Susan

I once took negative comments to my submissions to heart until I learned to dismiss them. Those who have a positive reaction to a submission do not feel impelled to rush to comment - but the eccentrics occupying their own moral high ground do. OLO does not screen comments as the Sydney Morning Herald does to its bloggers.

My disappointment with OLO is that the wealth of information that appears on it seems to just drift back into oblivion as new submissions arrive. I admit that cross-referencing the stuff would requre a lot of extra staff-time.

OLO is very mild compared with debate in Parliament. At least on OLO you hear from all sides unlike the BBC and ABC which follows its own dogmas.

The lack of a true democratic process in all countries except perhaps Switzerland is because of a lack of an input process by constituents.
Online opinion could perhaps provide this input by providing a poll or vote for contentious questions.
If this was engineered into the site and gained large enough support, it could influence the policies of governments and oppositions.
Politicians do listen to the voters at times and if they do not they will lose power eventually.
A massive swing for or against a policy should have some influence even if not as effective as a referendum could give more of a democratic force to the country.
At the moment, there is no definite benchmark of opinion and it needs to be addressed by a vote.

Susan Giblin doesn’t attract the ‘respect’ she craves. First, as a newcomer to Australia, she starts an amazing thread about non-citizens voting; now, she is back, complaining about how OLO works and the gall of some Australians who disagree with her. To me, people like Ms. Giblin are akin to the colonialists who moved into countries assuming that the natives were idiots.

By hoeing in with the absurd idea that Australia, or any other country, should even think about non-citizen voting – just because she felt out in the cold – Ms. Giblin offered us a mountain of disrespect.

Ms. Giblin has been well advised by Brian Holden, a regular contributor who has had some awful things said to him.

We posters often say awful things to each other. Ms. Giblin should stop seeing herself as a missionary to the Antipodes and toughen up.

OLO is a pretty broad church, Susan. I rarely take comments to heart and neither should you.

Your prior article was quite good and probably deserved more positive comments but remember that you're in the public domain and Australians (and our media) can at times 'go for the jugular'.

There are always cranks but they shouldn't be confused with those who hold passionate opinions. For example, we're in the midst of a national debate about the effects of global warming and carbon emissions on policy. That's a hot topic (no pun intended) so the responses can be rapier-like.

Vote with your keyboard and write another article for OLO.

Other forums where the feedback Sue seeks happens have a much smaller focus eg; motoring , fishing , cooking etc here you commonly have your
photo and Bio listed . It's all touchie feelie , nothing wrong with that I think ?

OLO is a Journalists Library and a Voters ballot box .

Next time you vote , hist hark , listen carefully if you hear 'Thanks' come out of the slot you will know I am wrong !
There is nothing personal at OLO .
Further I believe if you get no reply , you said it all and everyone agrees on the other hand ...................................etc.

If visitors were allowed to Vote they could distort the vote and harm the people in an electorate where say the Electorate has 20,ooo locals and 10ooo visitors eg Gold Coast holiday destinations .

On the other hand if you just want company , not necessarily a commitment then buy a scoota join a scoota club buy a sleeping bag a double one just in case and scoot off round the wineries , mountain, great ocean road etc.

PS never buy a scoota less than 250cc , breaking integrity and climbing ability are safty issues they start at 200cc capacity .