HelloAnswers!

Topics
     - HelloVoter
     - Photo Submission
     - Comments
     - Ms Heather

-  HelloVoter

Q: I have an idea to help with the cause!
A: Fantastic! I’d love to hear it! Feel free to send any ideas, suggestions, or comments to me. If I end up using it, I’ll make sure you get credit. Feel free to use any of the contact methods listed here. Thanks!!

Q: I’d love to help, is there anything I can do?
A: I’m sure there might be something! Please contact me & tell me about yourself, your skills, & what you think you might be able to contribute. Thank you!

Q: I have quotes, information, evidence, videos, or resources about Obama/Obama’s administration that you might find useful!
A: I would be much appreciative of any verifiable information you could provide! Compiling evidence for those who write notes, as well as those who find them, is one of the main goals of this website. Education is empowering! The more information we provide, the better! Thus anything you could add would be greatly appreciated.
Click here to contact me.

Q: I found a mistake/error/technical glitch!
A: Naturally, no one’s perfect! I’m sure there are probably a few errors here and there. If you happen to find one, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know! Thank you!

Q: Do you accept donations?
A: Yes, I do. This is the donate page.
   Originally I did not intend to accept donations. I paid for everything associated with developing & creating this site on my own, with help from my parents. But the fact of the matter is, I’m disabled. I’m unemployed. I don’t have a lot of money.
   I also don’t accept any sort of disability or medicaid assistance from the government. I philosophically disagree with it in my case. My family is financially capable of providing for me. My needs are met, if not all my wants. Sure, I could easily apply for disability & get it in nothin’ flat. Sure, it’d be nice to have extra money. But I believe that’s not the role of the government, especially in instances where my family is capable of providing for my needs.
   Does that mean I have a lot of extra income? No. I’m on an allowance like a 12 year old. I have very, very little disposable income. To give you some idea, just creating this website took up somewhere around 70% of my monthly income.
   Running it has started to incur more expenses than I initially anticipated. And there’s so much more I want to do with it, but I just don’t have the financial means to do so. I’m starting to see my financial situation limiting the potential for this effort.
   So for that reason my friends have encouraged me to place a donation page here on the site. I’m going to give it a try. I’m not going to push for or solicit donations. The page will just be there if anybody feels like giving anything.
   As I’m still not sure how I feel about it, the donations page may disappear at any time. If I happen to get enough donations to cover another couple months of running the site, it’ll most likely go away. Until then, it’s an experiment & we’ll see what happens.

Q: Since you are accepting donations, what is your policy regarding reporting who gives what?
A: Every time I get a donation I will announce it on the official HelloVoter blog. If the person who donated the money agrees to have their full name released, I will do so. If not, I’ll post a first name & last initial.
   I do want to say, though, if I somehow start getting donations from super PACS or somebody like the Koch brothers or George Soros, I will not accept it. Money complicates things, but special interest money complicates things even further! I just don’t need the headache.
   Lastly, if the person donating wishes to remain anonymous, I guess that’s okay for now. But again, if at any point I start feeling hinky about it, the donation page is going bye-byes.

Q: I bet this site is secretly funded by the Koch brothers! Go on, admit it!
A: Nope. Sorry to burst your conspiracy bubble. Thus far every cent spent on this website came from me. Some of the money came from my wallet, some came from my lovely parents. And no, none of us are related to the Koch brothers. We’ve never met them, talked to them, or had any sort of contact with them or any of their employees, representatives, associates, or anyone or anything else in any way associated with them. It’s just me. Even if they offered me money, I don’t need it, don’t want it.

