Pledgebomb.com: the Next-Generation Moneybomb

[wildermuthn]

I was a cadet at West Point when the Twin Towers fell. That moment changed my life. I had enlisted in 2000 as a forward observer, then joined the 3rd Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, then was accepted into West Point's class of 2005. I ended my plebe year ranked 1st militarily in my class (4th overall). My parents, both officers in the Air Force, were as proud of their eldest son as any parents could be. But invading Iraq was wrong, and I refused to take any part in it.

If Ron Paul is ignored, the warfare-welfare state will continue, and then it will die. If Ron Paul is ignored, more of my friends will kill and be killed, for nothing. There's a reason that veterans give so much to Ron Paul. It's because he gets it. He understands. He has the courage to speak the truth that no one wants to hear. He's a soldier for Liberty, to the end.

I want to play my part in helping Ron Paul. As the owner of a web development company, I have a team capable of building the next-generation moneybomb website for Ron Paul: Pledgebomb.com (http://pledgebomb.com). I've donated in plenty of moneybombs, from the first one to the last, but have grown deeply disappointed in our failing returns. It is time to shake things up again! A pledgebomb takes your pledge and your credit card information, but doesn't charge anyone's card until the moneybomb fundraising goal has been met (think: a political Kickstarter.com). There's no wondering how many people have made a real pledge, no wondering if this one will fail. And that's just for starters. We envision monthly recurring donations, a social-media dashboard, a wiki of best-practices, mobile payments, and microfunding of local projects. This project has the potential to raise hundreds of millions of dollars!

There's one obstacle, however: start-up money. We're professionals with professional jobs, and volunteer hours aren't going to pay for a website of this magnitude. We just can't afford to give away a month of work. I need the support of the grassroots activists to make this happen. Please consider making this project a reality.

Visit Pledgebomb.com and read more! (http://pledgebomb.com)

Sincerely,
Nate Wildermuth
314-426-6426
nate.wildermuth@gmail.com

UPDATE:

I've posted an FAQ at the site: http://pledgebomb.com/faq
I've also posted a pdf of the cost estimate: http://pledgebomb.com/estimate.pdf


Who will own the site?
The owners are those who fund it. The site will be built using Drupal, an open-source platform. Any custom modules that are created will be put on Drupal.org for the community's use. All decisions about the site's design and functionality will be, in the final analysis, decided among those who funded the site: the community.

What will the site's domain be?
It will not be Pledgebomb.com, but another name that the community (the owners) decide upon.

Why will it take a month to build?
Taking in millions of pledges and processing them takes more than a Geocities page. A cycle of development requires design, coding, testing, and launching. Each of those takes at least one week of work distributed among multiple members of the team. Normally, a website this large would take two to three times as long to build. We'll be working overtime to make it happen sooner.

Why does it cost $25,000?
With one designer and three developers working full-time over a one month, there are four full-time salaries to pay. At a normal industry rate of $100 to $120 an hour, the cost of this website would exceed fifty-thousand dollars. Look at this pdf to see our breakdown of costs.

What are the legal aspects?
In the future, money raised will go straight to either the official Campaign or one of its associate groups. The money will never land in a Pledgebank account. We will facilitate the donations, but we will not receive them.

More on my background:

About my background in the military (http://www.acoward.com/?page_id=4), I received an honorable discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector in the winter of 2003. Since then, I've been active in the Catholic Worker — a Christian-Anarchist group devoted to serving the poor and working for peace. I joined RonPaulForums in 2007. I wrote Ron Paul in on my Washington DC ballot in 2008 (in a city where 90% voted for Obama). I'll vote for him again this year. And when Rand runs for President, I will be first in line to support him too. It is an exciting brilliant wonderful time! The Paul moment has arrived. He may not win this battle (this election), but he will win the war. Guaranteed.

LAST PLEA:

We've given money for blimps. I see no reason why we can't give money to build a next-generation moneybomb site. I've already put hundreds of dollars and weeks of time into it. The 'Threshold-Pledge' is a powerful, powerful, powerful psychological motivator to giving a lot of money. Combine that with a social-media dashboard that lets you import all your addresses, and keep track of everyone you've contacted, and give you a lot of videos and templates to include, and then throw recurring-monthly pledges into the mix, and honest to God, I think you've got a chance to raise not simply the twenty million I propose as the first bomb, but hundreds of millions.

