I guess the biggest question is how you define “important”. Then once you’ve established that criteria, how do you enforce it?

It’s quite easy to set up a server-side feed aggregator in PHP. Though I haven’t looked in detail, I assume there’s filtering capabilites in most, or at least some of them, so it’d be possible to automate pulling in a pile of RSS and Atom feeds, and then re-publishing links and excerpts into another feed, but include only items related to gun rights, or at least guns.

But you’ll quickly run into the problem of what news feeds (and blog feeds?) to include. There’s a massive amount, which you know, of course. This ties into an issue of information overload as well. Not sure how to strike a balance there. Tagging would help, but then you end up with moderators having to tweak tags. For example, some subcribers to this alert system might want to restrict it to just issues for their state of residence plus national.

Actually, the mechanics of the system aren’t all that important. There’s plenty of techie gun-rights people around, and there are all sorts of pre-built things around to convert an RSS/Atom feed to e-mail, or repackage it however people want to consume it. Of course, maintenance becomes more difficult with higher complexity.

I think you need to take a stab at what data volume you’re thinking of, before tossing around technical possibilities. Is it Google News for gunnies, or more like Slashdot?

It shoud be exactly the opposite. We shouldn’t have a care or any interest in the world what they’re doing because our tactic should be keeping the enemy tied up responding to us, until it becomes immpossible for them to do anything at all but self-destruct, the 2A having been secured.

Offense, offense, and nothing but offense. I haven’t the slightest interest in anything else.

If I’m going to spend my time writing a Congressbitch, it’s going to be demanding some new restriction on anti-gunners’ activities. If I’m going to lobby, it’s going to be for nationwide Vermont-style carry. If I’m going to campaign, it’s going to be for enforcement of 18 USC 214 and 242:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/241fin.htm
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/242fin.htm
and for the 2A itself. because if we can get only a few successes in those areas, all the anti-gun horse crap will have no power and no meaning.

Never mention the “S” word either– I’m ready to puke on the next guy who trys it (Sport, Sporting, Sportsman, et al).

Just some thoughts. Carry on.

On the tech side I am very weak, so Qs about Blogrolls.
Can a Blogroll be coded with headlines (first topic on the blog), or rolling headlines (top 3 topics)?
Can a Blogroll be coded so that it can be sorted? By category, by geography, by traffic, by date started, etc. Can they have Tags (like on YouTube).

General Questions
Which blogs and forums have the most traffic?
Which blogs and forums have the most cross posting (traffic in common), and which are the outliers?
Has anyone done a post mortem on the Jim Zumbo event? Which blogs/ forums had it first? Which had the most traffic? Is that the model for action?

I am envisioning a master Blogroll with headlines that people can glance at, also with a place they can post action alerts. I also like McZombie idea about a “News Alert Widget.”

I would contact Cam Edwards at NRA News instead of the 800lb gorilla directly.

What you have now is a random mess of posts jumping from one topic to another.

Unfortunately for me, I’m in the People’s Republik of Kalifornistan. Guess who my reps are.

Although I could contact them four times a year and tell them what a shoddy job they’re doing in representing me…

The California Gorilla has a cage like a house on Sunset Strip – it’s got a front-end and no back end, it’s all about it and the alerts come out the day after the event.

The other Big California Gun-Primate is a loud screeching cagerrific tease with eyeliner and lipstick. It wants to kiss me but I draw away as it reaches for my wallet again and again.

There’s gotta be a better way – a reduced instruction-set for one thing, and specificity – not a be-all for everybody-everything.

Called your Senator about putting a hold on Sullivans nomination as BATFE head? If you aren’t going to do that, what ARE you willing to do? Nothing?

You mentioned a unified site. On the original post, someone mentioned using widgets and alerts that pull specific news/blog items.

How about a unified site full of feed readers specifically set to pull content and news items related to gun control, 2A issues, etc.

Or is it easier to create a widget specifically to do that, then have everyone install that on their site?