I totally agree. The ruinediphone.com campaign was truly about users.. now it's about this website company (Oilchange). And - whats this new site about? Why change ruinediphone. It got the message across just fine. I am disappointed - our campaign has been hijacked.

Couldn't agree more.  I too have sent letters to these people.  I had also started receiving spam from them and had to block them from my email.  They are all about collecting email addresses.  I would be very surprised if this petition ever accomplishes its original goal.  It has now become a joke.  We can only see 50 comments at a time instead of the original 500; there are no more links to the friends and sponsors, the very people who uploaded the banner to their own websites and got this grassroots campaign off the ground, and all of the links now point to 'oilchange' whoever the heck they are.  I don't believe that any media outlet, let alone Rogers, will ever take this seriously. Oilchange, you SUCK BIG TIME.  Originators of 'RUINEDIPHONE.COM' you suck just as much for selling out!

they should take credit for being the company whose providing the hosting and ... but what they are doing is way over the limit, and if they open their eye to the whole situation, they can clearly see all this advertisements and marketing actually working against their own brand, they could easily put a banner on the page saying "Hosting sponsored by Oilchange.com" and small thank you letter from the original creator of the site. that would work 1000000 times better. people would think there is a company who cares about users beside their own pocket. but now.... oilchange=opportunists

With their marketing they have a huge negative impact on the petition itself and their own brand. 

exactly how i feel...

So much for transparency. Oilchange.com's ruinediphone blog admin deleted my comment about my concerns for the campaign. Here is my comment feel free to post it anywhere just attribute it to me.

Jay Gilmore Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:51 am

Hi there, thanks for the post and some of the clarifications. I think it is great that someone wanted to pick up the ball who has the resources and the wherewithal to keep the petition site alive.

BUT.

Can you not do it without all the blatent self-promotion and banner add? A foot note that the site is hosted and managed by oilchange.com would have been less irritating and avoid any potential loss of credibility. When you start promoting other sites, other causes and advertising (for apparently your own personal gain) it weakens the value of the movement.

Do you think that the World Wildlife Fund should start running adsense or put Valpak coupons in their mailings? No. Why because it reduced the impact of the primary goal.

If you are a marketing firm as you advertise so clearly on your, now well promoted oilchange.com site you'd know that Marketing messages almost always depend on the credibility of the message–the right message to the right people in the right way.

It is especially important that political messages be credible. In political messaging such as a campaign or grassroots action that the message be transparently open and honest and have not even a whiff of personal or aleterior motive like making a name for yourself or promoting a business or worse profiting. Your reward should be in the help and support of the activity and not a ham-handed attempt at gaining some public attention.

If you really want to help the cause, why not do the smart, honpurable and professional thing and remove all oilchange references from all parts of the page except a simple statement in the footer that "Ruinediphone.com is proudly managed and administered by oilchange.com: and nothing more. No links elsewhere to your site, no cross promotion at the top and especially, no banner ads at all. Period. None. Nada.

If you further wish to be transparent and open, you should also be personal. A company isn't a movement, people are. Make yourself known. Tell us why you and your team should be trusted. Give us names here (on the blog not on the petition site) and show us you are real individual people that can be trusted and whom we can count on to do the petition justice.

Most sincerely and all the best,

Jay Gilmore

Yea i agree too. I actually emailed them notifying them they spelt, "Offical Statment" wrong. That was pretty embarassing to have them represent my signature. I haven't seen an improvement, since the changeover. And yes, it does lose some credibility.