[thematt]

Slightly off topic -- but these petitions have been cropping up more and more lately, but have they actually done anything? Are there any we can point to that actually caused some change in government behavior?

All I see in every response is just politician-speak from random government officials. Typically they acknowledge the submission and then wave it off with no specific action to fix it.

[InclinedPlane]

These petitions are utterly useless.

In fact, they are worse than useless, because they channel energy that would otherwise be useful into such a feckless means.

If you care about something, write your reps in congress, your senators, and the president. Clicking a button on on a whitehouse.gov petition is as useless as liking a political post on facebook.

[baddox]

I would say that writing your politicians is also nearly or equally as useless.

[henrikschroder]

> In fact, they are worse than useless, because they channel energy that would otherwise be useful into such a feckless means.

No no, they channel slacktivism, which is always useless, no matter where it is channeled.

[sliverstorm]

They've achieved absolutely nothing that I've heard of.

But, slacktivisim has such a low barrier to entry, I expect this is going to go on for a good long while. If not forever.

[nhebb]

Slacktivism is like leveling up in a video game. It gives you the sense of accomplishment, even though you haven't done jack shit in real life.

[ScottWhigham]

Damn that's a great analogy. Love it. Stealing it.

[maqr]

The last one was very well written, and it got rave reviews in the HN comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5046178

I would imagine that the public would find the Death Star response to be distasteful and patronizing, but it is apparently well received. The petitions themselves might be useless, but they are a great public relations channel for the white house.

[aneth4]

The mandate is to respond. 25,000 people signing a petition doesn't mandate action.

With a response it is acknowledged that you have been heard, likely by people very high up in the administration. That's about all you can hope for for such a simple way of gathering support.

This is a good thing. Otherwise Piers Morgan would have been deported for pissing off right wingers. What do you really expect from 25, 50, even 500K people signing an online petition? Do you want that to create law? Introduce a bill?

If you want to effect change, you need a lot more people than this, you need an organization, you need lobbying, you need to demonstrate voter support and influence...

These petitions are useful for getting some level of acknowledgment and demonstrating some level of interest in the issue. I consider them a very positive development. When people complain, they should consider what exactly it is they expect instead.