Email validation isn't difficult is it?

Last week, as reported elsewhere, a new site appeared called 38 Degrees appeared, which apparently has an intention to be a British version of Move On. The site hopes to be a progressive campaigning tool, and currently has a petition on having recall laws in the wake of the expenses row.

The problem is, whilst the petition may well be calling for something worthwhile, the number of signatures on it - however many it is up to now - are going to be pretty dubious as to their validity. This is because anyone appears to be able to sign anyone else up for the petition without any validation. I know this because last week I received the following email,

Thanks for signing the petition and helping us send a message to Parliament

Thank you for adding your voice to our call to party leaders to let voters choose whether to sack disgraced MPs. Together we can build the pressure to clean up politics.

You can tell your friends about the campaign here: Don’t worry – we won’t keep their e-mail addresses. We’ll just let them know about the campaign so they can decide whether or not to join us.

Thank you,
The 38 Degrees Team

Awfully nice that they don't intend to keep people's email addresses, but not so good that they have mine because think I signed their petition when I didn't.

You'd think they might have some sort of validation step in the petition. You know, like an email saying "you signed this petition, click the link below to confirm that it really was you". I mean, even Downing Street manages that, and Government IT is notoriously rubbish. They also want a postcode for some reason too.

If 38 Degrees is serious about mirroring the success of Move On then they need to start by not letting anyone sign anyone else up for their petitions without validation - otherwise their petitions can be too easily rigged.

And on that point, off you go and sign up all your friends to the petition just for fun!