Present: Alan, Vince Neal, Andrew, Woody, Mike (TM or TruthMerchant) Andrew is a guest
WALMART:
Andrew discussed the Walmart struggle in Tacoma. He has been involved in several anti-Walmart groups such as Tacoma United Against Wal-Mart, which has a web page, a Twitter page, and a Facebook page. Andrew described how Walmart opens up a series of big-box stores in an area like Tacoma, drives local businesses out, and then closes them all except one central one, forcing people for 50 miles around to have to come to their store. He also discussed the recent anti-Walmart activities locally and some of the groups involved. There was much discussion about this matter.
ALAN AND TM’s PROPOSALS:
Alan and TM had proposals that have been discussed over the past week or more. Here is a link to Alan’s proposal, and here is a link to TM’s proposal. TM’s proposal addressed site security issues and the role of the systems administrator, and Alan’s proposal addressed how decisions are made about our web presence administration. We decided to vote on them simultaneously, and they passed with 1 abstention.
WORDPRESS ISSUES:
- Spammers have been registering on our website and attempting to post spam. Alan has deleted dozens of pending spam posts and banned or deleted over 100 spammers who registered over the course of about 2 days. Occupy Tacoma has had the policy that anyone who registers at the site can become a “contributor,” which means they can write a pending post. Alan has temporarily made new people who register into a subscriber, which means they have to contact us directly to be able to write an article. Alan is seeking other technical barriers to spam bots registering, such as a “CAPTCHA” system.
- We also discussed the general design of our WordPress site. TM thought it would be good if we improved the menu system, changed some of the graphic features, and had a menu of writers down the right side, along with a blogroll. There was other discussion along these lines
TUESDAY CITY COUNCIL MEETING, MTA RESOLUTION:
TM talked about some of the needs we have to make the case for having the City Council adopt a resolution in support of overturning Citizens United decision. There will be various groups present, and OT will be there. TM arranged with Neal to bring over costume judge gowns to Neal and Aubrey’s house. Neal and TM will arrange to have a stencil and spray paint to paint “Occupy Tacoma” on the hoods of the gowns.
Respectfully submitted: Alan OldStudent
