I'm not taking a position on whether mods need to force the discussion off the L&G, but I'd like to offer a place to hold it, if people want to try voluntarily.

This is an important topic, because whoever negotiates for us needs to be able to make a very convincing case they speak for all of us. If our agent can't do this, as we sit down with RA to collect on past cooperation for tangible gains, and especially as we negotiate for future gains in a new contract, this dispute is actually going to start costing us real money, and real improvements, real soon. This is not an academic discussion. Whatever efforts can be brought to bear to bring this to a conclusion, no matter who you prefer as an agent, should be expanded.

It's no secret that I have a bias, and it's OK for everyone to have a bias, assuming we can discuss this intelligently. I would suggest a couple of rules to keep it functional and productive:

1) Write as if you were next to the person you're addressing.
2) Write to convince the lurker about the merit(s) of your argument(s).
3) Make your argument about the issues if you can. Lurk if you can't.

We can disagree passionately, but if we don't agree to solve this one way or another, we're going to (literally) be all poorer for it.

In Unity,

Sink r8.