I’m interested in getting Captain Kidd pardoned after 300 years. Hey, it’s never too late!
What’s a good website for collecting e-signatures? Do they forward all the sigs to the body you’re petitioning? Do they wait until there’s a certain number, or is there a time limit?
Also, have any online petitions been successful, or influential? Thanks.
Don’t bother posting it.
On-line petitions are considered junk to be deleted by college interns, and for good reason. Anyone with the ability to write one can also affix a list of names and (e-)addresses that makes it look like half of the Internet supports her cause. Anyone with slightly more ability than that can harvest valid names and (e-)addresses (that’s where spammimg lists come from). In neither case, will anyone receiving the petition attempt to verfy them (after all, if you received such a petition, what would you do?). Software such as PGP could be used to provide digital “fingerprints”, but the vast of majority of:[list=A]
[li]recipients[/li][li]signers[/li][li]hi, Opal![/li][/list=A]know nothing of such and wouldn’t bother with it if they did.
Short of individually-styled letters on pieces of dead tree, signed with schmutz in as many different styles of handwriting, the vast majority of petitions, e- or otherwise, are considered candidates to be ignored, and for good reason.
What if everyone signing the petition puts their mailing address? Seems to me that can’t be faked.
Sure, mailing addresses can be faked. I could pull the addresses of everyone on the Straight Dope message board and put them on a petition. How can you tell that the right person put them there?
You can do the same thing offline, but it’s more time consuming. Unless you are planning on checking out each email address to verify that the person on the other end signed the petition, it’s no good.
Right now, online petitions are given little or now weight, for better or worse.