Template talk:CongLinks/Archive 2

OpenStates.org
I realize I've been absent from Wikipedia and the various government projects for some time, and I missed the deletion discussions earlier. I tend to agree with the new approach and the shorter list. However, I do not think the changes make this template very useful for state legislators. VoteSmart is the only field left that applies to them, that link is primarly to give readers a sense of the legislator's approval ratings. I am not advocating for the return of the other sources, but I would suggest adding in a field for profiles at OpenStates.org from the Sunlight Foundation. The information is provides for state legislators is much more indepth than that provided by VoteSmartk, including a map of their legislative district, committee memberships, sponsored legislation, etc. While VoteSmart does provide that information in one for or another, the way OpenStates presents it is much more visually friendly and non-partisan. My reasoning is as follows.


 * The addition does not violate WP:EL because the information is useful to the article
 * There currently is no uniform way to add links to state legislator profiles given the differences for each state's legislative website
 * The addition would not clutter the template since the fields would only be used on state legislator articles
 * While the addition would provide some of the same information provided as VoteSmart, it would not be a simple duplicate of that information

For an example of how the template could be updated to include OpenStates and how that compares to VoteSmart, see below for Alaska State Senator Mike J. Dunleavy. The origional code is on my sandbox for anyone interested in viewing it.


 * Profile at the Sunlight Foundation's OpenStates.org
 * Profile at Project Vote Smart

I welcome any comments. If I don't hear any objections, I will make the changes to this template adding OpenStates and update the documentation accordingly.DCmacnut &lt; &gt; 19:15, 12 December 2014 (UTC)


 * What is the best feature(s) that Project Vote Smart lacks? How is the news selected for that site and how often is it updated?  Are the vote counts/bills sponsored complete or examples?  Are they likely to fix the listing that thinks that the Iowa House has 103 members? (It has 100.)
 * Will they continue to support legislators once out of office (Project Vote Smart didn't used to, they do now.) I don't see a huge advantage over Project Vote Smart and the news section is a huge negative in my mind because it is incomplete (which raises potential NPOV concerns - does the site have a bias?) and outdated on the pages I checked, but the list of votes and sponsorships is a positive. – Philosopher Let us reason together. 02:01, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
 * The data compiled by Open States is automatically taken directly from state legislative websites every night. The information is scraped and updated every night. An automated process like that is bound to show up some errors, but the site has an active developer group to fix errors, so it should be a simple fix to 103 Iowa House error. They'd likely correct than once the next session kicks off. The biggest point in its favor is the map of the legislator's district, and that it focuses on very basis information. The links to bills sponsored is a complete list of bills sponsored during the current or immediate past session.


 * The news/media section appears to be used sporadically. A more common example would be for Iowa Senator William Anderson. I do not think OpenStates has a particular bias other than a desire to make state legislative data easier for the public to access. So the News section on some legislators shouldn't be an impediment. If it were, there is a lot of bias from VoteSmart that I think would meet the same standard. The site bills itself as a way to fight "manipulative politics" on its main webpage. The "Positions" link on their page only lists positions if the candidate has responded to Votes Smarts in house "Political Courage Test." They have a video that publicly shames some legislators for refusing to respond. That is a vary narrow view and is incomplete. Candidates take positions on a number of issues, but VoteSmart chooses to focus on its own questionnaire and only publishes general approval ratings from outside groups. The Political Courage Test website is full of NPOV language, e.g. "each candidate is repeatedly confronted" and "candidates can no longer hide." I'm not suggesting we get rid of VoteSmart, but add OpenStates to provide what I view to be a more neutral link to balance it.


 * As far as supporting former state legislators, OpenStates assigns each legislator their own ID, which never expires. Here is the link to Senator Stan Lyson from North Dakota who recently retired. So, yes, the links will remain active even if the legislator leaves office.


 * Those are just a few of my thoughts as to my proposal.DCmacnut &lt; &gt; 17:20, 16 December 2014 (UTC)


 * In that case, I would agree to use this after a check that they have fixed (past tense) the correct membership of each house. I suspect that in Iowa's case, it's because of the way the Iowa legislative website handles retirements/etc, but because the website always handles them the same way, it's something that site will have to compensate for on an ongoing basis anyway.  I agree that Project VoteSmart has a bias that we hand-wave away when using it, so I'm fine doing the same here until/unless a serious issue arises.  And yes, the maps are kind of awesome. – Philosopher Let us reason together. 20:59, 18 December 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 December 2017
The FEC links no longer work because the FEC changed their site. The parameter value is the same, but the url is now in the format of https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/S6AL00195 so the template needs to be modified to that. Thank you for your help. 174.197.12.110 (talk) 20:03, 28 December 2017 (UTC)
 * ✅ AdA&D  01:42, 6 January 2018 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 21 June 2018
Please change Project Vote Smart to Vote Smart. It's already redirecting to the current name. 174.197.31.185 (talk) 14:25, 21 June 2018 (UTC) 174.197.31.185 (talk) 14:25, 21 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done &mdash; Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:46, 22 June 2018 (UTC)