Q: Okay then, I bet it’s George Soros!
A: Um, again, nope. Nor is it any other millionaire, billionaire, activist, candidate, party, lobbyist, or anyone or anything else. Just. me.
   Even now that I have a donations page, that will not change. As soon as I get the slightest whiff of anything even remotely hinky about any donations, that money’s going straight back. I will be keeping extensive records. Anyone that feels like challenging anything, I’ll have my PayPal records to back me up.
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-  Photo Submission

Q: I created/found a note, how do I share it?
A: Snap a picture of the note wherever you posted it, then send it to us along with your name, where you posted it, & at least one way of contacting you.
There are three ways you can submit photographs. Email, Twitter, & SMS text message. To learn more, click here.

Q: What file type should my photo be?
A: A high resolution PNG or TIFF would be best! But JPG’s are also okay.
If possible, if you’re at all familiar with photo editing, please ensure that the jpeg compression rate is as low as possible.
If you aren’t familiar with photo editing, just go ahead and send in the raw, original, unedited image taken by your camera. That’ll be perfect.

Q: What resolution should the photo be?
A: Basically, the higher the better. The biggest copy you have would be preferred. Again, if nothing else, just send us the raw, original, unedited image fresh off your camera or phone.

Q: Will the photo be attributed to me?
A: I’ll certainly try to! Just please know that I’m only human. I’m sure that eventually a photo or name might end up mismatched at some point! But I will certainly endeavor to include your name & location with your photo.

Q: What if I don’t want my name or location included?
A: That’s fine, I certainly understand! I would certainly prefer to keep at least a general location associated with the photo. My goal is to eventually be able to match up the original creator of the note with whoever finds the note, so people can get a sense of the impact their efforts have on others. That would be kind of difficult if I can’t keep track of where each photo was taken!
If you would like any specific personal information omitted, just let me know when you submit your photo. I’ll respect your wishes! After all, it’s your photo!

Q: If I submit a photo, do I still retain ownership of the image?
A: Yes! You still own the original image in its entirety. But by submitting the image you are granting me & HelloVoter.com an unrestricted license to publish, reproduce, modify, & distribute your image indefinitely. For full details about that, please check out our legal section.
If at any time after submitting your image you decide you don’t want us to use it anymore, just contact me & let us know. Be sure to include another copy of the original photo, the method you used to submit it & any personal information you included at the time. That will help me track down your photo so I can remove it from my database.

Q: If I submit a photo, will my personal information be used for anything else? Will I end up getting spam?
A: Absolutely not! The personal information included with the submission of your photo will only be used for the purposes of crediting you with the photo & keeping track of who submits what. Your personal information will NEVER be sold, given, or transferred to anyone else! It will NEVER be used for advertising, either for this site or anything else. You won’t even hear from us, except perhaps to notify you that we received your photo. For more details about our privacy policy, click here.

Q: How will my photo be used?
A: First & foremost, I’m hoping to create a map of notes posted & found all around the country. Not only will that give us an idea of how widespread our efforts are, but I’m hoping we’ll also be able to match up whoever created the note with whoever finds it. I think it’ll be a great chance to get a sense of the impact each note has, as well as bringing like-minded people together in your local area.
Your photo may also be used to publicize HelloVoter.com & our efforts. Basically any means I can come up with to help spread the word, your photo may be used for that.
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-  Comments

Q: I posted a comment on your site, but it hasn’t shown up yet! What gives?
A: Since I’m running this site entirely on my own, I’m not always as speedy as I’d like to be when it comes to moderating comments. Please know that I’m trying my best & will get to your comment as soon as possible! The vast majority of comments will be approved, including from those who disagree with my political opinions or the efforts of this site. All honest, well-intentioned opinions are welcome & will not be censored!
However, if your comment contains overtly inflammatory, racist, hateful, or threatening language, your comment will not be approved. Similarly, if your comment is off-topic, spam, or if you post the same comment repeatedly, your comment(s) will be deleted & you may be blocked from posting in the future.
I have tried my best to always express my opinions in a thoughtful, kind, civil, respectful manner. All I ask is that you please do the same. If you stick to that rule of thumb, your comment will certainly be approved as quickly as possible.
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-  Ms Heather

Q: Come on, I doubt you’ve even ever voted for a Democrat!
A: Actually, I have. Multiple times, in several local & state elections. Although granted, I haven’t exactly been eligible to vote for very long, so I can’t say I’ve voted for many people of either party. But I am at least proud to say I have never missed voting in an election yet!

