The GunVoter project, like any other user-driven project, needs to achieve a critical mass before it can take on a life of its own. Quite frankly, we haven't reached that critical mass of participation yet. We have a fair number of folks signed up, but the forums are dominated by three or four names. Much appreciation to the guys who are doing their best to keep things going, but we need fresh blood. I've seen a couple of suggestions to add GunVoter to your signature line on other boards in order to generate interest. That's a great idea, but it's slow. What else can we do? Ideas? I have a couple of thoughts, including throwing an ad into Google. What else? We're interested in your take.

Chris

Hello Chris,

There is life out here, it is just preoccupied. I have my usual list of things that have to be done yesterday. I will make a point of sending the gunvoter.org/gunvoter/forum website to a few other people. It really is a good site with many meaningful and well researched discussions. I enjoy the Constitutional moot, which is the basis for our despair and hope. Where would we be without our Constitution? On the street begging most likely. I am sure the colonial revolutionists of several centuries ago would have grabbed for a device similar to this within the English government. It would have stated, "A well financed Citizenry being necessary to guarantee a Free Country, The right of the people to Keep and Bear their money, if not Represented, shall not be infringed." They simply could have brought their plight before the court system and had the problem rectified.

Which is where we are now with the DC verses Heller case. Are we going to succeed as our forebear's did? We have more to work with don't we?

Very soon the decision will be rendered by the Supreme Court. What shall we do if one way, and what if the other way?

HLB

Barring, of course, the heavy hand of government interference, the site should function as any 'commodity' in a free market: If the populace believes it has value (and admittedly, we only appeal to a certain segment of that populace), they will seek us out. If our 'product' does not provide a perceived 'fair value' for their 'investment' - of time, of reason, of 'concept' - it will fail, no matter the talent and effort put into it by 'true believers'.

As long as we put out a good 'product', and are true to the ideals we espouse, "...they wil come."

My 'take' is that by providing a 'clearing house' wherein all individuals and members of disparate 'firearms rights' groups can freely exchange information and discuss those issues that affect us, we will grow - slowly at first, but once we hit 'critical mass', exponentially. Our credibility, of course, is what will make or break us - if 'information' in a post is questionable, question it - if verified, it's probably something we need to know. If false, then we have to expose it.

At this point, an individual's membership here connotes a certain level of 'activism'; like-minded individuals will find us by virtue of their involvement with 'the cause'. As our credibility and reputation grow, as the topics discussed grow and diversify, we'll pop up more often on more search engines, and people are going to 'check us out'. If they like what they see, and if they are of similar persuasion, they'll join, and share the site with those sympathetic to the 'cause'. Pushing too hard just to pile up numbers can be counterproductive - we don't want to go out of our way to attract trolls and sheeple who think 'the (anti-) gun guys' actually are.

The site is basically for a good user friendly environment.It let us know about the guns pf different varieties.
gaurav


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I think, but I may be mistaken, that I saw a link to this site in an article written by Mr. Knox in "Shotgun news".

Make sure and send a link to everyone that may be interested. There's a lot of good information on here and a lot of people who know what they're talking about. It's nice to see things rationally and intelligently talked about for a change.

One method successfully used by some sites is a link, designed to be easy to copy-and-paste, that can be put on personal pages: Websites, weblogs, or social network pages, or used as part of a 'signature block' in whatever other forum members may post. Since there are more than a few pro-rights fora online, one might also (with permission if necessary), when 'answering' in a thread, mention something to the effect of: "This issue has also been extensively discussed at ______________ (giving the url of the specific discussion) at GunVoter.org ".

Having solutions to all the world's problems (or at least destroying the gun grabbers' arguments) is no great accomplishment if nobody knows you have them, and the world won't listen to anything 'forced on' it. By presenting a rational, literate argument (which means check your spelling, grammar, etc.) and letting the reader initiate the action - make a conscious decision to come to the site and act on it - we stand a better chance of not only attracting people, but attracting 'our kind of' people: Those who have actually read and understood the Constitution and believe it should still apply. We can 'invite' them, we can't force them to join or contribute - after all, everyone knows you can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think - but the more who know of us, especially among the 100,000,000 firearms owners - and would-be owners - in the country (and outside it) who know of us, and can conveniently 'get to' us, the more potential members (and the more intelligent options) we'll see.

The Knox name has some 'star quality' in pro-Second Amendment circles, and I'm sure there are members here who can quote Col. Cooper and subscribe to Massad Ayoob's RSS - mentioning the site (or actually providing a link) on sites where their philosophies are discussed opens the door to just a few million people.

Hi Guys
I am a new member of this site, and look forward to helping to insure we keep our second amendment rights.
We as Americans owe it to everyone to make sure the issues relevant to the entire Constitution and all of our freedoms and rights guaranteed by it, Are disseminated to all fellow citizens.
Unfortunately we live in a period where the Constitution, and the liberty we hold so dear are under assault by those that would give ultimate authority to the Federal Government.
We MUST take it upon ourselves to enlighten and educate the populace so that we can preserve those freedoms.
Therefore we can help to spread the word of your good work in many ways, by mouth,web site links,even a yard sign will help.

"For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery".
Jonathan Swift

Like most everything on the internet that achieves any significant leval of success, there first of all has to be a core group of people who are going to commit their time to make the project work.

With so much available on the internet, you need to target marget your messaget to thoise you are specifically looking to reach. This can be done effectively by networking with like minded people, such as myself (that's why I'm here).

i to have created a gun education librarythat I spend 8-10 hours a day working on. With so much information of guns scattered in so many places I wanted to create one website that would have everything.

Even though its nearly impossible to be expert on every aspect of guns, this library is a one stop shop for everything having to do with guns. Most everything that anyone is looking for will be on this website, including fighting to keep our second amenment rights from being legislated away from us.

Fortunately, I am able to devote a large portion of my day to my gun information website because I am disabled and I sit in front of a computer all day. Obviously most people have jobs, families and a life, and they don't have the time to make a heavy committment to a cause.

But since the internet makes millions of people available to you that would otherwise be unable to meet, simply making your presents known on many of the social networks that are devoted specifically to topics like this one can help you find those people with similiar interests.

And like anything other numbers game, if you spend enough time contacting the right people, eventually you willfind the people you're looking for.

Sincerely,

Keith Boynton, Overseer
GunInformation.info
(925) 429-3115

New guy here.......

When we started the Michigan Gun Owners site we carried some people from another site that had been shut down. For two years we struggled along with 300-400 members. We then advertised in a couple statewide publications and membership exploded. After three years of advertising we are now at 10,000 members.

It's a simple matter of getting the word out that the website "is out there" AND making it a place people will want to come back to for "information" that they can use. Fell free to come by our site and let people know where you're at and what you do.

I think Tallbear and GunInfo raise very good points. We obviously need to do more to get to critical mass. The nature of this project is very dependent on crowdsourcing. In order to get to that critical mass we have to get in front of a bunch of people who are not here and give them a reason to swing by. There's something to be said for a mutual model where we can interlock, becoming a jumping-off point sending people to state and local sites and pulling them in when they want to get national info, or when the want to see what other states are doing. Maybe a modest purchase of advertising in a bunch of state association newsletters. Couple that with support by existing members who pull traffic from other sites they frequent.

We don't want to re-create The High Road or ARFCOM, but I certainly wouldn't mind replicating their numbers!