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December 08, 2004
No points for Eliot Spitzer
Forgive me, Eliot Spitzer, but your "points program" for volunteers to help your campaign for governor of New York has to be one of the stupidest ideas in grassroots political marketing ever.
Eliot, I'm a big fan. I've fawningly blogged about your efforts on behalf of customers when other regulatory bodies were asleep or worse.
But here's the thing: Points programs are inauthentic and focus action on rewards, not the reward of helping someone change the world. It goes against everything you've stood for.
Eliot, you're so much better than this.
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As someone who has used Spitzer2006.com to email a lot of my friends and relations, to upload photos, and also to make donations to the Spitzer campaign, I think the "point leaders" program has value to the extent that it is one of several features aimed at keeping people coming back to the site.
I think it's a mistake to assume that this small feature of the site would in any way be construed as a substitute for other, "real world" action. It's an added feature, in my view, not an alternative to knocking on doors, holding events, talking issues with your neighbors, etc.
A more substantive complaint (which I've forwarded to the site designers as well) is that the "find your friends" feature does not work. If we are to organize in our communities on Spitzer's behalf, it would be helpful to get this feature operational.
Sam, thanks for the comments!
Points typically appeal to a very narrow swath of people who are motivated by self-interests, not loyalty to a cause or person.
Spitzer's progressive idealism is unlike almost any other political figure today, and that should be plenty of motivation to cause some people to quit it their jobs and volunteer full time to help him move into the governor's mansion in Albany (and perhaps, one day, the White House!).
I to believe like ben does that eliot spitzer is very dumb! I hope other people feel the same...
