Organizing for America | Sam Graham-Felsen's Blog: Barack on MySpace

? | Report to Admin

By Fulch May 1st 2007 at 5:43 pm EDT

I'm with Laura, and when I tried to click on your link, it said the profile was under maintenence. What gives?

Re: ? | Report to Admin

By Robert Burack - SFBO Michigan High School Director May 1st 2007 at 5:52 pm EDT

The profile with 160,000 friends was not connected to the campaign, but the person that had created it in 2004 was talking to the campaign. SAM, could you please answer why on Earth you guys started from scratch? Couldn't you just change the look of the original profile, so that you could keep all 160k friends. I mean, that took three years to build up. WHY START FROM SCRATCH? The Clinton campaign did this too.

Re: ? | Report to Admin

By Michael from Aurora, IL May 2nd 2007 at 4:04 pm EDT

He wanted to be paid for the page... he came up with a rather high number. He claims that he never recieved a counter offer and the campaign went and got myspace to take away the myspace name from him. The campaign screwed up and so did this guy as well. This should never have been an issue and the campaign needs to 1) fire the person responsible immediately and 2) make this go away fast before it becomes a national embarassment and hurts the campaign. Athony is in the wrong but so was the campaign and now it could hurt Obama because some people were extremely dumb.

Re: ? | Report to Admin

By wheelbarrow May 1st 2007 at 6:26 pm EDT

It doesn't make sense to me either. Obama campaign should just take over the more popular unofficial page.

Re: ? | Report to Admin

By Amy May 1st 2007 at 8:49 pm EDT

Here's my guess about the new MySpace page - the campaign had to institute some controls that required a new page be created. Let's help them out and all get signed up on the new one.

Re: ? | Report to Admin

By wheelbarrow May 1st 2007 at 9:18 pm EDT

They can institute controls by taking over the far more popular unofficial page with over 160,000 users already. This is really a head-scratching move by the Obama campaign. It just doesn't make sense at all.

Re: ? | Report to Admin

By Peter Yochum May 2nd 2007 at 9:13 am EDT

Its because the guy that ran that older, unofficial site wanted to be paid $40,000 for it.

For something he did for fun. Using Barack's name. So apparently the campaign just decided they would take over the domain from myspace and start from scratch.

Makes sense. There's a lengthy discussion on it on DailyKos. Edwards supporters are going nuts over it -- Surprise.

Re: "did for fun" | Report to Admin

By Mark from Little Rock, AR May 2nd 2007 at 10:35 am EDT

And because he did it "just for fun", he doesn't deserve any money? Please. With a $26 million campaign chest, $40,000 is chump change. As MyDD notes, that 32 cents a friend.

Penny wise and pound foolish.

Linus Torvalds did Linux "just for fun" - so he shouldn't be compensated when others find use for Linux? Perl, PHP, BIND - lots of things start out just for fun. Lots of people outside of IT parley projects started "just for fun" into money, and that's called entrepreneurship. But inside IT, it should always be called charity.

And yes, I pay for shareware I use. Maybe because I've been a professional programmer for 26 years. If Joe feels like donating the thing, fine, but he should not be compelled to do so (especially given that a professional political consultant would charge 2 or 3 mil for that kind of delivery). $40,000 is cheap at the price.

Re: "did for fun" | Report to Admin

By Peter Yochum May 2nd 2007 at 11:19 am EDT

$40,000 is not chump change. I promise you there are people on salary at Obama HQ who are not making that much.

This is the equivalent of you or I volunteering for Barack and then after the fact asking to be paid for it sometime down the road.

It is extremely disingenuous. You can enjoy your job. But you can not do something for free because you wanted to do it, without anyone asking you to, and then demand that person pay you 40k for it.

I think this guy saw Barack's first quarter fundraising totals and saw dollar signs.

Re: "did for fun" | Report to Admin

By Vasily from Washington, DC May 2nd 2007 at 1:09 pm EDT

This whole issue has absolutely zero effect on my strong support of Obama, but I have very little faith in his internet team. This is the second major instance avoidable negative PR that you have failed to nip in the bud. The money is not the issue; your treatment/devaluation of a volunteer is. The Edwards team has just bolstered its reputation as the most net-friendly campaign, this should absolutely not be the case. Counter-offer $25,000 and fire whichever staffer was responsible if you aren't able to find the money.

