Forums are funny places. They aren't quite chat. More time goes into it than that. They definitely aren't like in-world conversations. You aren't waiting for me to finish typing this. And they aren't like face-to-face conversation. We assume more familiarity here than we actually have.
It's that last point that leads me to encourage us to consider some things I think Tad wisely alluded to in his recent comments elsewhere: If we want this forum to be a place for good citizen involvement, we'll have to communicate to citizens in terms they understand and in ways that communicate our value for them.
Now this has broad implications and I could say a lot more, but I want to keep my posts short and readable. I welcome comment on this. What I'd like to end up with is a thread that helps us all move together towards clearer communication and greater, healthy citizen involvement in all our threads - especially legislative ones.
It should be clear, but I'll add this so we don't go down this road. This is not a thread to attack any one person. Let's keep it that way.