[ILUG] MEPs responses

[Paul Biggar]

Folks at kde.ie,

Apologies on this. I missed the guidelines at the top. I see you
actually took the exact steps I was suggesting.

Will pay more attention before my next rant.

Paul




On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 10:18:27 -0500, Paul Biggar <paul.biggar at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> explaining the existance of http://www.kde.ie/patents/email-meps.php - the
> 
> This is a terrible idea. I understand that the purpose is not to
> mail-bomb MEPs, but the page in its current form will do just that.
> The last thing we want to do is to piss off the people we want to
> support our cause. At the moment, the simplest way to use the form is
> to send a standard letter to everybody. This is behaviour we want to
> discourage. A thousand identical emails are far less effective than a
> hundred original letters.
> 
> Here's what I suggest:
> 
> 1.) Only allow the form to send an email to a single MEP. This will
> help stop the MEPs being mailbombed.
> 
> 2.) Remove the text of the message, except for the first line. This
> means that people will give their unique point of view about why
> software patents are bad, and how they will personally be affected.
> Emails that look the same are just going to be ignored.
> 
> In place of the text, give a list of links, or important points that
> people who email might want to discuss or be aware of.
> 
> 3.) Suggest that people write to their MEPs, in the
> letter-and-envelope sense. A letter signed with ink, which had to be
> printed (or hand-written), put in an envelope and put in a post box
> shows that you're not simply a me-too petition signer, and that you
> care enough about the issue to make an effort.
> 
> Your move is well intentioned and can be helpful, but it is important
> not to alienate the people who's help we require, and not to undersell
> the importance of this issue to us.
> 
> Paul
> 
> --
> Paul Biggar
> paul.biggar at gmail.com
> 


-- 
Paul Biggar
paul.biggar at gmail.com