Who will see my signature information?
There are several ways your signature information may be shared:
Public Petition Signature pages. Certain fields will be displayed on the publicly displayed signature page for all to see. Your email address, street address and telephone number are never displayed on this page. You are always given the option to check a box to hide your name, and replace it with the word "anonymous." You are also required to preview your signature before you submit it, to prevent mistakes.
Petition Author / Target. At the close of the petition, we provide all of the signature information to the petition author with the exception of your email address, street address and telephone number. These fields of information will only be shared with the petition author and target on a case by case basis to verify the validity of your signature.
Your Privacy is Important: ThePetitionSite.com and Care2.com believe in protecting personal privacy on line. To this end, we are a member of the independent watchdog group, Truste.org. Please see our full privacy statement on Care2.com.
I made a mistake in my signature, how can I change it?
You can only sign once. Because petition letters are often sent to the target immediately upon signing, you cannot edit your signature information once it has been submitted.
How can others in my family sign a petition on the same computer?
To preserve the integrity of the petition and to prevent inadvertent re-signs, we block multiple signatures from individual accounts. If more than one person is signing from a single computer, you may see a note that says "Oops! Hi John Doe! Our records indicate you have already signed this petition. If you are not John Doe , please click here to sign the petition." Click on that link, to enable another person sharing your computer to sign.
Even if no one else uses your computer, you may still see that message if the link you clicked to view the petition was forwarded to you by someone who copied the url of the page after signing the petition. In this case, our database might think you have already signed. As noted above, just click the link to sign the petition.
Please do not sign more than once. Duplicate signatures will not be delivered, and may cause our system to permanently block you from signing additional petitions.
How can I keep track of the petitions that I have signed?
In order to track the Petitions you have signed, click on the My PetitionSite link in the upper right corner of the PetitionSite homepage and most other pages on ThePetitionSite.com. In addition, every time you sign, you will receive a confirmation email. You can file these emails in a mail folder in order to keep your own record of signed petitions.
Who can submit a petition? How do I submit a petition?
Anyone can submit a petition. Please click here for more information.
Can I view past the most recent signatures?
Yes! Above and below the table of recent signatures, you will see the text "View Signatures" and a series of links. Use "|<" and ">|" to jump to the most recent and earliest pages of signatures, "<" and ">" to move forwards or backwards one page at a time, or the numbered links to jump straight to individual pages.
What petition topics are acceptable?
ThePetitionSite is a project of www.Care2.com, the largest online network for people who Care2 make a difference. Care2 offers ThePetitionSite.com as a non-partisan tool for people working on a variety of issues and causes. What's in it for us? By driving traffic to ThePetitionSite.com, we hope to build community around important causes, support the democratic process, and help organizations we support as well. Petitions on all sides of an issue are welcome.
Is signing a petition effective?
Yes — often, but the answer really depends on a number of factors. In general, the more a target organization is impacted by public opinion, the more effective are the petitions. In addition, ThePetitionSite enhances the credibility of online petitions by centralizing signature collection, structuring/regulating signature data collection and output, facilitating communication of petitions via fax, email, etc. and by using fraud-reduction technology. Remember — the effect of a petition usually goes far beyond the actual list of signatures. Journalists write stories about the petitions, signers get inspired to take additional actions, and other "potential targets" conform their behavior to avoid being a target.
Is signing a petition all I need to do to make a difference?
Signing a petition is a great start, but there are almost always other ways you can help. Please see our How Can I Help More? page for ideas!
Can petitions be used for a government referendum?
ThePetitionSite.com is frequently used by organizations to collect comments during "Public Comment Periods," official periods defined by government agencies to collect feedback on proposed rules and regulations from voters. However, due to the challenges of signature authentication it is not yet possible to use online petitions for legal referendum. It is important to note though that petitions are effective because of their ability to influence policy decision-making, not because they tally enough "votes" to pass a law. If a petition gets a large number of signatures it can have a significant impact by raising the awareness of the policy maker/target.
I want my information to be stored so it can be automatically entered. How do I do that?
ThePetitionSite will automatically enter all of your account information that we have on record when you sign a petition. To make sure that this happens, please log into your Care2.com account first, at Care2.com. Also, make sure that you do not have Heightened Security enabled as part of your security features for your Care2.com account, as this will prevent ThePetitionSite from entering your information automatically.
