Have any of these "petition" threads ever actually worked? I dont ask as a means to troll, but rather, I am genuininly curious because I keep seing them pop up over several different issues.

As a piece of advice to the OP, I would spend less time working a petition thread that probably won't work considering this is all happening in a few weeks, which indicates they are moving foward with this, and more time creating threads tha organize the friends on your server so you all end up together. Spend less time trying to change things that can't be changed and more time changing things you can. Just my 2 cents though.