The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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Dear Antony & list, Email petitions like the one just forwarded to the CASI list are not at all useful - please do not forward them! Any email which asks you to add your name and forward it to all your friends will rapidly snowball out of control. Email petitions like this often circulate for literally years, whilst in fact almost as soon as the petition was started, so many messages will be generated to the address you are asked to send copies to that the email account will be closed, or at the very least, the petition messages filtered out and discarded. There is no way anyone on the receiving end of these petitions (whether the organiser or some other target) could collate all the replies they get into any meaningful form. I'm not saying all internet-based petitions are worthless. Petitions where you sign on a website can be useful, and if the petition is properly managed there is no harm in distributing emails about such petitions to persuade people to sign. But emails which are themselves petitions - where you "add your name to the list" at the bottom of the email - do far more bad than good. (If you don't believe me, search on the web for "email petitions" and see what advice you receive!). I would recommend you don't forward email petitions of the type I've described to your friends, and please don't send them to the CASI list. Best wishes, Seb Wills CASI _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk