[ILUG] MEPs responses

[Barry O'Donovan]

On Wed, 9 Mar 2005, Paul Biggar wrote:

> 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.

No problem. We are atively monitoring the usage of this form and if it 
becomes a "mail bomb" situation we will remove the text and take other 
measures. So for, however, it is sending a good few mails but my no means 
excessive.

Barry


> 
> 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
> > 
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Regards,
Barry O'Donovan
http://www.barryodonovan.com/
http://www.ihl.ucd.ie/	

Public key: http://www.barryodonovan.com/gpg.asc