alias_sqbr

To be honest I can't see how email is preferable to lj comments on a specific "leave your input here" post which (I would assume) is read by the same person. On lj I can point to a comment later on when discussing things with other people and make sure I'm not repeating an earlier, already answered question/suggestion.

Yes, otw_news comments go directly to the Community Relations committee.

The idea of more chat-style discussions, and more general discussion/suggestion threads hosted on otw_news are ideas we're considering -- we're still inventing our outreach too, trying to find a balance between the more formal needs of a non-profit Org, and the free-for-all discussion preferred by fandom. We still have some work ahead of us in getting the balance right, but we intend to keep trying stuff until we find a combination that works.

signs of a policy I didn't understand and you hadn't explained rather than the fact that you're still figuring things out

We opened our metaphorical doors as soon as we could, so that fandom could get directly involved in the creation of the Org. We are not like stereotypical corporations in that regard. We want to serve fandom, and to do that we must be by and for fandom and co-operatively invented by fandom. That's the stage we're in now.

In fact, the website isn't even the final version; it's stage two, and has barely anything on it yet compared to what we have planned. It's practically a shell. So, yeah, the set-up isn't even close to anything like finished, and won't be until the end of the year, I'd guess. And even then, that's just getting the ground floor built; after that, there's a whole heap of other projects that have been suggested.

Speaking just for myself, I expected criticism at this stage. Perhaps not quite so much, and certainly not for some of the reasons given, but certainly that it would come from every quarter. But then, I've heard what people say about WASFF, and I've also seen the good and bad of how that's turned out.