[danbeaulieu]

I am not trying to be a downer but I must make a point that I feel is valid. First off, I wish this project was started in July... because it's a great idea would've been immensely beneficial to Paul's campaign, it is what it is. However, January is sort of the make-it-or-break-it month. Your talking about having your site ready by then at the cost of $25,000 to the grassroots.

Alright, that being said, if January goes well and Ron Paul is well on his way to the nomination, this idea WILL be key and could generate the immense sums of money you anticipate. My opinion, whether the $25,000 funds are attained or not before January, hang on to this idea, because if Ron Paul does get the nomination this plan will take off.

The ONLY thing stopping it from taking off right now is that money given to you for web design is a gamble. Here is an alternative idea for raising the 25k however, instead of asking the grassroots for $25,000 upfront, which is not needed at this point because the volume of donors does not justify the man power. Rather to build this site why don't you create a small fee per donation period, explain it to the donors upfront that they are about to be charged an extra 50 cents or dollar (perhaps make it an optional ratio button) no Paul supporter will object and some may donate more. Create a separate ticker for the monthly amount needed to pay your staff, once the amount is reached on your ticker the charges stop. Also if you could get the pledges and prove that you'll make big money, people will front their time for future payment.

Just my thoughts, take em or leave em

[TexMac]

Who would own the site after it was built?

[KevinR]

Sorry to be harsh, but here are a few questions:

1) It won't be finished until the end of the year even with funding?
2) how can you expect $20 mil right off the bat with no advertising when it's designed to be a slow snowball effect that increases monthly?
3) Given those overestimates, do you have a cost breakdown of the 25k?
4) What sort of bells and whistles are you envisioning? All that is needed is donations, tickers and notifications

IMO this concept can probably be done for free, but even then it's not fast enough to be a game changer for Iowa. Super Voter Bomb is the best investment at the moment.

[InTradePro]

We need to raise $25,000 to build the next generation moneybomb websites
http://www.domdevel.com/our-work

Example websites are poor
Shows little experience of social media
$25,000 is a lot of money
Timeframe is tight
Shows little commitment to Dr Paul

[danbeaulieu]

We need to raise $25,000 to build the next generation moneybomb websites
http://www.domdevel.com/our-work

Example websites are poor
Shows little experience of social media
$25,000 is a lot of money
Timeframe is tight
Shows little commitment to Dr Paul


agreed, like I said. This is a great idea but its a huge gamble when the primary are less than 2 months away. Also as a web designer I don't understand where the $25,000 is necessary. The website does look very poor.

[danbeaulieu]

He has 7 posts as well.

[wildermuthn]

Thanks for the honest thoughts and critiques. I will follow up tomorrow with an FAQ on the site and more detailed answers here. Some quick points though: I am madly in love with Ron Paul. My wife, God bless her, is starting to get jealous!

My lead developer's best work is http://mercy.net.
My lead designer's website is http://Kennedycreative.net

This site will take four of us working a total of about 320 hours to design, code, test, and launch.

Ron Paul is just getting started. A few thousand ten dollar donations (what is that, a lunch at Burger King?) and this site will happen. You deserve more details, and you'll get them. But I've had this brewing for a month now and it had to go live. If I could do it all by myself for free, friends, I wouldn't hesitate. But there's no such thing as a free lunch, right? At least not one that you'd enjoy eating.

[lucent]

A few points. I don't think it is legal to take someone's credit card and then make a political donation for them. Secondly, we are really late in the game. There's only a few weeks left to Iowa.

Want to help? Step and lead the charge in running Tea Party advertisements on GoogleAds, Facebook, and other websites so we can bring as much money in as possible. $25,000 could produce the largest ad marketing campaign for a moneybomb in existence.

[wildermuthn]

One last thing, an important point is ownership. My preference is for this site to be delivered either to the campaign itself, the REV PAC, or if the grassroots are up to it, a distributed ownership among those who paid for it (interesting experiment in online democracy perhaps). I lean toward the campaign, but the final decision is up to those who paid to make it a reality.

[lucent]

It wouldn't be legal for the campaign to take it as it would exceed the maximum amount they can accept from a donor.

[WD-NY]

This post brings up a good point actually and that is this:

Why the heck isn't the official campaign, to whom we have donated $12+ million dollars to DOING ANYTHING WITH THE RONPAUL2012.com WEBSITE???

