In whatever way Scotland changes after the result of the referendum is known tomorrow, something else has already changed:
how democracy works. Today, voters will go to the polling stations and cast their votes with pencil and paper in the traditional manner, a process that has not changed in many generations. But in almost every other respect, this political campaign has been different to all the others that have gone before.
One of the most striking characteristics has been the engagement of the grassroots in the campaign; this has not been like a traditional election in which the politicians do the talking and the voters do the listening.
Instead, across the country, volunteers on both sides have been knocking doors and handing out leaflets, with the Yes side in particular appearing to galvanise and inspire their supporters to get involved. In some cases, the Yes campaign has also inspired men and women who had given up on the political process to get involved again. The network of Yes shops across the country has buzzed with commitment and passion.
The campaign has also been one in which the internet and social networking have been central like never before. On Facebook and Twitter, friends and family have been trying to persuade each other to vote Yes and No and only occasionally has someone gone too far. On the whole, it has been good-humoured, informed and respectful.
On heraldscotland.com, the debate has been just as passionate. Every day there have been about 2,500 comments posted on the site and with each poster writing about 200 words on average, that amounts to half a million words a day written by users of the site. And most of those words in recent months have been about the referendum.
The Letters Pages of The Herald have also been an exciting place to go for debate that is reasoned, witty and informed. The editor has been receiving about 150 to 200 letters a day, and recently the pages have been expanded to meet the demand. Letters that have not been published in The Herald will be posted online.
Elsewhere, Scots on both sides have engaged in political debate, searched out the facts, challenged and grilled politicians and dissected the arguments. On Tuesday, The Herald's leader column on the referendum was shared more than 12,000 times on Facebook alone.
Tonight, social media and news websites will continue to play an important part. On heraldscotland.com, Herald columnist Iain Macwhirter will host a rolling service of news and results that will include comments from readers as well as instant analysis from our team of specialists. Regardless of the result tomorrow, this passionate debate about Scotland's future will continue.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
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