is no balancing appeal to people on the left by explicitly mentioning things like a non-interventionist foreign policy or civil liberties such as ending Prohibition and reining in police abuse.
> 
> Again, textual consideration, not a bug.  Staff can choose to reword or not.
>> 
>> • The URL for the candidate page has changed (hat tip to Thomas Knapp), and entering the former URL (http://www.lp.org/2016-libertarian-party-candidates) apparently now results in a page error rather than connecting people to the new page (https://www.lp.org/2016-candidates/). 
> 
> Yes.  There were several pages that had their slugs updated.  This was one of them.  We have a tool for staff to set the auto-redirects.  This one has already been done.  I've noted to the LNC several times now that if others are found, please email us with them and we'll update the permanent redirection.
>> 
>> • If the information about how to subscribe to the LNC email list as a non-LNC member got ported over, I cannot find it. I would suggest listing this both on the LNC leadership page, and on the LNC meeting archives page.
> 
> This is an organizational design consideration, not a bug.  We can let staff mull it over.
>> 
>> • The LNC page only lists email addresses. Previously at least a couple LNC members' listings included phone number and/or other info such as Twitter address, but now those listings are gone and only email addresses are listed. I would personally like my phone number and Twitter handle listed, and encourage my colleagues to request their phone numbers likewise be listed, so that our members can readily reach us directly as well as in writing.
> 
> Right now this is a design consideration of trying to standardize information available.  I do personally believe there should be consistency in the approach and more importantly, there is a need for consistency as variation is difficult to maintain -- perhaps not so much in this case, but as a general idea for web design.  Again though, something for staff to mull over as it's not a bug.
>> 
>> • Where email addresses are listed on the website (for candidates, LNC members, staff, college chapter reps., etc.), they are spelled out. That's unfortunately asking to get us spammed by web-crawling bots that harvest email addresses. I recommend changing this so that addresses are listed in a less literal format such as Nick.Sarwark[at]LP.org
> 
> I totally understand the sentiment of this, but to be honest, it's kindof an outdated concern.  SPAM filters are generally so effective these days that harvesting at this level is not that common and you'll find that most major organizations display their email addresses in plain text on purpose.  I could find dozens of examples, but here is the Wall Street Journal - certainly a prominent and highly trafficked site: https://customercenter.wsj.com/public/view/contactinformation.html
>> 
>> • The page https://www.lp.org/_2016/ mentions Johnson and Weld being our presidential and VP candidates, but the photo next to the text is not a photo of Johnson and Weld, but of Johnson and a woman I'm guessing is his girlfriend (which is fine, but should be labeled as such so as not to give visitors the impression that the images reflect the text).
> 
> I can see this one going either way.  I don't think it's confusing that the text not match identically what the image is.  Still though, it's a design consideration - albeit perhaps one that staff should consider revising.
>> 
>> • Our bylaws are referred to in the info at the bottom of each page as "LNC Bylaws" rather than "Libertarian Party Bylaws"
> 
> A textual fix that will need to happen with staff, but good catch.
>> 
>> • A number of people (staff, LNC members) are missing photos. To whom can we send photos of these individuals, if we have them, as well as our contact info updates for the LNC page?
> 
> Photos can and should be sent to staff.  I saw there was a fund for LNC members to get professional shots?  I would advise this be done.  Photos submitted will need to be of a certain quality (I'm not defining content, but rather photo quality) in order to be displayed.  Pictures containing other people, random exterior backgrounds, too far away, blurry, low-resolution, etc. will not be inserted onto the site for the sake of quality control.
> 
> Hopefully this helps a little bit.
> 
> ~k
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://hq.lp.org/pipermail/lnc-business/attachments/20161103/feaf1679/attachment-0002.html>