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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48389
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48389
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

I think there are two important aspects that you should make clear:

- That you indeed do care about the issue. Your letter is not just a rant, you sincerely are concerned about the damage the issue does or may do to what you consider important.

- Why the addressed should care. The issue is not just something you personally disagree with, but something that may negatively affect also the addressed one.

Also, if possible, you should address the letter not to the entity, but to a specific person.

Here's a possible opening for a letter to Stack Exchange about the recent issues (I didn't take the time to figure out who at Stack Exchange this would best be addressed at, so I just use the fake name “Ms. Stack Employee”):

> Dear Ms. Stack Employee,
> 
> As a long time user of the Stack Exchange network, up to now my overall impression of your company was mainly positive. However unfortunately the recent events challenged that assessment, to the point that I'm now reconsidering whether the site is worth my future investment in that site.
> 
> Note that I used the term investment deliberately; while I'm not invested monetarily, the effort I put in this site is indeed a non-monetary investment of which I expect a non-monetary payoff. I'm concerned that your recent actions may do enough damage to your main asset, the goodwill of your user base, that the expected payoff won't materialize. The fact that many moderators, who are both better informed and more invested in this site, decided to reduce or stop their investment in this site doesn't help to reassure me that your site is still worth my trust.

These two paragraphs address the above points in the following ways:

- By noting that I'm a long time user, I make it clear that I have a genuine interest in the site's well-being.

- By noting that my positive assessment is challenged, I make clear that I'm not yet determined on my reassessment. That is, the future actions of Stack Exchange actually matter.

- By using financial language, I hint at the possibility that monetary investors might also be drawn to reconsider their investment. Of course I cannot state it because I don't know it (although if I were a monetary investor, I certainly would think about my investment strategy now).

- I openly state that, in my opinion, their main asset (note the financial term, again) is the goodwill of their user base. Which in turn implies that any damage to that goodwill is a damage to the company, something the company certainly cares about.

- I state my concern about the damage they did to this main asset, and how it personally affects me (again using financial terms).

- Finally, I make it clear that this is not just my personal opinion, but that people who are mode informed and more invested in the site not only share my concern, but are already taking action, and that this very fact also adds to my own doubts. In other words, they should care about my opinion because it's not just mine.

Note that the above text doesn't yet say much about the actual incident. The following text would then have to detail why exactly the current events are so troubling.

Original score: 8