You're right that debating factors the effect outreach would be a lot easier if we had criteria for what effective outreach means.

I think people prefer posts that go a long way toward making some argument- in contrast with those that just ask for input. Even if people like the question they're less likely to promote the post. But your comment outlining the programme got a lot of karma. Why not make that into a full post and talk about the sorts of things you'd like our goals to be.

One other possibility is that its just too soon to do outreach. Maybe we need more time to mature and systematize our ideas.