Slashdot in Politics?

Michael "Codetalker" Obersnel asks: "I was wondering if anyone out there had any ideas on how to turn all that passionate talk on Slashdot (how I love it) into a political force that people will pay attention to. Like a lobby group or something similar. It seems that people tolerate the DMCA and spam enough to complain about it but not really do anything about. I think we could change that with some organization and a cohesive front. I'm not suggesting that Slashdot itself be responsible, only that the community take part. Like a micro-payment system to hire lawyers for topics we are interested in or some sort of petitioning system. I know I'd pay a buck to overturn the DMCA, free Dimitri, outlaw spam, protest license problems, protect the GPL etc."

Comments

And how would we call it?

[Delirium Tremens]

We could call it the Elementary Freedom Fight or something like that, and even get a website such as http://www.eff.org. Oh, wait. That's already taken ...

words==easy, action==hard

[HardCase]

I realize that this is painting with an extraordinarily broad brush, but based on my years of experience as a politically active geek, I've found that generally other geeks are long on words and short on action.

We all "know" what's wrong with the system, but when the rubber hits the road, very few are willing to take the time, energy and money to try to make a difference.

Now, in all fairness, the US population in general isn't particularly different from our subpopulation, it's just that we've found a different outlet for talking about what's wrong and what should be fixed...instead of meeting at the barbershop or the bar, we have online outlets. But even though the forum has changed, the result is still the same. All words, no action.

-h-