Xanthippe: I was merely asking why change.org were saying they needed 80 something signatures to get it to 500. What's the significance of 500?
That was kinda the point I was making - on change.org it appears to have no real significance apart from:
1: incentivizing people to sign the petition by displaying a numerical 'goal', and
2: presumably the more popular petitions (both in total numbers, and speed of signatures) get featured on the front page
This is in constrast to UK Government's official petition website when:
1: 10,000 signatures gets the government to respond with a statement, and
2: 100,000 signatures means it will be considered for debate in Parliament