An idea stemmed from the recent pro-gun bills for Indiana

[Lebowski]

INGO has over 37,000 members, and when we have pro-gun bills that need support I think it'd be a great idea for INGO to send out an email blast to all members informing them of the bills with who to contact and how. You can link to the relevant INGO discussions as well.

Just imagine how INGO can have a great impact on making Indiana a [STRIKE]great[/STRIKE] even greater gun state. Even if only 1/3rd of the people who received the email took a few moments to write/email/call their representative that would be a LOT of support shown.

Just be sure to include opt-out links and don't abuse the ability to spam your userbase :P

But seriously, I've not seen a single INGO 'newsletter' or member-wide email sent since I've been a member here, unless I've overlooked it in my inbox.

Heck, if anything, just do it for the increased pageviews to keep your advertisers happy.

I run a few sites as well as semi-large forum for the industry I work in and use Mandrill for email delivery to ensure emails are delivered to inboxes, check it out: Transactional Email from MailChimp - Mandrill

Anyhow, just my $0.02... I can't think of any drawbacks from reaching out to your user base and providing information on how to make Indiana better state.

 

[Dosproduction]

id be fine with that. They should put a alert on this site with that info and it would get seen by the regular comers and goers.

 

[Roadie]

From my understanding, Fenway tried a mass emailing in the early days of INGO. It did not go over well.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I'm sure the point of the idea is to get the attention of those members that do not log in very often. But there are threads about the proposed legislation and they get bumped at least daily. I wonder how many people (of those that do log in fairly frequently) even notice them much less act on them.

 

[Lebowski]

I'm sure the point of the idea is to get the attention of those members that do not log in very often. But there are threads about the proposed legislation and they get bumped at least daily. I wonder how many people (of those that do log in fairly frequently) even notice them much less act on them.

True, but not all folks browse the political forums. Some just hang in the break room, post in general firearms discussion or browse the classifieds.

Even a site alert in the form of a globally visible message in the sidebar or on top of the page with latest firearm legislation would be beneficial and would likely reach people who would otherwise not see it or act on it.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

True, but not all folks browse the political forums. Some just hang in the break room, post in general firearms discussion or browse the classifieds.

Even a site alert in the form of a globally visible message in the sidebar or on top of the page with latest firearm legislation would be beneficial and would likely reach people who would otherwise not see it or act on it.

I'm not against it by any means...just being my cynical self.

 

[Dead Duck]

INGO should email it's members.

I've never been contacted via email on here............Infractions don't count.

It's for a good cause, on a "GUN" forum. You're always going to get some complainers. Just don't send them a message.
What, there's only like 10 pansy ass whiners on here. I'll PM the list if you want.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

Maybe a FB post would help... asking members to get involved, without being 'intrusive'

 

[Dead Duck]

What's Facebook??

 

[Lebowski]

Maybe a FB post would help... asking members to get involved, without being 'intrusive'

I don't really follow gun stuff on Facebook. Don't want all of the few people I've added as a friend to know all my interests.

It's not uncommon for forums to email their user base. I send about 3 or 4 email blasts a year to my forum members and include instructions at the bottom on how to disable receiving notifications from the admin if they don't wish to receive them. Most don't mind and I always see an immediate increase in both traffic and old members posting.

I don't think most would find a single email that intrusive as long as it was to inform them of something important/pressing and done sparingly. Keep advertisers out of the email and don't let them promote within it so it's not seen as spam and instead seen as informative.

Just my $0.02. I really think it could make a difference though and certainly increase the perceived support of these bills from the public when our representatives see a higher amount of people contacting them.

 

[bwframe]

I'm not much for unsolicited e-mail, but what about an opt-in list? Specifically, a 2015 Indiana legislative action opt-in list.

We really need to get ahead of proposed legislation as opposed to the old norm of just letting it happen to us. Our reps should be aware of the pressure well before finding out that bills won't even be looked at.

 

[Maximinus Thrax]

From my understanding, Fenway tried a mass emailing in the early days of INGO. It did not go over well.

