Introducing a new tool for organizers to get the word out for the issues and candidates they care about in, what we think is, a way that's a win-win for organizers and who they're organizing. Rewarded Alerts work like this: as a Resistbot member, you can opt-in to receiving these occasional alerts. For each one you receive, you will receive one Resistbot coin. If you in turn have an issue you want to share with your fellow members, you can do so for two coins per person. In effect, you're being paid for your attention and willingness to listen to a fellow member who's trying to get a policy changed or votes for a candidate, as opposed to having advertising or unwanted messages thrown at you without giving you anything in return—or how most text lists and even technology products work.

Soon we will start awarding coins for each donation made to the bot too, giving you more of a say in what issues are promoted to members. The cost of one Resistbot coin will be pegged to the cost we as an organization pay for a text push, and you'll receive a nice bundle of coins for a typical $5 donation that you can use to raise awareness of what you care about.

At Resistbot our incentives are a little different. We're not an organization that raises money from billionaire donors and corporations to push their agenda down at you, or a political party that's going to send you fundraising appeal texts every few days, nor do we view our members as just numbers on a list to justify our next raise. Resistbot is a different kind of non-profit, one that's funded by the grassroots—specifically, you—and where our customers and donors are also our end users. If you don't like this product or find it useful, you're not going to use it, or support us, and we will cease to exist, pretty simple!

Resistbot's issues are your issues. As of now all of Resistbot's alerts are opt-in, rather than opt-out, by default. Meaning the bot will only deliver alerts that you want to receive from now on, you have complete control—we affirmed that in our User Bill of Rights. Gone are the days of uninvited texts! We think those were important, especially the ones about nearby rallies, upcoming elections, or if you were represented by an official on the fence about a key issue, but going forward we'd rather you affirmatively raise your hand and volunteer to be called upon when needed, rather than having us nag you.

Send alertsManage what alerts the bot can send you, like promoted alerts, upcoming town halls, and more to the bot to opt-in to the new rewarded alerts, and if you haven't been there in a while, you'll see a few other fun alerts too: Like the ability to get weekly updates on bills being taken up by the U.S. House; a daily video recap from The Recount; customized alerts about trending petitions, for example whenever anything gets over 250 signers in 24 hours; town halls happening near you; and of course we offer protection for your voting franchise. Should your voter registration be purged like they love to do in Georgia every chance they get, the bot will alert you. Once you sign up it will check the rolls for you every four weeks, forever.

More about how to spend your coins and earn more is coming soon, but in the meantime, please be one of our volunteers, ready and able, willing to serve when called upon, and you'll be able to do the same. Thanks for being a part of Resistbot and being a contributing member of our community.

P.S. There's two ways today where you can drive texts without coins: first, my new followers feature where monthly donors get a follow keyword they can give out; second, you can create a vote drive where all the folks you get to pledge their vote, will receive "get out the vote" texts before the election, helping them to check their registration, find their polling place or local election office, and more. Vote drives are completely free for anyone to create! Please tell your friends working on campaigns: Resistbot is giving away its GOTV program. Texting is no longer prohibitively expensive for organizers, and we're just getting started on building more free or inexpensive tools to help you.