Plan-It POV

UPDATE: I had to share this wonderfully clever artwork from the ever-creative and very talented AuntieChrist! Cheers and props, brutha!

Hello all!

Our 2nd HuffNo Friday is approaching, big thanks to KevenSeven for getting the ball rolling and being such a great organizer and advocate of it.

Again, the dual purpose is to both make a statement that has some impact on HuffPo about their conduct at their site and towards their members…while at the same time, arrange an entertaining evening here to have a little fun and recharge after discussing so many intense issues all week.

The more the merrier so we do want to invite as many folks from HuffPo and elsewhere to join us. So, a couple of practical matters first.

1. Those who wish to participate (this is totally optional, please don’t feel obligated) can observe HuffNo Friday by going to HuffPo on Thursday to invite people  throughout the day to join us Friday night at PlanetPOV . We will then boycott HuffPo beginning at 9pm PST on Thursday night and officially ending at 11:59 pm PST Friday night.

Meanwhile, right here on Friday night we’ll have a Music thread, an issue thread and maybe we’ll give the Live Chat a whirl. We’ve got some other ideas to keep developing HuffNo Friday into a more and more entertaining evening here.

Our music thread alone should be a good incentive to HuffPo folks to come on over since you can post the actual videos in your comments. Not to mention the troll-free environment and moderation-free posting.

2. As I’ve mentioned, HuffPo has blacklisted our URL so there are four ways you can refer people here:

a. You can instead include a link in your post at HuffPo to our referral site: http://planetpov.wordpress.com/ which gives them a link to click to come to The Planet.

b. You can put a space between “planet” and “pov” in the regular URL and tell folks to paste it into their browser then remove the space ( http://planet pov.com)

c.  You can update your Profile at HuffPo, include a line inviting people to join you at http://planetpov.com/ then invite HuffPo members and tell them to check your profile for the site info.

d. You can invite people and tell them to Google “planetpov” to get here.

Again, boycotting HuffPo on Friday is 100% optional. We know that going cold turkey is difficult so if you can’t kick HuffPo on your own, we can recommend a methadone clinic in your neighborhood.

One more base to touch now (unless the Yankees throw me out) is describing some of many ways we can continue to build our community here at The Planet from other directions than HuffPo.

To begin, I’d like to quote a comment by javaz today which really meant a lot to me and no doubt the other co-founders of The Planet:

javaz:

Off topic, but I am writing people in my life, and telling them to visit this site.
It’s selfish on my part, because I am telling my friends and loved ones that I’ve finally been published!

I’ll do anything because I want to see this site succeed, and see it flourish.
We are the anti-HP, and a true liberal site.
Freedom of speech and freedom of expression lives here on Planet POV!

Speaking for all the founders of The Planet, I have to say how wonderful and humbled we feel at reading javaz’s sentiment, not to mention the many other kind words and thoughts expressed by other members about what we’re doing here and the very generous donations already made by members and readers alike to keep The Planet in orbit.

We envisioned The Planet to be a place that was a reflection and expression of the membership. The larger we can build our community here, the more our freely expressed words and thoughts can have an impact.

javaz’s point was very resonant, The Planet is indeed here to be your publisher of whatever thoughtful articles and ideas you want published and read around the world (we have people from 30 countries visiting our site). Don’t be shy about sharing links to your articles with friends, family and colleagues and invite them to share their thoughts here as well.

There are several other ways that you can help spread the word and help build your audience and the community here at The Planet:

1. Click on Favorite and networking icons below articles.

Below each article are a string of icons and links that can connect an article to Facebook, Digg, Twitter, etc. If you really like an article, please consider clicking on one or more of these to help promote that article around the internet. You can do this with your own articles as well. There is also an Email option there that allows you to quickly and easily email any article to whoever you think might appreciate it.

To do some of these things, you will need to set up accounts with each service. If you don’t already have Facebook, Twitter, etc. accounts, it’s pretty quick and easy to create your own account.

2. Network with PlanetPOV.

Okay, we’re all pretty annoyed with HuffPo shoving its Facebook social networking down our throats over there. But the reason they’re doing it is that they obviously think it will greatly increase their popularity.

So, in an as-unobnoxious-as-possible way, I do reservedly suggest that you consider becoming our friend on Facebook. Our account is named, “Adlib Planetpov” and many of our articles post there which will then be shared with your friends and so on and so on…

We also have a Digg account and a Twitter account under “PlanetPOV” which you can network with.

Unfortunately, there’s not enough time in the day nor workforce for us to update all of these services all the time, we’ll get there (volunteers are welcome, just email me if you’d like to help), but your networking with us would be a great step in helping build awareness of our site and articles.

3. Feel free to post excerpts of your own articles and links to them at other  progressive blogs.

I found this to be very effective, post an excerpt of your article at HuffPo, include the link with the space between “planet” and “pov” and instructions to remove the space and if you’ve whetted people’s appetite with your excerpt, you can turn them into readers of your entire article at The Planet.

DailyKos is another great place to do this and they don’t censor like HuffPo (I really like DailyKos though I’m not as crazy about the layout there) and there are a number of other progressive blogs where you can leave comments and link back to your or someone else’s article at The Planet.

This is all synergistic, HuffNo Friday, making The Planet an enlighting, satisfying and entertaining place, building up the site and its membership…it’s all about establishing a growing and genuine citizen’s think tank where the thoughts and opinions of real people can be given the kind of weight and attention they deserve in a democracy.

The corporations, billionaires, Religious Right…all these fractions of the population get their voices heard and use that to politically press their agendas on the majority, the voices of real people should be heard at least as loudly.

That’s what we accomplished just over one year ago today by electing Barack Obama as President. It’s now clear that Huffington Post and other fair weather friends of Pres. Obama and the Progressive Movement won’t be standing behind both. With your support, even if it’s in a small way, we can continue to stand together for our principles as a strong and growing community.