Notice Anything Different? How the GOP's New Website Achieved Epic Fail
If you haven't already visited the Republican National Committee's attempt to "relaunch" the GOP brand, go now. It's worth it for humor's sake alone, and it's probably not long for this world. In fact, you may not be able to access it right now--it's been crashing constantly.
My personal favorite part of the site? When Tiny Michael Steele comes strolling out from the right side of your browser window.
"Notice Anything Different?" he cries out, tiny hands pumping this way and that.
Why no, Mike, I didn't. Thanks for pointing it out.
Why doesn't every website have a little guy that comes walking out to SHOUT OUT ALL ITS GREAT FEATURES? Because it's really annoying. Really.
So what's Lil' Mike making such a fuss about anyway?
1) That the RNC has decided that maybe that social media thing all the kids are talking about isn't going away. I mean, he even mentions MySpace!
2) That they want to engage with Republican coders in helping to build on top of the GOP platform. Are there such people?
3) That they *get it* when it comes to hip new technologies, like making tiny versions of yourself wander around a webpage.
If you get the sense that I'm not impressed, it's because I'm not. What the Republican National Committee debuted today is slick, but it's years behind the times, hopelessly tone-deaf, and amazingly patronizing.
Of course they should be interacting with communities of interest around the web. That's a given nowadays. Social media is an effective and efficient distribution platform and you ignore it at your own peril. Even the most myopic of newspaper companies has figured that out by now. And, really, that's poor company to be following up behind. Yet, Steele stands up on the screen and talks social networking up like he coded Friendster himself. Come to think of it, he's probably their last member. And joined yesterday.
And of course you should build your site as a platform to try to get developers to code on top of it. After the Facebook developer's platform was introduced in 2007, this idea became second-nature to most. But even as Steele talks directly to "Republican coders," as far as I can tell there is no actual Application Programming Interface (API) to build from. Sure, there's a page that talks about an API--it even starts "Yes, we are serious (and, seriously geeky--so be warned)"--but it leads nowhere. And really, as a friend pointed out to me, what self-respecting Republican coder is going to donate her time? Those are billable hours!
This site is like a period piece from 2008--the Internet moves quickly guys, keep up.
And yet even with all this time to get it right, they didn't.
The site reflects the actual base of the Republican Party only in the most cynical possible ways. All those people of color that pop up as the O in GOP? Every single one of them is labeled "Beta"--a fitting tell if ever their was one. I wouldn't be surprised if they were cribbed off the same clip-art CD that John McCain used in his acceptance speech.
The site is filled with pages that lead nowhere, from its "Code for America" page that touts an API that doesn't exist to the now-famous blank page touting the "future of the GOP" (they later changed it to display "You," a cop-out one step more disappointing than "it was all a dream").
And the code itself is sloppy and full of holes, ready to exploit. Want your own Tiny Michael Steele? He's right here. You can lock down elements like that, but the "new" GOP didn't. I spent the morning sticking him onto friends websites and someone with better coding skills than I built a system so anyone can play along. Here he is shilling for the Huffington Post. It is endlessly amusing.
Don't get me wrong--the GOP should be thinking about these things. There's no denying that, if done right, these disparate technologies can be hugely transformative. These are, after all, the same building blocks that helped to get Obama elected and is assisting in pushing the Green Revolution forward in Iran.
But seriously Mike, you need to come correct if you're going to come at all.
Follow Daniel Sinker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dansinker
Ralph D'Andrea: I'm OK With It
My mind was on other things yesterday, but then Barack Obama threw me a curve by winning the Nobel Peace Prize simply for not being George Bush.
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Is this for real? It looks like it was done by a not-very-talented fifteen-year-old. Wow. The GOP has "friends". If this isn't a joke, they are really trying pathetically to be "real". I've seen better executed PTA pages. Totally transparent, amateurish and all-around awful. I smell Michael Steele's aroma of ignorance on this. Sorry I missed the dancing Michael. Sounds like the Family Guy's Peter you can download to your computer. He farts. Enough said about the use of this particular gimmick.
Isn't this the same outfit which "punished" the French for not joining Bush's Iraq coalition by renaming French Fries "Freedom Fries". Why am I reminded of 5th graders whenever the GOP mouthpieces open up?
Using 21st century technology to promote the 18th century ideologies of the Reactionary Party won't do them any good.
I went to the site, and the Michael Steele figure wasn't there, and I went to your link, which also didn't work. It's not a great website, and it's a little too red, but not all of us are connoisseurs like you. It is, however, telling, that so much of the Accomplishments page deals with civil-rights triumphs of the 1800s, while the last accomplishment on record is 2004.
Ha. I thought the "Our GOP" button said "Old GOP."
http://our
Joe Wilson / Karl Rove has been banned...
Check out the "Republican accomplishments" link
http://www
They start with the Transcontinental Railroad and the LATEST is in 2004 for "DC school vouchers"
There's a party that can lead the nation!
I went to the site and came across this unbeliebly vile thread. Some comments are incredibly racist.
http://our
Unbelievable. Do they have a moderator?
Holy cripes -- that was indeed revealing. I went to the site and didn't get past the garish bright red homepage..
The thread I noted before has been pulled down. Sadly, another one that is as equally racist is there in it's stead:
http://our
Holy redundant backslash, batman!
We should all register (under assumed names and with temporary email accounts, of course) and tell why we are Republicans:
I WANT to go broke.
I think Michael Steele is as cool as Lawrence Welk! Maybe cooler!
I have an I.Q. of 87.
I have no friends.
I am a masochist.
etc
My Dick Cheney profile lasted only a few minutes - but it sure was fun...
If you post that your I.Q. is 87 they're going to throw you off of the forum for being an elitist.
I miss Molly Ivins, too.
Is it just me, or does the "Heroes" still-life at the bottom (with big red stars) remind you of Soviet era emblems?
I actually thought the red theme with stars was more like stuff the PRC would be doing these days.
It must be the influence of all the East Coast ex-Communist neocons.
Oddly the boilerplate for one of the "GOP Leadership," Treasurer Randy Pullen, seems not to have been amended from its original site to fit the new webpage at all. First lines on his GOP Treasurer bio are:
"Treasurer Randall Pullen
Elected in January 2007, Randall “Randy" Pullen is serving his first term as chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. A CPA and businessman by trade, Randy brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in both the business and political communities to the job as chairman."
Sloppy.
Read more at: http://www
The republican accomplishments page is interesting. The second half of the 19th century takes up half the page. There are only 10 listed since 1957. Nice large pictures of as many minorities as possible.
With all their bags of money and lobbyists they couldn't hire a professional to design their website? They toally deserve this. Maybe Huffpo can run a contest. Instead of "Where's Waldo" they can have "Where's Michael" and give a prize to the most creative use of the Michael Steele element,
This is not surprising, given the strength of the GOP base with the age 60+ crowd. I live in a retirement community where they are largely computer illiterate and get their news from TV and talk radio. At lunch time you can hear Limbaugh echoing down my street. Digital literacy is a real challenge for them. Many of them just don't sit down and just do it, like the rest of us do. They are still waiting for someone to tell them how, like you have to take a class or something. The idea of independent learning has passed them by and does not seem to take hold.
The implication is that all we have to do is wait them out. As younger people connect more and more through digital media, this older GOP demographic will die off. Literally.
Everything except the rotating logo
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