Back when the industry tried to push a unified software patentent bill in Europe, I wrote personal (non-stock) e-mails to some members of the EP. Nearly all of them gave non-stock answers and were interested in the arguments that I provided against patents.

Many politicians are willing to listen to their voters, especially if it not a stock e-mail, carefully written, and not rude or threatening (which unfortunately seems to be the norm today).

I have the same experience. I've personally emailed with [and gotten replies back from] both MPs[1] as well as one member of the EU Commission. I should note that it was replies from them, not their secretaries/letter-writers.

Subject was software patents and the TTIP and I spent about ~30 minutes writing an email (succinct, sound arguments, references, etc; an angry rant probably won't get a reply).

[1] Member of the European Parliament

Calling them is not (which this site apparently enables for free.)

Elected officials generally ignore mass petitions or form emails, but calls show a much higher level of interest. If the barrier to entry is higher than for a "Back in my day Pluto was a planet" Facebook page, representatives know you're serious.

Source: Our team (Seneca Systems) works directly with elected officials on handling constituent requests.

Tell me, what's the difference between a mesh network and an ISP?