"Petitions don't work"

GuyInWhite

I hate this attitude. People act like when some organization makes a decision, it can't be changed by public pressure.

Well, that's one way to let large organizations ruin our lives, isn't it? If you're going to give up, it's guaranteed that nothing will change. If you try to write letters or something, there will at least be a chance, however small, of things changing.

inkblot

Of course petitions work.

It's online petitions that don't work,  never have worked, and never will.

DonZabu

I blame the proliferation of online petitions. All those do is give more fuel to the kind of cynical bastard who thinks all petitions don't work.

Bob

^^Took the words right out of my mouth.

GuyInWhite

^^Well how else do you organize a petition with people across the globe of similar interests?

It's not like I'm going to go onto a forum and ask for people's addresses so I can send them the petition; people don't part with their personal information that easily.

GuyInWhite

No, seriously, how do you do you organize a petition without submitting it online? I want to get people to sign a petition for Microsoft Game Studios, but I really don't know how to contact the kind of people I want to sign it. What should I do?

DonZabu

Well I'm sorry, but the fact of the matter is that electronic petition signatures don't legally count. They could just as easily have been forged by a mass-producing algorithm, after all.

GuyInWhite

Well, yes, that's exactly the problem I want to solve by making it a hard-copy petition. The problem is that I don't know how to get it to be signed in meatspace.

DonZabu

Well, you're gonna have to send it to them. Whether or not they sign it and allow their mailing address to be known to you is what's gonna separate the people really dedicated to your cause from the posers.

You're gonna have to double-check this idea, but I think that maybe if you made a PDF of the terms of your petition, emailed it to them, had them print it out and sign it, have them send the signed copy back to you, and then gather all those up and send them to Microsoft, that might fly as a petition (especially if it means they get hundreds of letters in their mailbox at once).

Tnophelia

Or you could use a news station to launch your petition from, like CNN.

ClockworkUniverse

^^^You put in all the hard work without which no petition, digital or physical, can sway a company's opinion.

Tnophelia

Also get endorsed by a big company that believes in you to prove you aren't just angry nerds or something.

What are you petitioning anyway?

DYRE

Well, that's one way to let large organizations ruin our lives, isn't it?

I want to get people to sign a petition for Microsoft Game Studios,

-wonders how Microsoft Game Studios is ruining people's lives-

Tnophelia

HALO

DonZabu

Actually, go with the plan I mentioned earlier, but instead of having them send the letters back to you, just cut out the middle man and have them mail it to the company directly. And get them to convince friends of theirs to sign the petition, too. Do it at weekly intervals so that they get flooded.

ClockworkUniverse

Yeah, floods of mail are really good.

Snail mail, not email. Writing a letter shows that you care.

RedEyedAbyss

To add a point, there are online petitions like this which make the whole process look like a laughingstock. There's also this (except that one was supposed to be funny).