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Comment by turblety | Hacker News Reader

Another petition rejected (although I do understand it was somewhat in jest). I do wonder what the point of these petitions are if the government basically refuses to act on any of them [1]. I guess it's nice because parliament debates the issue (on some occasions, a few times they just refuse [2]) then gives a public response of why they're not going to do what the petition asked for.

[1] https://petition.parliament.uk/#petitions-with-response

[2] https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/173199

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There's no point to them. It's a feelgood option like a lift door close button (edit: apparently this is a bad analogy, suggest a different one please?). Which is why they've degenerated into jokes.

Also the public are hardly of one mind. See the duelling Brexit petitions, https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200004?reveal_respo... vs https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200311?reveal_respo...

"It's a feelgood option like a lift door close button."

What's with a lift door close button? Open/close buttons certainly does work in my apartment building and pretty much any non-ancient lift I've encountered. Or do they still do nothing in USA?

In my recent observation, in the USA they do nothing, but people still sometimes press them. But in South East Asia they immediately close the lift door, everyone uses them, and it's great.

It might be that the lifts I was in in SEA were all newer (as were the buildings) than most of those in the US.

I have remarked that people from China always use the close door button. At first it weirded me out because I always waited for the door to close.

In my apartment the close door button is a trap because one has to hold it during the whole closing door procedure and maybe 1 second more, otherwise the door will open. It usually results in more time lost than if one just waited for the door to close.

The lift close button in my work actually does close the doors.

Eh, I've been in lifts where the close button does something.

I know this because you had to hold it until the doors fully closed, otherwise they would judder to a halt and open again.

I'm not sure I'd say it worked to close the doors early, but it certainly did something.

They're at least useful for manual modes.

Source: DEFCON - Elevator Hacking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHf1vD5_b5I

The pedestrian walk button is probably better, but as I have found when I could not be bothered pushing them these are sometimes functional.

This reminds me of when I was 4 my mother told me if I pressed the walk button a hundred times the traffic would stop. It worked every time :)

I've lived in areas where the pedestrian walk buttons are non-functional and also in areas where they extend the length of the green light in your direction. It's way too much effort to determine if they work or not, so I'll just continue mindlessly mashing them until the light changes anyway :)

The thermostat control in my office.

>(edit: apparently this is a bad analogy, suggest a different one please?).

Voting in any democracy which has undergone regulatory capture?

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