May God shower you with blessings, Ventani. You’re in!
(Feel free to call me Lib, just like all my other friends do. And welcome to Straight Dope!)
First off, let me say that this is a tremendous effort, and it is thrilling to see people riled up enough to do something to counter Fred Phelp’s unChristian and inhumane hate activities.
I would be glad to join in any way that I can. Living in NYC, my charitable contributions budget is pretty much shot, but I can probably eke out a few more bucks.
I’d also be glad to offer any other functional help that I can. I have a background in PR/Marketing/Advertising, so I’d be glad to help add a professional touch, as it were, to promotional releases, etc. I also do a bit of web design and would be glad to help in that respect as well.
Lastly, I have a suggestion to throw out, just for consideration on two levels:
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Fred Phelps is attack-happy. If he feels that his name is being used inappropriately or that he is being defamed, he will call out his dogs (and his son-in-law/church member/lawyer) and make life hell for his target(s).
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Fred Phelps isn’t the only hate-monger out there, not even the only hate-monger specifically targetting gays. See the recent Falwell/Robertson debacle – Falwell has long been saying many of the same things as Phelps, just without using the word “fags” or picketing funerals. He once suggested that gay people would happily murder good Christian Americans, just for walking down the street!
So therefore, I throw out for you to mull over, why not avoid using Fred Phelp’s name in the website/domain, and stick with something more geared toward the goal. This would also allow for other people’s hatred – like Falwell’s attack – to also be highlighted and used as a trigger for action/donations. Some ideas I thought of (all available):
turnhateintohelp.org
reversethehate.org
combathatespeech.org
negatethehate.org
Just a thought, do with it as you please, just be kind. 
“Turning Hate Into Help” is actually the subject I ahve been putting on the email queries I’ve been sending to various places.
I got a link–mention, whatever–on religioustolerance.org, which gets a fair amount of hits…should we perhaps set up an outside accound ASAP, in order to allow non-Dopers to participate? I have an AOL account I can tweak with; I can use that to create a new SN just for this, and I don’t mind giving whoever wants access access to it, as I use another ISP and am rarely on AOL.
–Gabe
AIM: SanjiKRhys
Thanks, tlw. I have you in!
John, of course, will make the call on your suggestions, but we know a few lawyers here at SD as well. We’re certainly not being nearly as mean to Phelps as he is to say, Matt Shepard.
For example, although Freddie put this on his site…
…I refrained from calling him a dumb fuck, and in fact used his generous hospitality to help put together our Flash presentation.
We like Freddie. In fact, we love Freddie. He’s the one who hates. And he’s proud of it.
With respect to broadening, again that’s John’s decision, but, though your points are well taken, there are advantages to focusing on a niche, particularly for startups. While Falwell, et al, are pretty slimy, I’m not sure you’ve quite seen how utterly infested with filth GHF really is.
If we’re able to defeat such an obviously vile and obscene website by merely turning hate into love, then believe me, the others will take notice.
Visit their site. But have a barf bag handy.
I do like your domain name suggestions.
Angel
What is an SN?
Arden
Thank you so much for your work.
Beautiful, Lib. And whoever else had a hand in it.
Without wishing to bite the horse that created that work of art (and I mean that in the truest sense of the word), it might be prudent to figure out how fast the average person reads and make it go a biiiiit faster than that. Granted I’ve read the thing several times, but I was sitting there waiting for the next bit to pop up after a few seconds.
There are also a few problems with the grammar and such that I can work on tomorrow (I’ll be taking the specific bits you use per screen and figuring out where there’s a better way to say it, if there is). I’ll send you what I have probably by tomorrow night.
I think it moved about the right speed and I’ve read it a few times as well. For someone that hasn’t, I think it works and it gives you time to process the images that have been included.
We need banner art for people to put on their websites to link to this page and later to link to our official site.
Oh, and Lib? Put my real name up there on the site. Theresa Thomas.
I’ve been away from the boards for quite a while, but I’m happy to have stumbled on this almost right away. Helps renew my faith in humanity.
I have some previous experience in NPOs and I will offer to help with mission, articles of incorporation and bylaws when the time comes. If needed, of course - my experience is pretty limited. I’m a categorizer and an organizer by nature - maybe that will be needed. Also, I’m a mapper, so when we get rolling I could do little promos for how widespread the support is (donor map, etc).