Ive written a longer post on the subject but haven't posted bc it's pretty darn angry and I don't want to be a downer. That said, with less than 2 months to go before Iowa, I find it TRAGIC (and completely unacceptable) that the campaign hasn't built out a social application that organizes/centralizes the efforts of the grassroots so that we can make the most out of our energy and passion (which is unequaled by even the obamabots).

Seriously, go check out http://Obama.com and see for yourself. He's not doing anything Ron Paul couldn't get a crack team of web developers to code up. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT OBAMA'S CAMPAIGN INVESTS IN THEIR WEBSITE AND RON PAUL'S DOES NOT.

[FSP-Rebel]

Semi-Interesting. So you're a West Point grad w/ a marketing biz trying to address rp supporters?


I was a cadet at West Point when the Twin Towers fell. That moment changed my life. I had enlisted in 2000 as a forward observer, then joined the 3rd Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, then was accepted into West Point's class of 2005. I ended my plebe year ranked 1st militarily in my class (4th overall). My parents, both officers in the Air Force, were as proud of their eldest son as any parents could be. But invading Iraq was wrong, and I refused to take any part in it.

You might want to state some relatively recent transactions showing your legitimacy. I was appointed to the Air Force Academy in '00 but I turned it down after I viewed the campus on the mid-summer cadet call-up weekend (where I was to play on the soccer team afterwards) and saw the bullcrap treatment of 4th classers and didn't want to be a bomber for a living. I slightly regret the position I'd be in now but not in my heart. I was to be retained for 10 years (w/ a substantial payment during) after I graduated the 4-year course. How'd you fare @ WP? Just curious.

Edit: I'm not saying that I don't think you were an Academy grad..

[wstrucke]

Who would own the site after it was built?

Highly relevant. If you expect us to fund your time and effort to build something I expect to own it -- to facilitate that it should be completely free open source software OR you could also grant everyone who donates a perpetual, unlimited license to and copy of the source code.

[wildermuthn]

I've posted an FAQ at the site: http://pledgebomb.com/faq
I've also posted a pdf of the cost estimate: http://pledgebomb.com/estimate.pdf


Who will own the site?
The owners are those who fund it. The site will be built using Drupal, an open-source platform. Any custom modules that are created will be put on Drupal.org for the community's use. All decisions about the site's design and functionality will be, in the final analysis, decided among those who funded the site: the community.

What will the site's domain be?
It will not be Pledgebomb.com, but another name that the community (the owners) decide upon.

Why will it take a month to build?
Taking in millions of pledges and processing them takes more than a Geocities page. A cycle of development requires design, coding, testing, and launching. Each of those takes at least one week of work distributed among multiple members of the team. Normally, a website this large would take two to three times as long to build. We'll be working overtime to make it happen sooner.

Why does it cost $25,000?
With one designer and three developers working full-time over a one month, there are four full-time salaries to pay. At a normal industry rate of $100 to $120 an hour, the cost of this website would exceed fifty-thousand dollars. Look at this pdf to see our breakdown of costs.

What are the legal aspects?
In the future, money raised will go straight to either the official Campaign or one of its associate groups. The money will never land in a Pledgebank account. We will facilitate the donations, but we will not receive them.

About my background in the military (http://www.acoward.com/?page_id=4), I received an honorable discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector in the winter of 2003. Since then, I've been active in the Catholic Worker — a Christian-Anarchist group devoted to serving the poor and working for peace. I joined RonPaulForums in 2007. I wrote Ron Paul in on my Washington DC ballot in 2008 (in a city where 90% voted for Obama). I'll vote for him again this year. And when Rand runs for President, I will be first in line to support him too. It is an exciting brilliant wonderful time! The Paul moment has arrived. He may not win this battle (this election), but he will win the war. Guaranteed.

We've given money for blimps. I see no reason why we can't give money to build a next-generation moneybomb site. I've already put hundreds of dollars and weeks of time into it. The 'Threshold-Pledge' is a powerful, powerful, powerful psychological motivator to giving a lot of money. Combine that with a social-media dashboard that lets you import all your addresses, and keep track of everyone you've contacted, and give you a lot of videos and templates to include, and then throw recurring-monthly pledges into the mix, and honest to God, I think you've got a chance to raise not simply the twenty million I propose as the first bomb, but hundreds of millions.

Thanks for the critiques. I'll be online all day. Give me a phone call or email if you'd like.

