Years of listening to forum-posters demand things of game makers with a remarkable sense of entitlement and lack of shame has led me to expect little constructive work to come fans, but CFC's positive tone and earnest message managed to shake me of my cynical world view (if only for a few moments). The group even goes out of their way to encourage positive interaction between Valve and fans on their official site:

"The lack of communication between Valve and the Half-Life community has been a frustrating experience. While continued support for current and future products is greatly appreciated, fans of the Half-Life series have waited years for a word on when the franchise will return. So, Instead of focusing efforts in a negative and disrespectful way, we have decided to gain Valve's attention by delivering a basic message:

Your oldest and longest running fanbase would like better communication."

While fans have attacked Valve for various things in the past, these conflicts usually result in a cadre of spoiled man-children embarrassing themselves by demanding that cater to their exact tastes or wishes. A hacker stole Half-Life 2's source code and then tried to justify his actions by claiming Valve faked their E3 2003 HL2 demo, "I'd like to point out this is what you wanted Valve to release on 9/30/03...I'd like to point out the E3 demo was one big fake by Valve." I'm not sure if that's better or worse than the time fans threatened to boycott Valve because they announced a sequel to a game they loved.

I sincerely hope that protesters maintain the respectful tone throughout the rest of the process. Reddit and other gaming communities seem to be following in the spirit of the event, at least for the time being. Whether or not Valve responds, CFC is taking a step in the right direction for the industry.