The bin strike petition has the “wrong” number of signatures!
On Monday 17th August, the dreaded milestone was reached, Emma Tucker’s bin strike petition reached the milestone I didn’t want it to reach!
After my last (now permanently deleted) update on Monday (17th), when I was stressed that I was still stuck on 423 signatures on the date that Emma Tucker’s bin strike petition officially hit the dreaded “wrong number of signatures” mark, momentum has risen and we have since gained several signatures and gained 9 alone on our first official day of Phase Two (Monday 17th) despite one of those new signatures originating from my very own home borough.
After an anxious weekend (Saturday 15th-Sunday 16th August) where I was too scared to log into change.org to see if my international reach had worked, I faced my fear on the Monday (17th) only to find that I was still stuck on 423 signatures. I was in a dilemma whether because seeing my signature count rise under the Myanmar scope would mean having to check my CSV spreadsheets fearing seeing more UK traction.
I changed my mind from targeting Darwin, Australia to Yangon, Myanmar because of the campaign’s existing three international signatures from there (which specifically occurred on March 13th and 16th, before both ‘my’ Easter Sunday and 'Alice in Wonderland Day').
In desperation, although I want to gather international signatures, after my ‘Local - London’ joke petition gained an unexpected massive surge on Day 1, it may seem counterintuitive that I have since decided to temporarily re-set my petition’s scope to ‘Local – London’ after my failed Myanmar international experiment (after changing my mind about Darwin) therefore gaining even more UK traction but I have done it as change.org seems to favour ‘Local’ petitions and generally burns through their views faster overall than petitions set to ‘Global’ therefore reaching higher signature targets faster.
My strategic plan to trick the system and reconfigure my scope to ‘Local – London’ despite wanting international signatures has actually worked and change.org’s system pushed it to the front of the visibility queue because the system thinks the campaign is about a local issue, therefore gaining off-season signatures.
I will start officially targeting international regions (the petition’s “weight loss”) once I hit 500 signatures (Phase Three) after my intermediate goals of 467 and 486 (the Orthodox petition which had 485 signatures has since climbed to 486) and the 379 signature Orthodox petition I overtook on 3rd June has now since climbed to 380 (both petitions are marked as active, not closed).
Despite not requesting it, my joke daylight petition has been shared on WhatsApp and SHOCKINGLY despite my petition’s scope being set to ‘Local’ probably because of the WhatsApp share and myself not promoting it at the time, has ironically received an unintended international signature from Singapore (a place that NEVER has 9pm sunsets and pretty much has 6pm sunsets year round)!
After the record breaking start, it is growing at a steady pace of 1 to 3 signatures per day and is approaching its 150 signature milestone (roughly our own total around the 'Alice date'), though it is intentionally designed to be closed during the months day length gets longer (and when we have 9pm sunsets) not because of the total signature count of this petition and is open every year for protest signing in August/September/October when daylight levels deteriorate!
Despite my previous assumption of running out of new UK users under the ‘Global’ scope, I have been experimenting with the platform’s algorithms the ‘Local’ setting actually compresses views and attracts more local eyes. We have now reached 436 signatures and are on form to reach our immediate milestones, clearing the 500 signature milestone before the end of the year is now looking more likely.
Running this campaign has made me learn about change.org’s systems, how the visibility queue works, its internal settings and how the local, national, and global scope settings function (something I didn’t know about fully even after running and winning a 1,569 signature UK-centric petition)
My previous successful 1,569 signature petition about a UK-based cause had 5 total signatures from overseas and the specific international locations were from Belarus, India, Iraq, Germany and Bulgaria - that was an example of the UK trap not being a trap and rightfully helping a British petition win. The scope was originally set to ‘National’ and I only later changed it to ‘Global’ to attract more signatures overall. Even when running that campaign, I often unfairly had to wait days before posting updates because of the platform’s unfair email spamming rule which I want abolished, the meta-petition which has since reopened has since gained traction since opening and has reached its 30 signatures milestone now sitting at 38 - because it only so far has 38 signatures, the page is staying open and its count is not threatening to overtake the signature count of this campaign, I only closed during our week off to mandate a complete hiatus across all my projects.
