e-petitions that circulate asking for you to "sign" an email and then pass it on are almost always hoaxes. they are often designed to impugn the reputation of an organization or, when they have an address to mail the signedpetition to after X sigs, they are often vindictive attempts to fill some innocent person's mailbox with hundreds of emails. it is also the case that some who study urban legends sometimes fabricate them in order to study political networks on email lists. the internet antifascist campaign against yahoo worked through this kind of pressure. and the U of T strike was influenced by the email requests to send individual letters to the admin that were circulating seemed to work. if it didn't directly mean a lot to the admin, i tmeant something to the strikers. and, i know from other lists, that grad union reps in this country got on the phone and spoke directly to the prez at UofT
in this case you need to go to a web site. as such, a lot of people will surf in without using anonymizing software and they can, to some extent, know that these are "real" signatures. they are collecting infor about you. see their privacy policy:
http://www.onedemocracy.com/1d/DisplayStaticPageServlet?STATIC_FILE=privacy. html#gather
i'd say that this site and the signatures are a bit more relevant than are email petitions which circulate the net. but, i think more importantly they are used for heat, to put the pressure on, to indicate that people are taking the time to click. afterall, a signed petition in r.l. really doesn't require a whole lot more from you than clicking and signing either.
and they've proved effective.
just one small part of the strategy. i don't think much of it, but it's a little different than email petitions. and it might also just get people interested in the issue, since the site connects you to links where you can learn more. for that reason, it's not a bad idea i suppose.
kelley -- "Loyalty to petrified thought never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul" --Mark Twain