DISQUS

10e20: Donation Fail: How Los Angeles Screwed Itself with Michael Jackson’s Donation Website

  • Jack Leblond · 5 months ago
    It does seem as though somebody should have known better, but how many times has that been said about anything even remotely connected to government?

    BTW - So glad to know Abe is still with us!
  • Chris Goddard · 5 months ago
    Great post Rebecca! It's surprisingly unsurprising that a city government would make such a mistake. Let's be honest here - governmental bodies of any size are typically known for their tech-literacy. Just remember - "the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes!"

    Keep on keeping on Abe!
  • chriswinfield · 5 months ago
    I still can't get past the big "HELP GIVE MICHAEL".
  • andrew wee · 5 months ago
    Or even better.

    1) A catchy domain - RememberingMichael.com
    2) CA-based (or even better LA-based) hosting provider to sponsor load balancing/grid hosting
    3) Payment processor with scalability to handle spikes/bursts
    4) Problem solved.

    Politicos fail.
  • Matt Earle · 5 months ago
    This is the municipal government... not exactly motivated or ambitious people. If you think it should have been obvious to them how to execute this properly, you are way too enthralled in the online marketing world.

    I totally agree though, next time they should definitely hire a company like yours - spend $20K, make $500,000.
  • rebeccakelley · 5 months ago
    I don't expect them to know exactly how to have executed it perfectly, but common sense dictates that if you're trying to raise $1.4 million in a relatively short amount of time, that's going to come from a lot of people who will be visiting your site. That's where the logical "Can our site withstand that many visitors" question comes in.
  • Jake_Matthews · 5 months ago
    LOL - this one cracked me up:

    "I couldn’t even click back to the first slide to get back to the Michael Jackson information–the slide show was totally borked and wouldn’t let me skip or click on anything."

    so typical of people who have no clue what they are doing.

    great post!
  • Matachstick · 5 months ago
    Actually the total the city spent was just over 3.9 Million, other factors and city services are in play than just security for this event.
  • Seattle Janitor · 5 months ago
    Nice Blog
  • Terry H · 5 months ago
    I don't understand why they would word it Help Give Michael the Memorial he deserves as if he had no money at all. There never should've been donations for his memorial.
  • Rhea Drysdale · 5 months ago
    Late on this one, but it's funny and useful. Love it. Definitely don't understand how they could launch this without better preparation. MJ shut the Internetz down, of course his donation site is going to do the same, did you see those crazy Englishmen dancing in the streets of London?!
  • rebeccakelley · 5 months ago
    I know, seriously, you'd have to be living in a bomb shelter to not have thought that anything Michael Jackson-related would cause an apeshit reaction.