Does it matter if I do not live in the state/country the petition is addressing?
Each petition on our site is different, some are for anyone of any nation or state, while others are targeted specifically to certain nationalities, or certain US states. Most petitions will list this information on them, but if you are ever unsure about a particular petition, simply contact the petition sponsor (located at the top of the petition) and they will let you know if and how your signature will help.
How can I see all the signatures?
Unless you are the owner of the petition, you can only see 50 signatures at a time, using the pagination links above and below the list of signatures. Only the owner of the petition may view or download all of the signatures at once.
If you are the owner of a petition and would like to access all the signatures, log in to Care2.com or ThePetitionSite.com, and from ThePetitionSite homepage, click on the "My PetitionSite" link. You will see a list of all of the petitions you have authored &mdsah; click the "manage" link next to any of your petitions to access your Dashboard and download your signatures.
Does it cost anything to post a petition?
No, it's free! We have created ThePetitionSite to be a free community of people taking action and garnering support for their concerns. We encourage anyone and everyone to get involved and take a swing at sponsoring a petition.
It is also completely free to sign a petition, and we encourage people to send petitions on to their friends and family — hit the Tell your Friends after you sign!
How do I send comments to the author of the petition?
Clicking the petition sponsor's name, at the top or bottom of their petition, will bring up a page allowing you to send them feedback. When contacting the author or sponsor, please include your name and the number of your signature.
How do I start a petition?
The vast majority of our petitions are written by either our partner Non-Profit Organizations, or by our members. We encourage you to write and submit a petition that addresses your concern, so that you may effect some change with respect to this important issue. Click here to learn more about creating petitions, or click the Create a Petition link at the top-right of most PetitionSite pages.
Petitions require a petition target, a brief summary of the issue and reason that people should take action now, and a letter to the target of the petition clearly stating the demands of the petition signers; click here for a full list of the data we collect on every petition.
Once you have created and posted a petition, it is up to you to get the signatures. Promote it on discussion boards, send it to your friends, tell people about it. Popular petitions, at the discretion of ThePetitionSite.com staff, may be promoted on the drill-down pages for their category, or even on the PetitionSite.com home page. The more support you have, the greater the impact you will have!
Why are comments required for some petitions?
The reason we require comments is because many of these petitions are being put together for public comment periods for the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Land Management, or other governmental offices. With many Internet-based petitions that don't require comments, your name and information would simply be plugged into an identical copy of a form letter. Many of the Government organizations have thus decided that all such identical letters — sometimes from thousands of individuals! — will count as just one public comment, making the thousands of signatures invalid. We think this shouldn't be allowed, and are fighting such techniques, so that the voices of all of a petition's signers will be heard. In order to make sure that we don't lose a single signature, and to make the greatest possible impact, we have our signers add their own unique comments, which are included in the body of each letter. Thus, the petition targets have to read each letter that we collect, and count them all individually instead of as just one comment! In addition, we think that our users have some great opinions that we think decision makers should have to hear!
How do I include a photo with my petition signature?
Photos add extra impact, and let the petition target see that there is a real person behind the signature. Petitions must be photo-enabled by the petition creator. If you are a petition creator and would like to photo-enable your petition, you will be given an option to do so when creating a new petition. If you'd like to photo-enable an existing petition, visit the Signature Requirements page off of that petition's Dashboard, accessible from your My PetitionSite page.
As the author/sponsor of a petition, how do I manage signatures?
You are responsible for ensuring that petition responses and signatures are delivered to the target. Click here to see a list of the petitions you've authored, and click the Manage Petition link next to a petition's title to bring up that petition's Dashboard. From the Dashboard, you can create signature reports, hide offensive signatures, and edit some aspects of your petition.
You must be logged in as the Care2 user who owns a petition in order to manage that petition.
As the author/sponsor of a petition, how do I collect all the signatures to send them to the target?
In order to send your petition, you first need to get all the signatures from our database.
Follow these steps:
- Go to http://www.thepetitionsite.com.
- Log in as the user who created the petition.
- Go to your My PetitionSite page, at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/my/.
- Find the petition whose signatures you'd like to download, and click the Manage Petition link. This will bring up that petition's Dashboard.
- From the Dashboard, click the Create Signature Report link, about half-way down the left column.
- Follow the on-screen directions for creating your report.
- Once you submit the form, your report will be emailed to the address associated with the petition owner's Care2.com account.
