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Thread: government e-petitions

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    Papa Smurf
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    government e-petitions

    I imagine many of us have been there but the government petitions site is actually a pretty good example of using the WWW for connecting to government (hey, its early stages).

    Its also hilarious. The number of muppets who make it seem pointless by being stupid. If you look at "Open Petitions" there are several "get rid of the TV license" ones if you look at the "rejected petitions" theres are loads of such petitions. Obviously people come along thinking they have an original idea; "no one else would have started this petition would they"

    Another huge number of rejected petitions are from people who demand an "I'm against it" option in Open Petitions, thus displaying their ignorance of what a petition is.

    And then you get the seriously stupid who come up with things like.
    "scrap the e-petition system, its useless". Theres loads of those too. I love irony.

    Even where the petition is fairly reasonable, the spelling and grammar is often hilarious. Its scary to think that people willing to petition the government, in days of good education and spell checkers, can't even write a decent sentence. But it cant be "open government" if we discriminate against the uneducated, stupid, pedantic and/or mental Its a bit sad what is up there though

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    Commercial Operator StokeBloke's Avatar
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    Cool Re: government e-petitions

    With a government who ignored 1,000,000 people out on the street telling them not to go to war in Iraq.... an e-petition seems to be a complete waste of pixels to me. Easy to ignore, and it gives the middle classes a feeling of 'making a stand'. Yeah right!

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    I imagine many of us have been there but the government petitions site is actually a pretty good example of using the WWW for connecting to government (hey, its early stages).

    Its also hilarious. The number of muppets who make it seem pointless by being stupid. If you look at "Open Petitions" there are several "get rid of the TV license" ones if you look at the "rejected petitions" theres are loads of such petitions. Obviously people come along thinking they have an original idea; "no one else would have started this petition would they"


    Even where the petition is fairly reasonable, the spelling and grammar is often hilarious. Its scary to think that people willing to petition the government, in days of good education and spell checkers, can't even write a decent sentence.
    The problem with American spell checkers is they don't pick up American spelling mistakes - licence!!

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    The problem with American spell checkers is they don't pick up American spelling mistakes - licence!!
    Ouch!

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    Commercial Operator StokeBloke's Avatar
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    Cool Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    The problem with American spell checkers is they don't pick up American spelling mistakes - licence!!
    It shouldn't be altered into the British spelling if it is a direct quote... which it was... hence the quotation marks. Also it wasn't an American spelling mistake, as that is the correct way to spell the word in America; so no American spelling mistake had been made
    Last edited by StokeBloke; 4th-December-2007 at 11:58 PM.

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    The Dashing Moderator
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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    The problem with American spell checkers is they don't pick up American spelling mistakes - licence!!
    Well a British spell checker isn't going to pick up license vs licence since both are valid words in the British version of English.

    One is a verb, the other a noun...
    Love dance, will travel

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by StokeBloke View Post
    It shouldn't be altered into the British spelling if it is a direct quote... which it was... hence the quotation marks. Also it wasn't an American spelling mistake, as that is the correct way to spell the word in America; so no American spelling mistake had been made
    Sorry, I thought Dreadful Scathe was based in Scotland, I didn't know he was an American, living in and posting from America where license is the correct, American way, of spelling licence

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidY View Post
    Well a British spell checker isn't going to pick up license vs licence since both are valid words in the British version of English.

    One is a verb, the other a noun...

    OK,
    TV License or
    TV Licence

    Driving License or
    Driving Licence

    and so on...............

    BTW, Firefox is showing licence to be incorrect (it uses an American spell checker) even though I downloaded and use a British English dictionary for it.

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    The Dashing Moderator
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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    OK,
    TV License or
    TV Licence
    You go to the TV Licensing website to get a TV licence.
    Love dance, will travel

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    rejected petitions
    I did like: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Agree to allowing trolls to live under every bridge in London".

