My experience

It's always a bit scary to share your views in public, in particular about controversial local topics. You are always worried you will end up upsetting someone. Thankfully I was able to choose my own 'username' so I didn't have to use my real name. In the end, my contribution actually got a lot of positive reactions. It turned out there were more people who shared my view - but, like me, they didn't feel safe expressing those views because of the vocal few who normally claimed 'they were sure they were speaking for everybody'.