Petitions are bad. Petitions are confrontational and not collaborative. Petitions are a way of saying "we don't think that you listen to us, so now we are going to threaten in order to make you do something that you don't want to, because WE want you to." Petitions work on politicians because politicians only care about keeping their position. Petitions are far less effective on creative artists because they don't create what other people want, they create what they want and then let people decide whether or not they personally like it or not. We used to have a "no petitions" rule and I believe that my speculation (above) was the main reason behind it. The rule no longer exists, but I still think that petitions are a crappy way to try to influence someone else to comply to your will. Especially someone who isn't being confrontational with you, but you choose to be confrontational with them.