14 replies to this topic

[Holden West]

Putting politics aside for a moment, I wanted to create a thread that documents the candidates' websites.

 

A good website should tell something about the person, what they believe in, their solutions to problems and info on how to volunteer or donate. At the very least.

 

I'm noticing many are made with something called Nationbuilder. Presumably a customizable template. The most extensive one I've seen is Lisa Helps. Politics is money and this one does a good job of reaching into your pocket asking for donations. They even accept Dogecoin. 

 

A few websites I've seen don't even ask for donations. Some are so badly laid out and incoherent I'm convinced the candidate would do better without one--it's doing more harm than good.

 

Please post examples of your best and worst.

[Mike K.]

http://www.jeremyloveday.ca gets my vote. It's spiffy.

[Holden West]

http://www.andrewjreeve.ca
 
Andrew has a good one. It's not very flashy but all the info is there, including endorsements which is very important. If you don't have endorsements your campaign looks very lonely. He has a blog, which is helpful for showing that you continue to be engaged. Some websites look as if the candidate has given up already--they haven't changed for months.
 
 

http://www.jeremyloveday.ca gets my vote. It's spiffy.

 
He's a young rookie but his website is very modern and flashy with good content. If you are an underdog, your website must work like a champion even more than the rest. It's the way most voters will learn about you.
 
If a website is disorganized, outdated and unpleasant to look at, what does that say about the candidate?

[R0ark]

I'm noticing many are made with something called Nationbuilder. Presumably a customizable template. The most extensive one I've seen is Lisa Helps. Politics is money and this one does a good job of reaching into your pocket asking for donations. They even accept Dogecoin. 

 

 

Nationbuilder is essentially a campaign in a can, with all the templates for pages that one would need. The more important part of its service is the management of the voter and volunteer database. More than anything else, the key to winning is identifying your voters and reminding/helping them get to the polls.

 

As for fundraising, I applaud Lisa Helps for trying something new by accepting Doge and Bitcoins. She's already had a few donations, judging from this tweet: https://twitter.com/...150742639083523

 

As for worst page, I nominate Riga Godron's: http://www.vote4riga.com

 

It's straight out of 2005, with no substance or flair, and content that's so out of date as to be irrelevant: http://www.vote4riga.com/testimonials

Edited by R0ark, 07 October 2014 - 04:03 PM.

[R0ark]

http://www.jeremyloveday.ca gets my vote. It's spiffy.

 

It is a pretty site, although the template is already faltering, due to one of the endorsements being too large. It's spacing the others oddly.

[Arnold]

Fred Haynes seems to have a clean and effective website.

 

http://www.votehaynes.ca/

 

Click for French or Punjabi

Takes credit cards for donations

Good volunteer sign up page

Order a sign page

 

Needs platform information and endorsements. I think he is waiting for all of the candidates to be declared before announcing his platform.

 

Interesting that when I googled his name to find his website a bunch of other pages appeared about him but not his votehaynes site. Maybe he needs some google optimization tweaking.

[John M.]

I'm sorry, but I just have to ruin all the positivity on this thread. Riga Godron for the worst

[Bernard]

For aesthetics, I like Ryan Moen's

[Mr Cook Street]

Justin Stephenson's is clear and easy to navigate:

http://www.justinstephenson.ca/

 

Probably the same platform as Andrew Reeve's site. Nothing fancy, but you get the necessary information.

[John M.]

For aesthetics, I like Ryan Moen's

But probably the worst platform 

[J_Loveday]

Pretty much every new or young candidate in Victoria is using Nation Builder.  Andrew Reeve, Ben Isitt, Lisa Helps, Justin Stephenson, Erik Kaye, etc.  

 

Nationbuilder allows for a more data driven campaign and has lots of functions like social media tie-ins and printing maps for canvassing.  

 

I am using NationBuilder but with a different theme laid-over the data on the back-end.

 

Thanks for pointing out the weird lay-out on the second batch of endorsements.  I will get that fixed.

 

 

Justin Stephenson's is clear and easy to navigate:

http://www.justinstephenson.ca/

 

Probably the same platform as Andrew Reeve's site. Nothing fancy, but you get the necessary information.

[Holden West]

 I will get that fixed.

 

New slogan.

 

That Nationbuilder looks pretty amazing. I think I saw some last election but now it seems nearly everyone uses it. The back-end tools mentioned, like the maps, that's good as gold for a candidate.

 

Running for a seat at City Hall is like interviewing for a managerial job at a multi-million dollar corporation. Your website is basically your cover letter, resume and job interview all in one. Having a crappy website is like showing up at your interview in a bathrobe.

[John M.]

New slogan.

 

That Nationbuilder looks pretty amazing. I think I saw some last election but now it seems nearly everyone uses it. The back-end tools mentioned, like the maps, that's good as gold for a candidate.

 

Running for a seat at City Hall is like interviewing for a managerial job at a multi-million dollar corporation. Your website is basically your cover letter, resume and job interview all in one. Having a crappy website is like showing up at your interview in a bathrobe.

The only beef I have with Nation Builder is how bad the address lists are compared to the ones the Province distributes

[Mixed365]

For aesthetics, I like Ryan Moen's

 

But probably the worst platform 

HA, so true. 

[jonny]

HA, so true. 

 

All show and no go...