I wish this service would allow me to write my own personal message instead of appending it. The provided text, which I cannot change, has a line that I feel is too dramatic for the rhetoric I'm trying to keep: "provide cover for totalitarian regimes that want to undermine Internet freedom abroad."<p>Sure, that could happen eventually, but right now I want to express the immediate and probable effects of the bill that matters most to me (copyright holders bypassing due process to block online content).
I love this. This not only speaks to their values, but to their long-term vision. Lots of companies speaking out against SOPA/PIPA would potentially be threatened by the bill, I doubt HelloFax would operationally [I may be ignorant though] but they have the foresight to still stand against it, and go as far as to enable others to effectively protest by providing their service for free.
you know, I just spent all day here (<a href="http://www.informationdiet.com/live" rel="nofollow">http://www.informationdiet.com/live</a>) talking to congressional staffers about the most effective way of communicating to Congress.<p>The conclusion: the fax is the biggest waste of time that there is for communicating to Congress.
Looks like hellofax couldn't handle the surge in traffic -- site is now down for me.<p>Whenever I see a site down like this due to a surge in traffic for a "free" opportunity, I always question whether it is in the site's best interest. For instance, if I was a hellofax customer attempting to send a fax right now, I would be unhappy -- I pay to be able to send / receive faxes, and an (perhaps from the customers perspective) "unnecessary event" has prevented me from doing that.<p>Brings up another question -- whenever companies do these types of "promotions" / "events", should they be hosted on a separate system to minimize impact on existing customers / site activity? I believe this year, Sparkfun use a separate system for free day to ensure the surge in traffic did not impact the main site (and paying customers).<p>(Edited to add further discussion)
Has HelloFax considered a service that would let other people set up a form like this, where HelloFax handled the backend faxing? It sounds like a great advocacy tool
My personal message (I'm from California):<p>Both bills are serious threats to many of the companies that have helped usher our society into the Digital Age. As a resident of the state that is home to most of the world's most innovative and progressive digital companies, I would hope that my representatives too take pride in the fact that these companies find California to foster a culture conducive to technological innovation. I ask you to help continue the progress, and to vote against these bills.
I get the error message "<i>Please select at least one legislator.</i>" Sure thing, but where do I select them from? I don't see any listed anywhere.<p>Edit: I tried again and it worked. The problem was probably an unanswered JSON request for the legislator list, since the server was bogged down. The no-legislator-selected condition should be updated to ensure that the legislator list has been received prior to assuming it's a user error.
The email address field is a bit too short for the email address I wanted to use. Some universities force students to use cumbersomely long emails addresses; e.g., California State University Long Beach makes its students use firstname.lastname@student.csulb.edu.<p>May want to tweak your validation to allow a bit more breathing room.
Is there any way to provide this over https? I really do not feel comfortable putting my contact details over http.<p>I love this idea and would love to participate :)
Sending faxes is a complete waste of time. Offices don't look at faxes, they are normally discarded. Send messages through the Congressional website webforms, those go to the office CRM and are tallied and usually get a response.<p><a href="http://house.gov/htbin/findrep?ZIP=" rel="nofollow">http://house.gov/htbin/findrep?ZIP=</a><p><a href="http://www.senate.gov/" rel="nofollow">http://www.senate.gov/</a>