[thelist] OT: INVASION: flood results campaign

Mon Mar 24 03:42:00 CST 2003

First off: This is a hot issue, but please don't try to start a debate 
or discussion here as thelist is meant to help web developers; join 
thechat if you want to discuss 
<http://lists.evolt.org/mailman/listinfo/thechat> .

Objective: turn search results for phrases concerning the US lead 
invasion of Iraq into links with a reasonable point of view.

People that are for or ambivalent about the war nearly always:

1. Don't understand why ruthless dictators since Hitler have been 
contained: the UN makes collective decisions on who should be taken out 
of power.
2. Believe that Hussein had something to do with 9-11.

The apparent support for the war among US citizens (when the rest of 
the World is clearly against it) has been generated by the manipulation 
of opinions through propaganda. The United States is still a 
Representative Democracy, and it's reasonable to hope that if people 
get their facts straight, we can correct the path the current US 
Executive Branch has put the World on.

What we web developers who are against the war can do:

Take part in a search engine result campaign where searches for phrases 
such as "iraqi liberation", "hussein terrorism", "support our troops", 
etc will turn up results that reflect our point of view instead of the 
propaganda espoused by the Bush administration.

Example: <http://shockingelk.com/pictures/liberated_iraqis/> (warning: 
pictures of dead or maimed people)

Try to link to other pages which are doing the same to maximize impact. 
Also remember to include meta keywords and descriptions 
<http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/tagpages/m/meta.htm> in your 
html and use alt tags for images, as in the example.

Example use of meta description/keyword for a page which contains 
images of civilian casualties:

<meta name="KEYWORDS" content="pictures, liberated, liberated iraqis, 
iraq dancing, streets" />
<meta name="DESCRIPTION" content="Pictures of liberated Iraqis thanking 
coalition forces and dancing in the streets." />

Remember that to be effective, meta keywords must be included to the 
<totle> and <body> of the document.

Contact your clients, or query your employer: ask them if you can use a 
directory on their site for this. The more, the better. Always vary the 
content as much as you can while still retaining the message. If the 
page won't automatically be indexed, submit it to search engines or 
better, link it from a page that's already indexed.

If you wish email a link to your page to <nowar at gozz.com>. This will 
add your effort to the "flood results" database of links to mutually 
link to, so as  to maximize search engine placement of your 
contribution.

that is all. Forward message at your discretion.

PS: I'm not a unconditional pacifist, but am a vehement 
anti-neoconservative and thus believe the US lead invasion if Iraq 
without UN approval is one of the gravest mistakes in Mankind's 
history; certainly the stupidest thing any nation has done in my 
lifetime. And most likely yours too.

  ... feel free to personally congratulate or condemn me by directly 
emailing <nowar at gozz.com>, but again, this list is intended to address 
web development .

<tip type="good bookmark for web developers">
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/ catalogs every html and CSS 
tage/attribute, including a key on browser support and major bugs. When 
I have a problem with HTML or CSS,  I can usually figure out what's 
going wrong with my code by referencing this site, so if you haven't 
checked it out, I's suggest you do so!
</tip>

--
-/erik/
Pictures of Liberated Iraqis
<http://shockingelk.com/pictures/liberated_iraqis/>
(warning: pictures of dead or maimed people)
--