Do you or someone else have more info on that? It seems to me to be a fantastic idea but if it was tried already and failed I'd be curious to know why. The way Lebowski outlines it would in my opinion be very beneficial.

I'm not much for unsolicited e-mail, but what about an opt-in list? Specifically, a 2015 Indiana legislative action opt-in list.

We really need to get ahead of proposed legislation as opposed to the old norm of just letting it happen to us. Our reps should be aware of the pressure well before finding out that bills won't even be looked at.

I don't see that as getting the word out nearly as effectively. We have over 37k members most of whom are not terribly active. If we mass mail with an OBVIOUS opt-out then those who don't want to see it can get out early and those who haven't visited in a while might get the kick in the pants they need to get active both on INGO and with state government. INGO takes money to run and traffic makes both INGO and its advertisers very happy.

 

[bwframe]

...
I don't see that as getting the word out nearly as effectively. We have over 37k members most of whom are not terribly active. If we mass mail with an OBVIOUS opt-out then those who don't want to see it can get out early and those who haven't visited in a while might get the kick in the pants they need to get active both on INGO and with state government. INGO takes money to run and traffic makes both INGO and its advertisers very happy.

We'd all be on INGO/Facebook, if we wanted to give up our privacy.

Those 37,000 members joined for the classifieds, not to be bothered with things that weren't signed up for.

An opt-in list will be folks you want to talk to that might actually do something as opposed to the 37,000 that mostly don't participate in discussion threads, much less try to push legislative action. Lots of actions can be generated within the group to recruit more opt-in's and focus links/attention back to information threads.

 

[warthog]

Knives and guns for this idea would be good for me. This is one of the freer states for knives but that can and will change before anyone is able to do or say anything unless we are able to stay informed. I get the email alerts from GOA and the few from the NRA as well as any other Pro 2nd group or Pro0Knife group now and another one centered more on the state rather than nationally wold be welcome, on my nd at least.

I don't do Social Media and don't want to do so now so Facebook, Twit-ter or any of these things would only reach those who do.

 

[Maximinus Thrax]

We'd all be on INGO/Facebook, if we wanted to give up our privacy.

I think I see where you're going with this but since we all gave at least one email in order to sign up how does this affect privacy? Those who really worry about privacy use throw-away email accounts for forums like these anyway. They would be a moot point.

Those 37,000 members joined for the classifieds, not to be bothered with things that weren't signed up for.

Lol, many of them did and many of those are long inactive. You never know though who might arise from the grave with a little proactive push from our end.

An opt-in list will be folks you want to talk to that might actually do something as opposed to the 37,000 that mostly don't participate in discussion threads, much less try to push legislative action. Lots of actions can be generated within the group to recruit more opt-in's and focus links/attention back to information threads.

For the most part you are absolutely correct. Most of the 37k who don't participate probably won't bother to participate because of an occasional email. However, there might be some who would. Perhaps instead of blanket emails sent out one single email advertises the opt-in list to all members so that those interested can sign up and those who aren't won't be bothered with it...

 

[Birds Away]

I have been told their are really only 12 people who post regularly on .

 

[bwframe]

...Perhaps instead of blanket emails sent out one single email advertises the opt-in list to all members so that those interested can sign up and those who aren't won't be bothered with it...

I like this idea.

 

[riverman67]

Me Too
This would be helpful for me.
I don't have the time to search for information on these bills individually.
I don't do Facebook

 

[chipbennett]

Make it opt-in. I would gladly opt-in to an Indiana Firearms Legislation action email newsletter.

 

[Lebowski]

Make it opt-in. I would gladly opt-in to an Indiana Firearms Legislation action email newsletter.

I'd rather have it opt-out :P

If it's opt-in the initial email will only be seen by those who are active on INGO to begin with, and those who are probably already involved and know whats going in in the state.

In fact, most members are probably opted in to receive notifications from the forum anyhow, on most forums that is the default setting when registering unless a member specifically unchecks the box that says something like "Receive news and alerts from admins".

So in a way, a ton of people have likely already opted-in, they may just not know it because they don't receive emails. A clear link and description on how to opt-out from any future messages would be better, I believe. But that's just my $0.02.