Yes, that was my point. A farmer in Latium could attend a day-long assembly in Rome. But the bigger the Republic got in territorial extent, with Roman citizens in cities and towns all over Italy, the less effectively democratic it became (not that it was all that democratic to start with, but the existence and role of the assemblies – even under the kings – did make a difference).
Rome was strongly influenced by the purest form of democracy yet: the mob. It was hardly unusual to whip up an angry crowd to push your opponents into doing something you wanted.
In theory. But that meant that said farmer would need to pack up, come into the city, and spend a day or two voting rather than working on his farm.
A pre-industrial freehold farmer can do that – he’s his own boss and the crops won’t rot from a day or two’s neglect. But a farmer in, say, Umbria would have a problem.
Only because the mob knew perfectly well they probably couldn’t get what they wanted – even if it was what the majority wanted – through the heavily weighted voting in the assemblies.
For the most part, they didn’t, though. In the tribal assembly, the “rural tribes” were dominated by their members living in Rome.
Like petulant children who know Dad will probably give in sometime before their thousandth repetition of, “Can we?” The system gave the mob power because there was no other avenue to address the needs of the citizens. But you knew that.
Now, can I get get back to my hijack? 
Following the links, I found Wikipedia’s description of the Medieval Unicode Font Initiative. After porn, I haven’t found a more likely outcome from the internet revolution than this.