Q: This whole thing is a little too slick. I’m finding it hard to believe you don’t have any political ties.
A: I don’t exactly know how I’d prove it to you, but I swear on my life, it’s just me. I’ve never worked for or been associated with any political candidate, entity, or organization. The extent of my political involvement has been voting & simply speaking my mind through my blog & twitter. That’s about it. No more than anyone else, really. If you’re curious, feel free to check out my resume on LinkedIn for a full list of my working experience. You’ll notice, it’s devoid of political stuff. And always has been.

Q: If not politics, what is your professional background?
A: I started working when I was 14, when I founded my own small online charity, The Daily Prophet. It was a small online newspaper based on the Harry Potter books, through which I tutored children in English & Creative Writing. Two years later the site had grown considerably, so I got a little more organized about it. Prophet Incorporated then became a registered 501(c)3. The charity still exists, but is unfortunately on hiatus at the moment. Due to my ill health, I couldn’t keep up with the 80+ hour a week work schedule to keep the organization going all on my own.
     Aside from that, I also dabbled in freelance web design & development, interior design, event planning; basically, anything I could do to make stuff pretty. I’ve also consulted with other charities about how best to provide innovative services to educate & empower children. That also led to a short stint in television production, developing ideas for educational programming for children & eventually broader educational & documentary programming.
     I have also been responsible for several campaigns to address certain problems I’ve come across. I describe two of those here. Each of those campaigns revolved around issues affecting children. Except for one short-lived attempt to bring attention to the policies of the TSA, which never got off the ground thanks to my stupid health. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to tackling political issues.

Q: What is your educational background?
A: I’m torn between being really ashamed of saying this, or being incredibly proud, but I’ve never been to college.
     I’ve been accepted multiple times, starting at the age of 13. I think I still have an open acceptance offer from a prestigious art school in London, but it’s been a few years since I’ve checked on that.
     Suffice it to say, I’ve never been short on opportunities. But each time I was accepted to one university or another, my health inevitably took a turn for the worse. I’ve since gotten the message & stopped applying to schools, at least for the time being.
     But that’s not to say I’ve stopped educating myself. Halfway through first grade my family moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi. No joke, in the 1990s, my classroom was segregated. The African American kids sat on one side of the classroom, the white kids sat on the other, and there was a huge aisle in between. My parents did their best to fight for change within the system. But soon enough, after multiple severe physical punishments for daring to stand up to my teacher’s bigotry, my parents had no choice but to remove me from that environment. I spent the rest of my childhood home-schooling. I don’t regret it for an instant.
     Home-schooling taught me that education shouldn’t be confined to a classroom. Thus I have never really stopped home-schooling, even though I finished high school level work at age 12. As a teenager I studied my older brothers’ hand-me-down college textbooks. I’m still a voracious reader.
     It was by no means a conventional educational experience. But I think it worked. I still hope to be able to say one day that I’m the world’s most successful grade school drop out.

Q: You’ve mentioned that you struggle with ill health. What’s wrong?
A: I suffer from a very, very rare genetic condition called Dercum’s Disease. You can learn more about it here.
     Suffice it to say, Dercum’s causes a great deal of intense physical pain & a lot of complications. I’ve spent over half of my life battling this disease & a few others. But for the past three & a half years I’ve been mostly confined to bed, almost entirely due to overwhelming pain. It’s not a lot of fun, but I deal with it as best I can. Thankfully I have wonderful doctors, loving parents who provide for me, & the freedom to choose my own medical care.

Q: Are you married? Have any kids?
A: Nope! I’m single and – at least as far as I know – no kids. :)
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