Although I have been defeated by Emma Tucker’s bin strike petition, there is another Birmingham bin strike petition titled “The Prime Minister to Act in the Birmingham bin dispute” (created in January 2026) which is more closely following my campaign’s numbers (which Emma Tucker’s own petition overtaking) and that one also hit its own 400 signature milestone at roughly the same time as me. There is also another bin strike petition created on 27th February 2025 (exactly a year before this very petition was created) and is currently stuck on exactly 396 signatures, the very first sticky ‘problem number’ for this very petition.
I am also running neck-and-neck with the Australian petition I helped break its own three month 404-signature trap but because I contributed to it I don’t want it to keep getting stuck and I actually want to see it pull ahead of my own count. It was created in 2024, long before my own movement.
I don’t mind seeing other random petitions reach 1,000 signatures a week after they launch (well, unless its about establishing a permanently unified Easter date, but that’s a different issue), its only when its a petition that was created around the same time as me and has run neck-and-neck with my own movement that the signature count and competition matters (like the Orthodox petition created two days before mine, and the Birmingham bin strike petitions) because I compare its progress to my own.
Yes, Emma tucker’s bin strike petition overtook another petition literally about the VERY SAME CAUSE launched over a month earlier and I feel happier seeing another Birmingham bin strike petition lose her signature race! All three of the bin strike petitions were at roughly 396 signatures, along with my own, at the very same time!
The Kegworth analogy:
As an analogy, when this petition was stuck while my other one was naturally gaining momentum (which I didn’t like seeing), it was like when the pilots mistakenly shut down the good engine during the 1989 (not boring year) British Midland Flight 92 Kegworth air disaster, whilst leaving the stagnant (malfunctioning one) operational.
I, at the time, effectively shut down the good petition however despite the time of year we have seen a recent strong uptick in momentum and despite only restarting mid-month have already amassed the same number of signatures than throughout July alone.
Our official campaign phases and timeline:
Phase 1 (0-423 signatures) scope Global:
February 27 – our grand opening!
March 25 – 100 signatures achieved
April 13 – 200 signatures achieved
May 9 – 300 signatures achieved
June 18 – 400 signatures achieved
July 28 – 423 signatures achieved
August 2 – Phase 1 concluded at 423 signatures
Phase 2 (423-500 signatures) scope Local – London:
August 12 – Phase 2 commences
August 17 – 432 signatures achieved
TBC – Phase 2 will conclude at 500 signatures
Phase 3 (500-1,000 signatures) scope Local (international):
Dates TBC
My old 485 signature target is now no longer valid and while our petitions UK signature saturation will increase to 96.5%, the situation needs to get worse before it can get better and our aim for more international signatures will be between the 500 and 1,000 signature milestones, though I need this campaign to be shared on international feeds to start breaking the UK cycle.
I have been a regular change.org user since late 2023 when I started my successful petition but even after declaring victory on it 1,569-signature petition back in February, I did not discover my CSV spreadsheets until June this year and it was only luck that my past petition targeted a London/Surrey based cause!
My next update will almost certainly be a milestone update but will adhere to change.org’s three email per week rule.
Phase Three, my official international targeting experiment, will commence once I officially surpass the 500 signature milestone.
Our August campaign break really was needed, and my unscheduled hiatus update was due to myself checking my CSV files from my other unrelated old inactive side project.
I have a love-hate relationship with the change.org platform, I love it because it allowed me to announce my Sunday March 22nd 2026 Easter celebration to the world, but I also hate the platform for its limitations and flaws.
I will confirm that I, truly, am not a bad person, and I only deliberately lock other petitions/projects because of frustration when this one gets stuck which is part of my neurodivergence (Goal 3 of this entire campaign is to make the neurotypical public aware of how autism affects individuals like myself).
Ro---- Miles Ash-----