Online petition - how effective it is

This is something i wondering about for a while, especially when i see ton of them floating around on my Facebook for a sensitive subject (yah, almost Vietnamese know what it is right now). It is a nice act, but how effective is it?



Honestly, i don't see much value in those online petition. There are two reasons for that.

• It is not a legal form.
• Most of online petitions' results will not be send to anyone that might concern.

It is common sense. You want to appeal something, and find people that have same idea. But you never send that appeal issue to person who you want to appeal to, or at least some legal bodies. How do you think it could work?

IMO, online petition is not totally useless. It just doesn't have the value people think it should have. It could serve two purposes:

• Educating: Well, this is what i think the best thing petition can do. People can use it as a tool to say, hey, this is something i want everybody to pay attention. It works that way. But funny thing is people usually want to open a petition on a matter that everyone know about. So it might serve the second purpose.

• Supporting: The support in this case is it shows the goodwill of people who sign the petition on the issue. Nothing more. It might act as a supporting evidence if serious actions need to be taken, but it is a very weak evidence. 

Most of people think that they are doing a good thing when sign some online petition. I do not say it is a bad thing, but it is more important to think beyond it. Online petition is not the result, it is a mean for another result, or another action after it.