To the chagrin of this writer and many of my friends, some who have left change.org for the reasons stated in this action, the powers that be (PTB) seem to be more interested in cosmetics, glitz and personal power than reliability, simplicity effective advocacy and are often not asking either their staff or membership for feedback before implementing changes. Community Manager Justin Isaf had at least listened to member complaints and suggestions regarding how the site could be improved and actually told some of us what change.org weas planning. But, he is long gone and the blog he set up for members is, too. Meanwhile, like management and ownership almost everywhere, it's all about the $$$ and personal power for Ben & Co., who seem to be increasingly steering the membership toward Facebook to recruit for petitions.

A few of the "improvements had been good, such as the select all option regarding recruiting and the weekly petition update. But, now that we can't invite our change.org friends to sign petitions in the traditional manner, the select all and petition updates are meaningless. But, that was about it! We no longer can see how we're done regarding recruiting for specific petitions, or how others are doing, or even if they have signed, unless they're the 100th signer, or some other round number, or one of the last ten. Plus, recently the management decided to hide all but the 15 friends who have avatars on our personal profiles from us, something that they reversed on February 15 woo hoo! But, then they took this back again on February 17, so the childish games by change.org mismanagement continue as the causes on behalf on needy people and animal languish... But, then we could access our friends page again on February 23, but for how long? This meant that someone with 1,000 friends, can again only easily access only 15 of those 1,000 friends during those days long periods of the "error" messages!. Meanwhile, change.org claims that it polls the members before instituting any changes. But, I know this to be a prevarication, because none of my 1,200+ friends have been polled to my knowledged and I have polled them regarding this question! We also lost the ability to send complements and as nobody can see how we've done regarding recruiting for an action, we had one less thing to receive a complement for, or receive a friend request for, especially those of us with hidden profiles. Also, long gone is the list of top activists, recruiters, or fundraisers. I used to look for potential "friends" on some of these lists and it had become that all the top activists and recruiters knew each other. Perhaps change.org feared some Egyptian style palace coup - LOL?! Otherwise, there are older complaints such as Ted Nunn's Department of Peace being eliminated as were such causes that I supported as Medicaid Waivers for the Developmentally Disabled. Plus, I continue to receive irate e-mails and personal messages from people who have had their petitions and even their profiles deleted. I had counseled them that it was probably just more change.org bungling. Oops!

But, the latest invasive changes where we are asked to submit our personal passwords to recruit through change.org have crossed the line and it's apparent that the change.org management only cares about making money and that the very active members, who had worked so hard to advocate for the causes are expendable. It's just a question of when the change.org staff, starting with the rank and file members become expendable, too. This is because such sociopathic social/power climbers, such as Ben Rattay, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich only have loyalty to their lust for fame, fortune and power. People are just stepping stones to them...

Then, there were increasingly annoying featured and advertisement petitions for causes that the change.org staff wants to push. or is getting paid to push. I won't sign something until I read it. Also, I've signed some of these petitions, but continue to get prompted to sign them again. Seems like something I'd expect in Chicago under the first Mayor Daley!

And, these error messages and undetected (by change.org staff) errors are unfortunately all too common, but while there are fewer messages about the site being down for "upgrading." I have yet to see anything that I would call an upgrade, other than the site generally working more quickly, until lately, and the ability to comment on all petitions and the now gone select all option, but occasionally I feel like I'm using dial up when on this site...zzz... Plus, there are enough "bugs" in the system for an entomologist to have a field day! I feel that change.org needs to continue to try to reach out to its membership, as Justin tried to do, if it wants make MEANINGFUL changes that enhance the site for the members and maximize attracting new members. Most of us are on change.org, because we hope to be part of making meaningful positive change, and that's what the site needs to concentrate on. If change.org wishes to empower their staff and membership regarding advocating for positive change in the wider world, the management should remember that such empowerment begins at home. And, if it does this, there might be some $$$ in it, too, as change.org charges the non profits to post petitions and the higher the number of signatures on a non profit's petitions, the more that change.org could charge. Therefore, they should love "free help" like this writer, who has officially recruited well over 400,000 people to sign change.org petitions!

Meanwhile, I had noticed for about a week that I got a "server is misbehaving" message when I sent out a friend request. It was more like the change.org mismanagement was misbehaving and didn't want to tell the members, or even many of their staff how they are devolving into a dictatorship, but this error message disappeared on February 16, but we the peons (the 99% are still waiting for the high lords of change dot dorkdom to allow us to enhance their popularity and profitability by allowing us to send out invitations for change.org petitions to our change.org friends...?!

First they came for the Jews.

Then they came for the Gypsies.

Then they came for the Poles.

Then they came for me...

This doesn't have to be?!