God bless!
Nate
nate.wildermuth@gmail.com
314-266-3646

[JamesButabi]

I actually made a thread with this exact idea a few months ago. I think its a great idea. I wish the campaign would spearhead it if it was legal, due to privacy concerns.

[TexMac]

I agree that the concept is good, but the problem is who owns and operates it. Running stuff by committee doesn't work, especially not when large sums of cash are involved. I'm sure you're a great guy, but we don't know you. From our point of view, some random guy has shown up and wants the grassroots to fork over 25 grand on a project that's not very well defined. How do we know you can even build it? And if you can build it, how do we know that you'll deliver it in time for it to be of any use?

[braane]

The community could probably get a few dedicated web designers, maybe 5 or 6, to develop this website. It would get done quicker (maybe a week if well organized) and cost the grassroots a lot less (domain cost + hosting). I am all about ideas, and this seems to be a good one, but maybe its chance has passed.

On another note, as a person who dabbles in a bit of web programming, I think the length of development is too long for 4 people on this project -- especially using drupal. That may sound harsh or insulting, I don't know, but it's simply how I feel.

[wildermuthn]

The community could probably get a few dedicated web designers, maybe 5 or 6, to develop this website. It would get done quicker (maybe a week if well organized) and cost the grassroots a lot less (domain cost + hosting). I am all about ideas, and this seems to be a good one, but maybe its chance has passed.
On another note, as a person who dabbles in a bit of web programming, I think the length of development is too long for 4 people on this project -- especially using drupal. That may sound harsh or insulting, I don't know, but it's simply how I feel.

If you have access to five or six professional web designers who will work sixty hours for free, please send me their contact information. The experienced designers that I know would love to work on projects like this, but only for a few unpaid hours a week. The rest of their time is work, family, sleep.

On Drupal, my lead developer has been a Drupal developer for over six years (http://drupal.org/user/36598), with over a hundred commits to Drupal.org with plenty of custom modules. He built the entire front-end of http://mercy.net, and a lot of the back-end. It would take him three months to make this site by himself. Installing some modules in Drupal is one thing (anybody can do that) — being paid upwards of $120/hr to develop custom code is another.

I can't stress enough that you get what you pay for. Check out the PDF breakdown (https://pledgebomb.com/estimate.pdf).

[braane]

If you have access to five or six professional web designers who will work sixty hours for free, please send me their contact information. The experienced designers that I know would love to work on projects like this, but only for a few unpaid hours a week. The rest of their time is work, family, sleep.

On Drupal, my lead developer has been a Drupal developer for over six years (http://drupal.org/user/36598), with over a hundred commits to Drupal.org with plenty of custom modules. He built the entire front-end of http://mercy.net, and a lot of the back-end. It would take him three months to make this site by himself. Installing some modules in Drupal is one thing (anybody can do that) — being paid upwards of $120/hr to develop custom code is another.

I can't stress enough that you get what you pay for. Check out the PDF breakdown (https://pledgebomb.com/estimate.pdf).

You don't ABSOLUTELY need professional web designers for a project like this (noted it is preferred for security reasons). I for one would be fine with helping out with this project, if someone else organized it. Assuming I was passionate about the idea, and it should be noted I am not, then I would probably donate 50 or so hours per week.

As far as drupal is concerned, I personally wouldn't use it. This project would be just as well served to be coded from the ground up, without some of the more social aspects. Those really aren't needed, let the official campaign website and grassroots take care of that.

[Birdlady]

I think it's too little too late in my opinion. This should have been completed months ago. I'd say hop onboard with the Tea Party moneybomb and help promote that instead. 20 million dollars in January isn't worth as much as 5-7 million right now.

[wildermuthn]

I think it's too little too late in my opinion. This should have been completed months ago. I'd say hop onboard with the Tea Party moneybomb and help promote that instead. 20 million dollars in January isn't worth as much as 5-7 million right now.

When Ron Paul wins in Iowa, millions will suddenly wake up and wonder, "How do I support him?". That will be precisely the right time to have a website like this. We need strong psychological motivation to give: "Yeah, he's a longshot, but I'll give him some money if everyone else does too." We need recurring donations: "Yeah, ten bucks a month isn't so bad." We need a way to make it viral: "Import my gmail contacts and facebook/twitter accounts? Let my friends know I just made a pledge? Sure, why not?"

Winning Iowa and placing well in New Hampshire is really only the beginning of a very long drawn out race.