    Some spoilsport civil servant has rejected it because "This petition has been rejected because: It was outside the remit or powers of the Prime Minister and Government".

    Edit: Just found "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to impose a maximum weight limit for women wearing stiletto heels as they pose a massive threat to other members of the public on dance floors and in crowded bars nationwide."

    DS is right - it is hilarious.
    Love dance, will travel

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    Lovely Moderator ducasi's Avatar
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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by StokeBloke View Post
    It shouldn't be altered into the British spelling if it is a direct quote... which it was... hence the quotation marks.
    To make it clear that it wasn't DS's mistake, he should have put "(sic)" inside his quote. Both the correct and the incorrect spellings appear on the petitions web site.

    Anyway, I want to know who is responsible for this: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Smurf4PM/

    Thank goodness it was rejected!
    Let your mind go and your body will follow. – Steve Martin, LA Story

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    Papa Smurf
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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by StokeBloke View Post
    With a government who ignored 1,000,000 people out on the street telling them not to go to war in Iraq.... an e-petition seems to be a complete waste of pixels to me.
    Well its a start, and it's easier to get a million people to turn up and click on a website than it is to get them to turn up and loiter round London all day.

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    The problem with American spell checkers is they don't pick up American spelling mistakes - licence!!
    As SB said, it was a quote. Both versions are used in rejected petitions. Beside the point anyway as both are equally valid in English. I was complaining about misspelling licence/license as "lysense" and such like...you know "actual" spelling mistakes I wasn't complaining about Americanizations (sic) as they are annoying rather than wrong

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    Formerly known as DavidJames David Bailey's Avatar
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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    Well its a start, and it's easier to get a million people to turn up and click on a website than it is to get them to turn up and loiter round London all day.
    Governments - or organisations in general - don't usually take e-petitions that seriously.

    Historically, there's a sliding scale of response:
    • Physical presence: good response.
    • Handwritten letter: adequate response
    • Typed letter: poor response
    • Email: basically ignore it


    To be fair, I think this is changing, as email becomes the default communications channel - but I've seen no indication that the e-petition thing is anything more than a PR stunt.

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    Sorry, I thought Dreadful Scathe was based in Scotland, I didn't know he was an American, living in and posting from America where license is the correct, American way, of spelling licence
    Hope you're not insinuating us Scots are bad spellers....

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidJames View Post
    Governments - or organisations in general - don't usually take e-petitions that seriously.

    Historically, there's a sliding scale of response:
    • Physical presence: good response.
    • Handwritten letter: adequate response
    • Typed letter: poor response
    • Email: basically ignore it


    To be fair, I think this is changing, as email becomes the default communications channel - but I've seen no indication that the e-petition thing is anything more than a PR stunt.
    At this point yes, but its a decent start. The e-petition system is something the government has put in place itself, so at the very least they have to be seen to be paying attention to it. I recently got an email about a petition i signed a while ago which prompted this thread. At the moment the e-petition has to be up there just above "typed letter" in your list. Maybe in years to come it will be as good as physical presence.

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by jeanag View Post
    Hope you're not insinuating us Scots are bad spellers....
    Absolutely not!! and my original post was simply a tongue in cheek attempt at dry humour, or should I say humor

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    Absolutely not!! and my original post was simply a tongue in cheek attempt at dry humour, or should I say humor
    i know, but I did struggle to spell insinuate...

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    Absolutely not!! and my original post was simply a tongue in cheek attempt at dry humour, or should I say humor
    you mean "humor"

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Doolan View Post
    BTW, Firefox is showing licence to be incorrect (it uses an American spell checker) even though I downloaded and use a British English dictionary for it.
    Snap!

    I have that problem too. Every time I get a service upgrade for Firefox, it invites me to download the English/English dictionnary, tells me it's installed and then completely ignores it and cheerfully uses the American dictionary for spell checks...

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    Re: government e-petitions

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    you mean "humor"
    No!! "humor [sic]"

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