bigjohn wrote on Aug 3
rd, 2013 at 10:23am:
I always get the impression you talk down to people SCV, and less people appear to contribute since you started posting your ramblings here. Perhaps it would help if you went on a Plain English Course.
This personal comment is a further indication that some see this public forum as a vehicle for direct conversation between a particular group of people. (I use other means for such exchanges.) My contributions here are aimed at those who are interested in serious open public discussion of the issues and are ready to engage with them fully. That is my "intended audience". If any reader feels that they are not part of this group, then they should simply disregard my contributions to these discussions, as they are not directed at them.
In making that remark, I recognise that perhaps I should be disregarding many of the contributions made as, even though they may address me by name, they are not truly directed at me, but at other readers.
If other members wish to engage with the points I make, but find them unclear, it is perfectly proper to politely request clarification or invite confirmation of an understanding gained. As the forum covers many specific and detailed matters it is inevitable that shorthand abbreviations or brief references are made to them in the course of a specific contribution. To the new reader this will inevitably appear to be gobbledygook.
The Plain English Campaign is a most noble cause for the areas that it addresses. I endeavour to have regard to its principles when these are relevant to my communications (e.g. on TV and radio). If every contribution to this forum were to be written in Plain English, then I am sure that the sense of being talked down to would be much greater.
Perhaps the point I made about contributions being challenged was worth picking up on, when a further reference to a fall off in contributions was made. I am naturally disappointed that the conversation is not moving forward.
I personally believe that the reduction in contributions is largely due to the fact that Ofcom has now SAID NO TO 0870 (as it was) and that general public and official awareness of this issue has achieved a significant breakthrough. There are many points left to discuss, including the acceptability of alternatives, although these are increasingly coming down to narrow points of detail. I accept that some contributors hold the view that the underlying issues are so nasty (e.g. Ofcom being essentially corrupt) that nothing will ever change and they are thereby forced to even question my motives, in order to support this view.
Some may wish for a return to the situation as it was several years ago; I am pleased to wish to consolidate the progress we have made and take it further. If this forum cannot find a place for itself in this changed situation, then so be it.