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I would like to see a world where petitions are much more taken into account. Unfortunately, for many leaders, they are not taken seriously. I hope Change.org

I would like to see a world where petitions are much more taken into account. Unfortunately, for many leaders, they are not taken seriously. I hope Change.org can do something about this.

zitterbewegung 9y ago
Change.org could remedy this by adding a feature that would Mail, Email and or Phone the person and or group . If you would do this people would take it seriously.
michaelchisari 9y ago
There has to be a progression in order for leaders to take them seriously. It has to start with a petition, but there has to be something that happens if the petition gains critical mass but leaders don't acknowledge it. It has to go from petitions to protests and electoral losses at the very least. If it stays a petition, it's much too easy to ignore.
erikpukinskis 9y ago
I think in order to succeed, they need to take responsibility for more than just the petition. Measuring people's basic feelings about issues is just the first step in the process. They need to nurture the entire discussion, through debate with counter-arguments, policy formation, public debate of policy, balancing of priorities against other issues, and building a legislative caucus. If they can move ideas through all of those stages, they can usher them into law. But just aggregating petitions is like asking 100,000 people what their dream house is and then claiming that you've done your part and now politicians need to solve the housing crisis.
xexers 9y ago
There are some petitions on change.org which I, as a citizen, would like to petition against (rather than for). A petition may have huge support but it also may have huge opposition... that opposition is not shown on change.org. Not showing the opposition to an issue paints a skewed image that I hope politicians can recognise. For example, if the evangelicals made a petition to ban abortions in USA, it could potentially get a lot of support but yet there is no way for others to show their strong opposition against that as well.
- adamsea 9y ago
  Create a petition for the opposite thing.
  - xexers 9y ago
    I think that's easier said than done. People are inspired to up-vote a petition if it has action... but what if you're position is that we just keep doing the status quo on an issue. For example, you can imagine a petition saying: "The gender pay gap is statistically $0.72 for female workers. I propose we simply SOLVE this now. Let's tax MEN and give the proceeds to women to even up this pay disparity". Sadly, I've seen petitions like that and they are as absurd as my hypothetical above.... but you're asking me to make a petition saying: "The existing laws around gender discrimination are plenty good. Let's keep with what have now" Somehow I feel like my petition wont take off.
    - tajen 9y ago
      Spot within your example, I've actually written a petition for "Men should have the same rights as women, i.e. change X and Y in sectors Z and Z2". If downvotes were allowed, it would take a single feminist organization to sweep my petition, whereas it is difficult to gather men's votes. I much prefer that downvotes aren't possible. I can work little-by-little and find the right message until I gather enough votes to lead a better campaign.
- paganel 9y ago
  > For example, if the evangelicals made a petition to ban abortions in USA, it could potentially get a lot of support but yet there is no way for others to show their strong opposition against that as well. Plus, even if somehow the evangelicals and those supporting them were to have the upper hand in terms of numbers, you still can't do things like ban abortions based on numbers alone. Basic, more modern human principles shouldn't be left to democratic vote (i.e. the voice of the majority). The right of a woman to have an abortion is a basic (and more modern, judging by recent history, if we exclude the Romans) human principle.
losteric 9y ago
I thing petitions is the wrong way to go about it... They are static copies of the author's complaint, ignoring the precise and subtle opinions of the public. Compare that to this democratic tool: https://blog.pol.is/pol-is-in-taiwan-da7570d372b5 https://blog.pol.is/pol-is-in-taiwan-da7570d372b5 - collaborative consensus sounds more politically compelling that petitions

I would like to see a world where petitions are much more taken into account. Unfortunately, for many leaders, they are not taken seriously. I hope Change.org can do something about this.

zitterbewegung 9y ago

Change.org could remedy this by adding a feature that would Mail, Email and or Phone the person and or group . If you would do this people would take it seriously.

michaelchisari 9y ago

There has to be a progression in order for leaders to take them seriously. It has to start with a petition, but there has to be something that happens if the petition gains critical mass but leaders don't acknowledge it. It has to go from petitions to protests and electoral losses at the very least. If it stays a petition, it's much too easy to ignore.

erikpukinskis 9y ago

I think in order to succeed, they need to take responsibility for more than just the petition. Measuring people's basic feelings about issues is just the first step in the process. They need to nurture the entire discussion, through debate with counter-arguments, policy formation, public debate of policy, balancing of priorities against other issues, and building a legislative caucus. If they can move ideas through all of those stages, they can usher them into law. But just aggregating petitions is like asking 100,000 people what their dream house is and then claiming that you've done your part and now politicians need to solve the housing crisis.

xexers 9y ago

There are some petitions on change.org which I, as a citizen, would like to petition against (rather than for). A petition may have huge support but it also may have huge opposition... that opposition is not shown on change.org. Not showing the opposition to an issue paints a skewed image that I hope politicians can recognise. For example, if the evangelicals made a petition to ban abortions in USA, it could potentially get a lot of support but yet there is no way for others to show their strong opposition against that as well.

adamsea 9y ago
Create a petition for the opposite thing.
- xexers 9y ago
  I think that's easier said than done. People are inspired to up-vote a petition if it has action... but what if you're position is that we just keep doing the status quo on an issue. For example, you can imagine a petition saying: "The gender pay gap is statistically $0.72 for female workers. I propose we simply SOLVE this now. Let's tax MEN and give the proceeds to women to even up this pay disparity". Sadly, I've seen petitions like that and they are as absurd as my hypothetical above.... but you're asking me to make a petition saying: "The existing laws around gender discrimination are plenty good. Let's keep with what have now" Somehow I feel like my petition wont take off.
  - tajen 9y ago
    Spot within your example, I've actually written a petition for "Men should have the same rights as women, i.e. change X and Y in sectors Z and Z2". If downvotes were allowed, it would take a single feminist organization to sweep my petition, whereas it is difficult to gather men's votes. I much prefer that downvotes aren't possible. I can work little-by-little and find the right message until I gather enough votes to lead a better campaign.
paganel 9y ago
> For example, if the evangelicals made a petition to ban abortions in USA, it could potentially get a lot of support but yet there is no way for others to show their strong opposition against that as well. Plus, even if somehow the evangelicals and those supporting them were to have the upper hand in terms of numbers, you still can't do things like ban abortions based on numbers alone. Basic, more modern human principles shouldn't be left to democratic vote (i.e. the voice of the majority). The right of a woman to have an abortion is a basic (and more modern, judging by recent history, if we exclude the Romans) human principle.

losteric 9y ago

I thing petitions is the wrong way to go about it... They are static copies of the author's complaint, ignoring the precise and subtle opinions of the public. Compare that to this democratic tool: https://blog.pol.is/pol-is-in-taiwan-da7570d372b5 https://blog.pol.is/pol-is-in-taiwan-da7570d372b5 - collaborative consensus sounds more politically compelling that petitions