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Originally Posted by mersenneary
I guess I'll just quote this here then because it was deemed a quality enough of a view to be an OP in NVG.
Thanks for the taking the time to review this Mersenneary. It's much appreciated!
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The situation: The PPA has been running a daily "take action" campaign. In my view, this has been pretty ineffective at galvanizing the poker community and getting a lot of people involved.
It's actually not a PPA action. It's my personal action that I develop with the 2+2 community. I've been posting or recording for podcasts
Fight for Poker Rights since the passage of UIGEA. Not only does this predate my PPA Board membership -- it predates by PPA membership entirely. While I do want everyone here to participate, I created it specifically to provide actions for those who are self-motivated to step up for the right to play.
Participation has been increasing. We have a Skype discussion group behind it as well. We've not yet galvanized the entire community, as you note. It's my hope that we'll make that happen via continued growth and attention to the issue.
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since Mason Malmuth is my personal hero, I decided to post it in NVG rather than just PM someone.
Mason has offered great support for this initiative. I hope everyone will take his advice and participate:
Two Plus Two Poker Strategy Magazine - June 2011 Publisher Note
by Mason Malmuth
Two Plus Two Magazine, Vol. 7, No. 6
http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue78/
As most everyone knows, the current news concerning online poker is not good. In addition to the original indictments issued on April 15, 2011, another set of indictments have been issued this last week of May. However, we at Two Plus Two don’t think that everything is lost for US players, and The Engineer has started a Daily Action Plan for those of you who are interested in bringing this cause to Congress. See the top of each forum for the “Fight for Poker Rights” announcement and we hope that many of you choose to participate in whatever The Engineer suggests....
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1. The goals seem unattainable for one person.
The PPA's main longterm goal is to make internet poker legal, free, and safe in America. To accomplish this, the suggestion is that we should "like" comments on facebook and send a "man shakes fist at cloud" email to CNN. These actions have effects, but when that's the goal we're all fighting for, whether I make a facebook post or not or send an email really doesn't matter. It doesn't make any measurable progress to any measurable goal that the PPA has set, and that drives apathy.
PPA asks that everyone write and call their lawmakers, write to media, etc.
Fight for Poker Rights is different. It provides smaller, more specific action items that allow us to focus our efforts on more accessible targets. After all, it takes just a few letters to media with requests to cover specific stories to let them know that their readers/viewers care about this issue. Similarly, filling an entire House committee's Facebook page with pro-poker comments and having no anti-poker comments in reply makes a difference.
That being said, this is a community effort. I hope everyone will think about ideas they'd like to see in
Fight for Poker Rights. Simply PM me, post them here, or share them within the Skype group. In fact, it's hard for me to come up with new stuff every day, so I welcome this greatly.
I also hope everyone will promote this (in a non-spammy way, of course).
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2. Diffusion of responsibility runs rampant.
Unfortunately, that's not a new problem. I try to lead by example, as do many here. I hope that, in the aftermath of Black Friday, more will do the same.
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3. There is currently little to no personal or social benefit for taking action.
Same problem as #2, largely. It's easier to let others do the heavy lifting. However, there really is a benefit to us all acting together. It helps us win our right to play and it helps us optimize the legislation that gets us there.
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4. The PPA's name is toxic right now.
I don't know about that. PPA has supporters and detractors. I do recognize issues in perception. In fact, that's why I've moved into a bigger role at PPA. It's to address this very concern.
It is my hope that I'll succeed here, obviously, but in the mean time there is no reason for anyone not to support PPA's drive for legislation.
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The solutions:
1. Make smaller sub-goals that are more tangible and achievable.
That sounds like a good suggestion. I'm all in favor of metrics.
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2. Appeal to personal and social benefit.
Get some poker celebrities to sign onto the lists. If Tom Dwan posts "45. durrrr", I guarantee numbers 46-55 are going to get posted pretty damn quickly. People get excited when they see users they respect helping out and being another one of the group. It also creates a more compelling call to action - if you're on this list and you sent your email to CNN/blasted Spencer Bachus on Facebook today, you've helped. If you're not, why aren't you? There's none of that right now. Allowing people to more easily and recognizably go on record supporting the fight will increase the benefit from doing so.
I'll see what I can do. Thanks!