My Motivations & Obstacles In Developing
GPCA, GPUS et al Test Sites for the
2015-2016 and 2019-2020
Campaign Seasons

 

The Initial GP WordPress Test Sites  I Developed in 2014-2016, some shown updated and expanded in numbers and site-types on the “GP Test Sites” page, were just a Small Group of State WP Sites to be presented here on SevaWebSites as a proof-of-concept.  They still are.  From 2010-2016 I hoped they would have attracted interest of GP tech people starting in California who would endorse my activities and perhaps add some of their expertise, if any, to help me speed up the development of 1+ of the WP sites.  No one was interested.

GOAL #1 If there had been interest up to and through 2015, I hoped to have had them sufficiently developed in early 2016 for use by either US Greens, and/or 1+ US State GPs, and/or 1+ US Progressive Dem candidates for office.  FREE.  However the target political party and candidate users soon included Bernie Sanders and his national campaign.  Again none of these target users expressed interest.  I concluded the Greens had no idea what to do with WP sites then.  The Dems and Sanders campaigns had big money and rented expensive voter information services and expensive campaign web site developers too.  But the WP sites I was building could be used for state primary election candidates date order weeks or months before each state’s primary election took place. 

Again no one was interested, so I stopped further development of them all by early 2016. As of 18.01.28, when Trump was campaigning for the GOP nomination, I resumed development of them for use in the 2018 and 2020 primaries and general elections.  While Bernie Sanders, leading progressive candidate in 2016 going into the Dem National convention, and all Dems could “eat” off my list of target GP users, the small group of state Green Party users to show proof-of-concept remained the same: The sites I hoped to have in beta states suitable to show other Greens were for: USA GP, GPCA; GPME, GPNY, GPOR.  These states listed here are in the order of their primary elections in the first half of 2016.  I got GPCA-wp somewhat ready as a beta-1 site. But in the development process I had developed “a method” to clone and “tailor” WP Multisites like GPCA-wp rapidly (e.g. in 1-2 days each) to produce another state site, let’s call it the master site of a WP Multisite, a site with all its counties as ‘slave’ or satellite sites of the master multisite!  And I found ways to integrate data otherwise unique on any one site with any 1+ other sites; ‘data integregation’ in WP Multisite.

But another confounding event occurred in 2015-2016.  All 21 states with a recognized and legal Green Party were authorized to have a ballot line for each Green candidate they “put forward” to compete in the state’s primary and, if allowed to move one to the general election, in the November general election.  But “national GPUS” or others with that much clout persuaded all 21 state GPs by mid 2015 to start renting a well designed and functions Nation Builder site for their state’s voter information collection, management, donor list and solicitations, voter out-reach and GOTV-development.  Some of the technically wiser states in addition to having a new NB site, already had and still used their own older “home-grown” existing web site  Some lie the GPCA managed to integrate both kinds of sites almost seamlessly. All in 2015-2016 eventually had 1+ Facebook sites which they used for state membership and friends discussions.

I who never got technical feedback from any US GP from 2010 through 2016 was grateful that at least these developments gave me some more clear guidelines, or unspoken parameters, on how to redirect and improve the development of the test sites I had developed partially by 2016 and some of which sites are listed below to be developed further going into the 2018 and 2020 election cycles.