Heldenbrand has used message boards at the Oklahoma activist Web sites OKGOPChat.com and DemoOkie as well as national sites like Meetup to recruit volunteers and gather support for his organization, Raise Oklahoma. The group is currently circulating a petition that would raise the state's minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.15 in 2007 and $7.15 in 2008.



Heldenbrand describes the notes he left on the free online message boards as Raise Oklahoma's "primary distribution tool for news."



Boards such as OKGopChat.com and DemoOkie can be sites of both intellectual debate and the Internet equivalent of spitball throwing. Keith Gaddie, a professor of political science at the University of Oklahoma who posts on both sites said, "There is an ancient American tradition of this. Certainly these chat boards are not the Federalist Papers. In a way a chat board is a lot like a bar. You will have intensive and insightful conversations. And occasionally you will just have bar fights."



"Online Message Boards Get Political"