Re: "did for fun" | Report to Admin

By Nick from Mize, KY May 2nd 2007 at 3:11 pm EDT

"This is the equivalent of you or I volunteering for Barack and then after the fact asking to be paid for it sometime down the road"
Regardless of what you think THEY asked him to name a figure, clearly they thought he deserved compensation.

"It is extremely disingenuous. You can enjoy your job. But you can not do something for free because you wanted to do it, without anyone asking you to, and then demand that person pay you 40k for it."

They asked him to make an offer and he did and when they didn't like the figure that they asked for instead of doing the reasonable thing and offering a counter-offer they started harping about how he's out for the money. This guy may have accepted $1 for his work but we will never know because they didn't even try to negotiate.

Put it this way:
Someone cuts you grass when you are sick in the hospital and when you get out you ask to compensate him for cutting the grass. The figure he gives lets say $30 you think is too high you:
Realize that hiring a landscaper probably would have cost you $50 and cut your losses to remain civil
or
Offer him $15 or $20 whatever you feel it's worth

What you don't do is run around town telling everyone the guy is a crook and just out for the money.

Re: "did for fun" | Report to Admin

By CBC May 2nd 2007 at 4:32 pm EDT

I read he cut off the campaign's access to the site just before asking for money. That might be why they saw him as looking for a big payday. "Pay up or who knows what I might put up on this page."

Kos uproar over MySpace | Report to Admin

By Laurie in Maine May 2nd 2007 at 1:04 pm EDT

There are nearly 700 comments on the front page of Daily Kos arguing the flap over previous MySpace holder of Barack Obama's name wanting 39K to give up the space.
Another Diary started furor earlier and Kos linked to it on the front page. 1000+ messages arguing the point now and it's not pretty! Someone needs to give your side over there in a front page Diary.

My reply in defense of the Obama name being used by someone other than himself had 39 rec when I looked last: (out of hundreds, frankly against)

"What is the general opinion towards using someone else's EXACT name as their website/MySpace? Is grabbing up famous names and selling them to the highest bidder just the way it goes? It seems like once he gave over access to Obama, he gave up some rights.

Lesson learned? Then it did appear to become all about the money. First payment being up to $49,000?

In the current state of politics, Obama's campaign would be held responsible for content whether they were strictly in control of it or not. It had Obama's exact name & fund raising capability? With so many compliance issues a campaign needs to keep one step ahead of, how could leave his name at risk?

In the end it does seem to be mostly about the money?"

Re: "did for fun" | Report to Admin

By CBC May 2nd 2007 at 4:37 pm EDT

As a donor, I would hate to see my money being used that way. He asked for way too much money. That said, the campaign handled him without the respect due to a supporter (e.g. continuously cancelling meetings etc.) It's a PR disaster.

Nightline clip | Report to Admin

By Roger Hu May 1st 2007 at 6:22 pm EDT

Nightline aired a segment about Barack Obama's high school days at Punahou. His basketball coach, two of his teammates, and a teacher are interviewed here.

Link

New Myspace Page | Report to Admin

By Justin from Chicago, IL May 1st 2007 at 11:45 pm EDT

I think now that we are in the modern age of technology, if this person really supported the cause of Senator Obama gaining support, the user name and password could have easily been passed over to the Obama campaign team, and those controls could have been seceded quite easily. Starting from square one is ok though, but I think it is important to make sure that you approach the the myspace page with the same amount grace your site has, which is ok look wise, but the functionality seems to be outstanding. Myspace reaches an enormous audience, and should not be underestimated in regards to its ability to create a good source for people to go to since it already implies the community aspect, but I am sure the Obama team is already aware of this fact. My point being: please don't treat it like the red headed step child. Please get some professionals to work on that site, please make it look and feel like it's actually the myspace ambassador to the Senator and hopefully our future president.

To Obama campaign: Fix the myspace page | Report to Admin

By Kim May 2nd 2007 at 6:30 am EDT

I'll link the discussion here: Link.

This is a problem. Without compensating the person who started the unofficial Obama myspace page in 2004, you are risking a bad PR situation with lost votes and lost funds from a younger crowd.

I say this as a supporter who has personally donated thousands to Obama's campaign. We know you have the money to afford it.

Please fix this problem! Thanks.