[This article is now obsolete for just signing the petitions, since the White House simplified it’s system for signing in late June, 2014. But you still need to register an account at the White House in order to submit a petition, and there is information in this article that may be helpful for that. — HD]
Most people will have smooth sailing at the White House’s ‘We the People’ petition site, but some have run aground on a few shoals! 🙂
The most helpful tip is to REFRESH any page that seems unprepared for your arrival, since the page may not know that you’re logged in.
Another tip: When you return to the site for later visits, you will need to log in (see below for how to get to the log in page) using both the email address you registered with and the password the site sent you when you registered (I hope you saved your password, but if not, there’s a button to have it resent). If when you attempt to log in you get a message saying that your email address or password are incorrect, it may be because you have introduced a space in front of either (the loading is also faster if you don’t leave spaces after either).
Delete any spaces in front of your email address or password when you enter them on return visits.
For your first visit to the White House site, begin this article at the boldfaced, “And how do you get to the log in page?” that’s below, or for a more detailed guide, see the comment that immediately follows this article.
This is from a comment I posted earlier at BUGS today:
Alice, you’re not the only person who has had some frustration at the White House site.
What solves most problems there is to refresh whatever page you’re on so that it will know you’re logged in. It’s an odd site in that they email you a password which you don’t need at that time, since once you go to the link that they also email you, you are automatically logged in! Then if you just refresh each petition, it will know you’re logged in, and the little “sign the petition” button will appear on it.
Thanks for signing the one time you could.
If you still have your password (if not, they will email it to you), you could click on one of these and log in (the log in link is small and is at the upper right of any page, whenever you aren’t logged in already), and then just open each petition from the links below, and refresh each one, and you’d have them signed in no time!
[The links below will expire at the end of this month, but current petitions may be found at Berkeley STOP WHITE GENOCIDE Petitions]
1. http://wh.gov/LLvz
2. http://wh.gov/LLw0
3. http://wh.gov/LLf2
4. http://wh.gov/LLGX
5. http://wh.gov/LLGG
6. http://wh.gov/LL7g
| Only INITIALS appear as your “signature” on petitions! |
Folks, even though you won’t need your password on your first visit to the site, save it, since you’ll need it to return and log in in future months. (Though not really, since the site will re-mail it to you if you request that on the log in page).
And how do you get to the log in page?
Like much of the navigating at the site, it’s done by one of the two small links that are next to each other at the upper right of the pages.
If you are not yet logged in, those two links will read, “Log in” and “Create an Account.”
If you’re already logged in, the two links will read, “View My Petitions” [including ones you’ve signed] and “Log out.”
Happy sailing!
First time visitors to the White House site who are computer challenged like myself may prefer my more detailed instructions that are in the first comment immediately below this article.
Ridiculously detailed guide to registering and signing:
If you’re about to make your first trip to the White House petition site, here’s a ridiculously detailed guide I sent a bugster friend who is older like myself. If you’re computer savvy, you probably won’t need any help.
This looks long but it’s not!
Click on any link to a petition, such as the links in the article above, and click on one of the “Create an Account” links on the petition page. You’ll have a choice of the big blue button near the bottom, or the small link at the upper right.
On the page that opens, put in your email address (of course if you wish, you can easily create a new yahoo, hotmail, aol, etc. email account just for this purpose), put in a letter of the alphabet for “first name” and another letter for “last name,” leave “zip” empty, copy the captcha phrase into the box below it (if unreadable, click the double arrow symbol for a more readable phrase), and click “Create an account,” which will send an email to you.
[In the foregoing, you can of course insert a full name and zip code if you wish, but in any case, only initials will appear as your signature]
In the email you receive will be a password which you shouldn’t need the first time, but save it to log in the next time you visit the site. [If you don’t save it, or misplace it, it’s easily recoverable–see the article above].
Click on, or copy and paste, the link in the email that you’re instructed to, which will take you back to a page at the White House site. When you arrive at that page you are automatically LOGGED IN, even though you didn’t use the password given you in the email!
If that page is not the petition page, just open the petition page again from whatever original link you used, and REFRESH IT so it will know you are already logged in, and then the “sign the petition” button will appear at the bottom and you can click it, which will put one more set of initials onto the petition.
Open the other petitions by clicking on whatever links to them you’re using, REFRESH each one so it will know you’re logged in, and the “sign the petition” button will appear at the bottom as with the first petition you signed.
You are now registered at the site and ready to add initials to the petitions the following month with almost no effort at all. [For guidance with that, return to the final portion of the article above that begins just after the indented portion]
And for the succeeding months, why not join our Stalwart party on the FIRST DAY of the month, and we’ll get the petitions up on that very first day, and maybe in time build a “happening” that will eventually become very big!
Party down! Liquor, drugs, chicks, horseshoes…naked mud wrestling…on the FIRST! the FIRST! the FIRST!
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