Internet polls and petitions are bullshit.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

No body cares about the polls because all they are is a random sampling of bored keyboard warriors or paid tools and have no basis in anything other than who can freep or DUde a poll. Nobody ever reads the petitions. How many petitions have you signed online? Ever hear back that you actually affected anything? Of course not! All this crap is is another way to add your e-mail address to yet another database so they can spam your in-box and try to get you to send them money.

The ONLY poll that matters is the one in November!

Everything else is bread and Circus and at this point, I'm not even really that sure about the one in November.

[Posteritatis]

1. I voted against an AFA one mainly to get on their mailing list

Years of hilarity from those two minutes, let me tell you that.

But yeah, online petitions are worthless - worse than worthless; deceptions; actively harmful.

[Imajika]

2. Yup, they are mostly worthless...

They do give people a way to do....something.

They provide some outlet for energy. I guess that might be as bad as it is good. Maybe too many people feel they've done their part by signing an online petition or voting in an internet poll, and it makes them less likely to go to a real demonstration or write a real letter?

I really don't think online petitions have any real effect on policy, and non scientific internet polls really just tell you what audience happens to be watching which channels.

[davidinalameda]

3. are rants on internet message boards bullshit too?

[Zavulon]

4. This is why I wish there was a function on DU which would allow us to block

any thread that had a headline of / contained the words "DU this poll." I can't imagine a bigger waste of time.