Looking at the site, there are way too many repeats of ideas, not only on the birth certificate issue but also on health insurance, marijuana, and some other issues.
It seems like there are some people who are purposefully trying to subvert the intention of this site -- just what happened during the initial process when the Citizens' Briefing Book was first opened, when a gigantic group of "pro-UFO disclosure" types decided each and every one of them was going to post their own version of the same idea... a little different each time, but with one similarity: they wanted Obama to "disclose all information about UFOs" or "do something about" the "UFO issue." This birth certificate thing is no different, it is an interest group that has posted the "birth certificate idea" on every category and subcategory of this site without respect or consideration for the actual purpose of the Open Government Dialogue and without regard for the obvious categories of ideas. Ultimately these "birth certificate disclosure" folks are being allowed to dominate discussions because:
-There is no requirement that users who create a login must "agree" or "agree to acknowledge" the purpose of the site before they create a post.
-There seems to be no active moderation. Posted comments appear almost instantly. I have not posted an idea yet of my own, but based on what I am observing, I am guessing that there is no moderation of ideas either.
This results in me making the following suggestion through submittal of this idea:
1) All users should be required to login (I think this has recently happened)
2) All users should be required to acknowlede the purpose of the site -- a) before entry and b) especially before posting a new idea.
3) There must be active moderation at least for the posting of ideas. New ideas should be briefly reviewed by a moderator or moderators in order to make it onto the site, otherwise you are going to have people posting about UFOs or anything they want in the Transparency-Making Data More Accessible category, or even in the Participation subcategories, or anywhere. People need to accept the idea of having their ideas pass through a moderator before the idea appears on the site.
Also, there are way too many people insulting each other in posted comments using both mild and seriously derogatory terms. People are also insulting governmental employees and officers in seriously derogatory ways. Such posts (ideas or comments) are unprofessional and should be weeded out by a moderator.
Comments (9)
Good luck! I tried reasoning earlier- got me nowhere. See this post:
http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/5690-4049
I tried to reason for hours that one post was adequate, and that all was needed from that point was to vote- read the comments and see where that got me.
If that wasn't enough I then tried this one:
http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/6048-4049
Still got me nowhere- these people refuse to listen to any sort of reason, and if you refute their claim to the slightest degree then you are now marginalized as left wing and part of the conspiracy.
Good luck!
"they wanted Obama to "disclose all information about UFOs" or "do something about" the "UFO issue." This birth certificate thing is no different"
You are right about that. Obama's birth certificate is about as real as UFO's.
Agreed. We see on this site a common phenomenon in human behaviour: It´s much easier to complain then to have a constructive idea.
This site is only going to work when the posting of idea´s is much more restricted. Now everthing is swamped by these ranting lunatics.
If there really was an issue with the president´s birth certificate, then a court of law would be a much more logical place then an idea´s forum. But in the absence of evidence, making noise seems to be the only option.
Just to explain, even though it sems many don't want to understand....we, the American citizens who don't believe Obama has proven his Natural Born Citizenship, have been ignored, insulted, marginalized, and ridiculed to a point that we must make more and more noise just to get beyond the clutter being thrown at us. Sorry if you don't agree, but the law doesn't require you to agree for us to be able to excersize our constitutional right to a truthful answer on this subject. We can't post one comment and all vote on that because, the way this site is set up, it would be buried in the dust in very short order and no one would be able to find it. Also, it could be deleted in just one stroke. How many other topics posted have had coments deleted??? Just ours. Not fair. So we must continue to make noise.
Also, did you notice that, during the civil rights movement, the offended parties had to get "noisy" before anyone paid attention to them? Same thing.
Obviously many people are concerned with the issue (Birth Cert.)..... well more than any other issue on this site as far as i can tell. So i guess the tap water in this country is poisoned... and hundreds of thousands of us are becoming insane.... requesting such silly things as proof of eligibility for the most powerful position in the world. If they had nothing to hide... then why hide it?
The very fact that there is a big push for ET/UFO disclosure tells you that a growing number of people want the US Government to provide open discussion on the subject. I don't see how this goes against the purpose of this Open Government web initiative.
The average person may not be well informed in the fact that the US Government has two sides - a public side and a private side. The term "national security" and "need to know" have been used and abused to keep vital information withheld from the public, particularly by both Bush administrations.
It is only now that a large number of individuals are proactively researching and being informed on such areas as back-engineered aircraft, clean/free energy, UFO crash site retrievals, ET collaboration efforts, undisclosed NASA missions and video footage, etc.
As for Barack Obama's birth certificate, I don't think this will be officially investigated and disclosed. And even if he did resign over the fact, who else has the popularity, intelligence, influence and youth to replace him? Certainly not Joe Biden and most certainly not anyone on the Republican party.
So in summary, whilst I agree that there should be some form of moderation on this site, I don't agree with that fact that you just want certain issues to be pushed aside because you and a minority of right-wing conservatives are not interested them and haven't been educated on them. Why not try and be more proactive by researching these topics yourself and learning to have an open mind? Try and look at the big picture instead of worrying about how you're going to pay the bills, deciding on which socks to put on today and what you'll be having for dinner.
Obviously this idea I have posted (which is the first and only idea I will post here) is getting voted down by people who want to post ideas about birth certificates, UFOs, and other single-issue concepts (including health insurance, by the way) that have nothing to do with the purpose of this site. I no longer view moderation as feasible while the site is constantly under attack by people who are subverting the purpose of the site. Therefore I have recommended that the comment period be closed for phase 1 of the Open Government Dialogue. Originally the comment period was already scheduled to be closed at least several days ago but the government held it open longer to allow people more time to comment. This was clearly an error as someone decided to take advantage of the extended comment period to post ideas completely unrelated to new and innovative concepts for making government more transparent, inclusive, etc., and instead many of you have decided to post birth certificate comments in every category and subcategory of this site -- comments and "ideas" that are in fact, repetitive. There are probably hundreds of posted "ideas" on the birth certificate issue alone from at least a hundred different users (I am guessing, based on what I have observed in the various categories of the site). If someone has posted an idea (including a birth certificate idea) it should not be replicated a hundred times over. The purpose of this site was supposed to be to find new ideas from the public that follow the categories and subcategories. If someone wanted to post an "idea" about UFOs, birth certificates, health insurance, marijuana, or some other single-issue thing (as opposed to a real principle or concept which would facilitate openness in government if used as a rule or guidance by the federal government), then the idea should be posted -- once -- in the category referred to as "Uncategorized." How sad that so many people have not seen the true purpose of this site is to develop principles and concepts that can be used to make government more accesible -- and used to make government a type of organization that can be more readily influenced by you, its constituent(s) -- and so in flooding the site with repetitive ideas (different wording in each idea posted, but the same sort of thing, be it birth certificates, UFOs or other issues) you have forgotten the site's purpose and whether intentionally or not, you have subverted the site's purpose. It is very sad to see this destructive sort of action. I hope you all see the error of your ways.
I think many people are frustrated and feel like someone might actually hear some of the things posted on this site because it is directed at the presidential administration. (especially since our leaders, and the media ignore us as it is)In fact i do believe many posts are fulfilling the purpose of this site. Just the shear fact that the administration is promoting transparency, and only provides the transparency where they see fit, is a slap in the face to law abiding, tax paying citizen like myself. Why is this administration so puzzled on how to provide transparency that they had to create a site for suggestions on how to do so? Its kind of scary... seems like they are probing for ways to quell the unrest brewing in this country.
I do agree with you in the fact that this site has become a repetitive rant, but hopefully someone hears our cries.
One more thing, i voted you post up.