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Comment by rhizome | Hacker News Reader

What have been the most significant real-world effects of change.org petitions?

While I understand (and often share) your cynicism, change.org has won some victories in the past: http://www.change.org/victories

The level of the "victories" do vary. But, in this particular case, I think a mass expression of support for this girl could actually encourage the local DA and school reconsider moving forward with prosecution.

So merely asking how effective they are is "cynicism," got it.

Most of those victories can be chalked up to "post hoc ergo propter hoc."

Perhaps steer clear of questioning whether he was correct to guess your meaning when following it with a line that confirms you were indeed being cynical. Not saying you are wrong to be cynical, but you are (as am I).

Still not cynical (nor hypocritical in case that's what you're implying), and many change.org victories being post hoc instances is demonstrable.

I don't think he thinks of cynicism as a bad thing (and I don't either).

It's hard to prove causation in any of these.

As I understand it, a big part of change.org's model is building a political mailing list, so they can follow up with you at election time and say, "you signed this petition that we sent to this politician, and they [did/didn't] do what you wanted." So even if the petition itself doesn't do anything, they can follow up with pressure at the ballot box.

A ton of mainstream product advertisements got pulled from conservative radio after Rush Limbaugh did that whole Sandra Fluke thing. That was spearheaded by change.org.

Agreed, I honestly don't think there has ever been any actual "change" occurring due to these petitions. They either are on the side of agreement with those in office, or they are not. The response is always a regurgitation of their current views on the matter.

Honestly, the best way to make a difference with local government is either to make a credible threat of suit or just make their lives miserable for a few weeks (by publishing their email addresses and phone numbers and sicking the internet on them).

I had a few altercations with my high school administrators. The first involved a student petition, the second involved formal letters from attorneys. Guess which one had more effect.

Edit: nevertheless, I have signed the petition in question.

Slactivists feeling good about themselves, primarily.

I say this not to tease about the goals and causes, but just that sending individual, targeted letters to the parties involved or a dollar to the family for their legal fund would do so much more. Internet petitions do nothing and are easily ignored.

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