I still like the “goddoesnthate” domain name, or something along the hatetolove transformation line
Email me at the addy in my profile.
Okay, I made quite a few changes to the movie, based partly on some of your recommendations and based partly on other considerations.
[li]Ending modified[/li]
[li]Primary text color changed from yellow to white[/li]
[li]File size reduced[/li]
[li]Wording tweaked to aid continuity[/li]
[li]Timing tweaked[/li]
Iamphuna
The timing issue is an interesting one. Generally, the average person can absorb about 5 to 8 syllables per second so long as the words and syntax are familiar, and so long as pharases are grouped.
For example, this:
reads a bit faster than this:
But for unfamiliar words, the cognition time increases drastically. Thus, “impenitent” will slow down an awful lot of people as their brain wrestles to resist reading it as a more familar word, like “impotent”.
I tried to be as scientific as I could about the timing.
One other factor to consider is that authoritative familiarity increases cognition so much that it is recommended by most developers that the writer never review his own work. It is nearly impossible NOT to read ahead of yourself if you are the one who wrote the text.
Arden
As you wish. It’s done.
Alpine
Thanks for your offer of resources! You’re in!
Sorry it’s so hard to find this thread. I sent an e-mail to Tuba Diva nominating it for threadspotting, but got no response.
Oh, and Iampunha, one other thing…
There is a one second pause with empty black before the fade-in of Matt Shepard and a one second pause with empty black after the fade-out. That is intentional.
Screen Name. Like, “such and such@aol.com”. Basically, it’s something that you use in order to use aol…like “Libertarian” is for you on these boards. I don’t know whether this is helpful or not, but if it could be, I can give one.
I’m in for $50, at least. Depending on how finances work out, I can probably throw more in later. Just let me know where to send it.
I dunno from web stuff, but http://drak.net/ has been my host of choice; they’re bound to be friendly to the cause and are quite helpful.
Want another possible domain name? How about ‘godhateshate’?
Thank you, Mielikki! You’re in!
The hosting service you linked to doesn’t do ASP. If it’s selected, I won’t be able to contribute coding or db assistance. But if someone else takes that over, it’ll be moot anyway. I can export the data we have to an ascii file, which they should then be able to import.
Libertarian, John Corrado, so far my emails to the television stations and newspaper have fallen on deaf ears. I’m going to try again, and this time back it up with snail mail. sometimes I think they pay more attention if it’s in hardcopy. I did mail a letter, along with a small donation, to the Topeka AIDS Project today, and mentioned this thread. SOMEBODY has to start noticing it.
The following two items came from the Topeka Capital-Journal. This one is an editorial that appeared Sept 16
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/091601/opi_nohate.shtml
These are two letters that appeared in the Capital-Journal just today, the first is by Margie Phelps, spokesperson for her family, and the second is by Dr. Roy Menninger. He is part of the Menninger psychiatric hospital that has been in Topeka for many years, and his family founded the institution. He is also a co-founder of Concerned Citizens for Topeka, a group dedicated to non-violent ways to oppose hatred in the community.
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/092201/opi_letterstoed.shtml
Anythin else I can do now?
I thought it might be. I think that’s entirely appropriate. Sort of like a moment of silence.
::off to watch the movie again::
Baker
Great letter! And I had read the editorial earlier. Good stuff. As to what you can do, we’re all just waiting on John. He’s working quietly under the hood right now.
Gentlepersons
Alas, I learned that our bid for threadspotting status was rejected due to either volume or priority. Apparently, making fun of Ikea is more critical to the goal of fighting ignorance than what we are trying to do.
It’s a shame.
In fact, I notice than an awful lot of the board’s “heavyweights” aren’t checking in: Gaudere, Spiritus, David B, Jab, the Admins, Tris, Poly, RT, and that evolution guy, what is it, Bob or something?
Anyway, maybe I should go post in a few great debates.
Baker
I happened to think… can you contact Jared?
Hey there Lib. I’m sorry to be so dense but it’s not obvious to me from visiting the site how to make a pledge. Can you email with the details, please? (I’ll even make the cheque in real $USA, not Cdn!). Thanks