posted
Do those petitions people are always emailing me have ANY effect? You know, "if you want to stop such and such an issue, add your name to the list and forward it to everyone you know. The 2000th person to sign should email it to the President at this address:..."
I mean, I look at those and think, "I could have made up every name on this list and emailed it to the President."
Do the people/agencies/companies on the receiving ends of these petitions pay ANY attention to them as an indicator of public opinion?
This is a serious question. I always delete those emails, but if I'm wrong and anyone pays attention to them maybe I'll rethink it.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
So true. Also, every time someone posts to more than one person they create at least one new branch of the petition, which has no value at all, especially when you end up with the same persons name on multiple branches. To be blunt, anyone who passes on an email petition is an idiot. But, alas, it seems it will never end.
Posts: 1138 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I think the easier it is to make a statement, the less impact that statement makes.
Forwarding an email is about as effortless as it gets.
Camping out in front of the Crawford Ranch in the summer heat, demanding to speak to the president is more likely to get some attention.
I believe that a personally written letter to your senator or congressman is worth 5000 email petition signatures.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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posted
It depends. There are some e-mailed petitions that have legitimate value - e.g. MoveOn.org petitions which generally obtain upwards of 200,000 signatures before submission (and these being name, e-mail address, IP stamp and comments). Then again, they do far more than just have names added to a list being forwarded around - they have an online database where you can "submit" your signature, and it gets added to the running total.
quote:I think the easier it is to make a statement, the less impact that statement makes.
Forwarding an email is about as effortless as it gets.
True, but given the level of apathy in our nation, it's sometimes very difficult to get someone to do anything more than type at their computer - hence the advent of online shopping (or, perhaps, CAUSED by the advent of online shopping...?).
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
My favorite was a petition to lower gas prices. As if a petition would have anything to do with the lack of oil production in New Orleans because of the hurricane, or competing prices in the Middle East. It was just ridiculous. I wish I had saved it.
Posts: 1789 | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
A lot of these petitions, like a lot of the jokes, prayer request, and most common-chain e-mails, are just a way to go fishing for valid e-mail addresses.
The spammers send out an intriguing request for you to send to your buddies. It makes the rounds and eventually is returned to their accounts, with a long list of active e-mail addresses that it went through.
The spam you recieve tomorrow is created by the junk you sign off on today.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Well, there was a recent online petition that did work. Grateful Dead fans were enraged that the GD management pulled the soundboard recordings off the Internet Archive, and were going to start chargeing for them. (the band who stated publicely: "Once we play the music it is done, and out there for anyone")
Anyway, a petition went around, and the remaining members responded to it, and the soundboards are going to be back on the Archive.
Maybe small potatoes, but it worked.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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