Question should be self-explanatory, if less unbiased than I'd like, but I've been wundering where I sit on the scale of... whatever the scale is of for this.

I used to take the upproach of "probubly does nuthing, but only takes a fuw secunds so why not?"

More recuntly my stance has changed tu "gives a large number of people a sense of having dun something without having any actual effect", and thus is arguably harmful to whatever cause the petition is in favour of, because that sense of achievement numbs the avurage person's desire to du more.

It can be argued that it's a way of expressing public opiniun, but have there actually been any cases of any guvernments turning around on any significunt issue due to a bunch of signatures? (And I do mean key (inter)national policies, not local issues nor token victuries for things they didn't really care about in the furst place, but will happily use to give the illusion of the populace having a say.)

I would like a way to indicate what is importunt and have those aggrugated feelings actually takun into consideration, but I don't think petitions do this, and I'd prefer if infurmation on important issues was spread without a glorified like button, so peopul don't get that quick fix and are more likely to try coming up with sum real solution for each issue (whatever that might be).

Um, so reading that back I'm not sure I've articulated very well (nuthing nuw there then), but I'm getting tired and can't be bothured re-writing it, and in any case it's probably gud enough to get you ugly bunch discussing stuff and tossing around vuewpoints...

But yeah, I agree with:

 

With regard to most forms/instances of peaceful protest.

This reply has been moved here. :C

Can you get someone to update your dictionary?

:( Without the poll preceding it all, I just look like a nut.

Guess I can post what it should be to at least give context...

How do you feel about adding your name to a list?
* Undoubtedly useful
* Um, maybe useful
* Undecided
* Unconvinced
* Utterly useless
* Ultimately counter-productive
* Uther

Then I just got carried away. :>

Makes a little more sense now.

Is the poll still not working? because it is showing on lite mode as a poll of tick boxes for multiple selections.

But what Drew said.

I've signed a few petitions, but only on the official government petition site because I'd hope if there was a chance a petition might have even a slightly positive effect it would be on there.

Though I think the only one I can think of right now that had some sort of positive outcome was the petition to have an enquiry of some sort into the Hillsborough disaster/cover-up. There's probably been others but none that stick in my mind.

With social media and the ease of signing online petitions it's become increasingly easy to get many thousands of signatures. Whip up a storm on twitter, get it trending and you'll get many thousands of signatures like the Iain Duncan Smith living on benefits one did relatively quickly.

Nope, still same message/link, but yep - it shows correctly on lite mode for me too, and actual voting seems to work there, so seems it's some full mode display quirk.

Working here at a cheap motel in the boondocks with crap WiFi.

Not working here.  And I went through a phase where I signed some, then realized that they don't give a fuck anyway so I stopped.

not working right for me either

also, I think petitions are mostly a waste of time, I will sign any I support, but I kinda feel they get ignored

Hahahaha! I thought you had really blown a circuit!
I don't sign petitions either.

What's with the spelling? It disturbs me coming from you :D

I agree though!

Disturbance is good. :)

p.s. Matt's straightened my poll, for anyone that wants to use it now.

YJ? I used it this morning. That is I had a fiddle but didn't finish off.

I think it really depends on the situation and the subject.

I know you specifically set about big national stuff, but from my experience organising workers they can be very successful in achieving a goal, but also in /increasing/ engagement. Although some people do sign and forget, others sign and then are more concious of the issue - pay more attention to announcements, actively seek updates etc. In that situation the end result is more dependent how you capitalise on that initial interest than it is on number of signatures.

Sign and forget is also a bit of an issue when recruiting new members into a Union (which, essentially, is a very convoluted petition with a changeable message...........). One technique used to stop people forgetting why they signed up is to run campaigns /without/ signing people up, but then organise a specific day a month or two in where you have a mass sign up. You make a big deal of the whole thing and people (in theory) remember the reason why the decided to join, rather than just that they did join. My brain is tired and I hope that makes sense.


As for government petitions, I quite like that the Number 10 petitions thing has to be discussed if it gets enough signatures, but after a million people marched on London in 2003 in protest of Blair's illegal invasion of Iraq I have little faith in a government paying attention to a signature.