The Yes Vote makes big gains in cyberspace

May 31, 2009

Google’s PageRanks were updated last week, and we’ve achieved an astounding PageRank of five after being live for under two months! We’ve never seen that happen to a site quite so quickly before, and we’re pleased to be part of a movement that’s able to generate so much traction so quickly.  PageRank is Google’s measure of how important and authoritative a web page is; the higher the pagerank, the higher up the search results lists your site is when people search for topics related to your site.

We’ve served tens of thousands of pages to thousands of visitors.

We’ve also received excellent coverage online in places like Hard News, The Hand Mirror, No Right Turn, The Standard, and Frogblog.

The YES in ’09 Facebook Group has 273 members and is still growing stronger every day.

For a study of how attitude affects outcomes in the Twitterverse, compare a search on @theyesvote to a search on @vote_no to see what people really think.

We are committed to retaining a tone that is positive, constructive and evidence-based. This referendum isn’t about personalities, it’s about the issues.  It isn’t about religion, it’s about best practice.  It isn’t about sound bites, it’s about the whole complex story. And it isn’t about protecting parents, it’s about protecting children.

But the real contest isn’t in cyberspace, it’s in the real world.  It’s great to get the word out and build our online following, but to win the real game we need to convince our friends, families, colleages and contacts that a Yes Vote in the August referendum is the only way to send a clear message to our politicians to protect our children by retaining a Child Discipline Law that is working well.

While we seem to be winning the cyberspace contest for now, we won’t be smug or complacent. We need to be out there taking action, and engaging in conversation with everyone who is willing to listen about why a Yes Vote in this referendum is so important to the future of our country.

So let’s seize the initiative, and get out there and raise awareness with as many people as possible.

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Russell Brown: Stop the enabling

May 21, 2009

In his latest Hard News blog entry, Russell Brown provides excellent thought-provoking analysis on the Jimmy Mason “face-punching” child assault case.  Brown is disturbed that the media are still referring to the case as the “ear flicking” case, rather than paying attention to the facts.  But the media aren’t the only ones trivialising the details.

Brown points out that

Witnesses also said that Mason was repeatedly shouting “f**ing listen!” at his two children. He seems to have been so insensible to his own behaviour that he told the first police officer on the scene “I hit the big one in the face and that is what I do and that lady [the witness] can mind her own business.”

Bob McCoskrie says in the Herald, “… there was a concern that Mason may have been found guilty for only the ear-pull, as the actions of punching, and pulling the ear, were wrapped up in the same police charge. If that’s the case, then it’s a decision that does concerns us. We would like that clarified to understand how the law is being interpreted by the police and the courts.”

Brown responds:

That’s not the case and if McCoskrie had any honesty at all he would admit it. Jimmy Mason hit his four year-old son in the face with a closed fist. That’s what happened.

We encourage you to read the article.  The discussion is still flaming hot; join in and have your say on the Public Address forums.