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Jeremy
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 Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:47 am Post subject: Just how successful are petitions? |
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| EveryonePlays: Just how successful are petitions? by Jeremy |  | | PALGN Feature: By looking at some successful and innovative examples, see how you can help protect children from mature games. | | [View Article] |
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JackSlack
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:14 am Post subject: |
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I hate to say it, but only two of these examples are political, and neither have been overly successful in achieving their real goals. (Saving whales, preventing IR law introductions.)
This doesn't paint a pretty picture.
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Fetidchimp
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:32 am Post subject: |
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it never brought Carnivà le back either.......politicians generally not give a shit due to the fact that they were elected in the first place, which gives them the impression that anything they do, they are already doing for the majority and in the best interest.....
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The Brett
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:57 am Post subject: |
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@JackSlack
Just goes to show that ego is an even more powerful force than money. Even companies are willing to be more democratic than our politicians. Maybe if a % of sales from R18+ games went to Michael Atkinson, then we'd see some change. Sad.
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Jeremy
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:09 am Post subject: |
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So... getting 2.4 million signatures in Venezuela to support a presidential recall doesn't count as political? How about lobbying to Scottish govt to induct a footballer into the hall of fame?
These are only a couple of examples. There are many others out there. You can all sit back, hold your head in your hands and denounce the potential of this campaign or you can at least try to show a smidgen of positive reinforcement. If you try, you have a chance of succeeding. If you don't try, you have NO chance of succeeding.
As I said in the outset. The success of a petition is not always measured in whether it gets a direct result, but in how many people are seen to follow the cause. And as we keep saying, this is only the beginning. Not the be all and end all.
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JackSlack
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:29 am Post subject: |
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And that's why I signed it, and got a friend to do so as well. I'm criticizing the article, not the movement.
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sobriquet835
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Jeremy wrote: | So... getting 2.4 million signatures in Venezuela to support a presidential recall doesn't count as political? How about lobbying to Scottish govt to induct a footballer into the hall of fame?
These are only a couple of examples. There are many others out there. You can all sit back, hold your head in your hands and denounce the potential of this campaign or you can at least try to show a smidgen of positive reinforcement. If you try, you have a chance of succeeding. If you don't try, you have NO chance of succeeding.
As I said in the outset. The success of a petition is not always measured in whether it gets a direct result, but in how many people are seen to follow the cause. And as we keep saying, this is only the beginning. Not the be all and end all. |
While the Venezuelan petition was successful, it required 20% of the population. For this petition to be successful in the same way, by that math we would need 4 million signatures. That's a lot of signatures, especially considering that probably 75% (ok, I'm making this number up, but it's most likely a highly significant percentage) of the population don't feel particularly strongly about this cause, especially when there are more important things to worry about than the subtleties of our classification system. Things like getting the Kinglake area rebuilt after Black Saturday.
That being said, it IS still an important cause, and every siganture counts. If we are able to get even 100,000 signatures, surely someone would sit up and take notice.
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fullmetal_adam
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| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 11:36 pm Post subject: |
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Petitions rarely achieve anything. When they do, it's because enough people feel really strongly about the issue. That's not the case with R18+ video game ratings. People already have an opinion, and a list of names isn't going to change it.
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NegativeZero
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| Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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Since NASA was mentioned, it's probably worth also mentioning that the Space Shuttle Enterprise (the first working prototype, which is now in the Smithsonian) was originally going to be named Constitution, but was renamed Enterprise after a large petition campaign by Star Trek fans. 
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