We The Lobby on HackerShow

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crowdfunding for lobbying

SHOW HN2012

A site to crowd fund lobbying.

Shown by sankho on Jan 25, 2012. Click the card to turn it over.

50points

28comments

#473of 1,677 in 2012

Top 29%of 2012 by points

How HN took it

RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical

2 positive, 1 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 6 critical, out of 10 comments about the project. Thread score -0.24.

Idea: 2 for, 2 againstExecution: 0 for, 2 againstPerformance: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

Excellent idea.
From 1 comment
- I don't know know what the legal issues associated with this are. But this is an excellent idea.
  taphangum on HN
Applauds the effort.
From 1 comment
- I applaud your effort, please open source your code! As the founder, you'll be too busy to keep the code flowing with all the other stuff to be done, and lots may want to help…
  Mizza on HN

Legal and campaign finance risks, including money transmission licensing.
From 2 comments
- As others have mentioned, if you don't have an attorney helping you with election law matters, I'd recommend hiring one or consulting with one. You really want to make sure you…
  newbusox on HN
- Collecting money to transmit to a third party is money transmission and requires a license in 46 states + Washington, D.C. http://www.plainsite.org/issues/index.html?id=1
  thinkcomp on HN
Special interests have far more money.
From 1 comment
- I understand your noble efforth to go in as a player to change the vicious-game, but be aware that the "adversaries" have much more money to put in (by orders of magnitude), and…
  zipizap on HN
Lobbying accountability and transparency of recipients is unclear.
From 1 comment
- Who's doing the actual lobbying? How are you ensuring accountability that the groups receiving the funds are advocating actively enough, and doing it in a way that you support…
  JayNeely on HN

Open source the code.
From 1 comment
- I applaud your effort, please open source your code! As the founder, you'll be too busy to keep the code flowing with all the other stuff to be done, and lots may want to help…
  Mizza on HN
Replace K with ,000 for clarity.
From 1 comment
- You should replace "K" with ,000 it's not clear that you're talking about dollars and not # of signatures or something.
  andr3w321 on HN

Who does the actual lobbying and how are recipients held accountable?
From 1 comment
- Who's doing the actual lobbying? How are you ensuring accountability that the groups receiving the funds are advocating actively enough, and doing it in a way that you support…
  JayNeely on HN
Why does the law preclude collecting money for a third party?
From 1 comment
- Could you elaborate why the law precludes it?
  kevs on HN

PACs.
From 1 comment
- Isn't this what PACs are for?
  kevination on HN
PlainSite.
From 1 comment
- We thought of doing this for PlainSite (http://www.plainsite.org) but unfortunately the law precludes it. We'd love to work with you though. aaron.greenspan at plainsite.org
  thinkcomp on HN