FAQ from YouMove petition initiators

The part in the box is your actual ask to the decision maker. This is what people will be signing. Whatever you put there, you will not be able to edit after the petition is published - so be concise and precise! Usually three to four sentences are enough to express your demand.

The part below the box is there to add all the necessary additional information. People signing your petition will not be signing or endorsing this part of your text. You can make it as long as you wish (as a rule of thumb we recommend up to four paragraphs). You will be able to edit it later, and add updates to it.

After publishing your petition, you will receive a confirmation email from our youmove@wemove.eu email address, containing the link to your petition and some tips on how to promote it. If you don’t see the email in your inbox, please check the spam folder. Unfortunately, for some people, our emails are automatically marked as spam.

The text in the box is the actual petition ask signed by real people. The petition initiator cannot make changes to this part in order to prevent a situation where signatories' names are used in support of new content that they never consented to signing.

The same idea applies to the target of the petition: by signing, signatories consent that their names might be presented to the target of the petition. Changing target of the petition means that signatories' personal data might be revealed to persons that the signatories aren't aware of and didn't consent to have their names presented to.

In justified cases, the text in the box and the target of the petition might be edited by the WeMove Europe staff. If you do think you have a justified reason to change this text, please contact us at youmove@wemove.eu.

Once you have published your petition in one language, you can create versions in more languages. First, create your petition, then go to the “My campaigns” page on your YouMove Europe account. You will see a list of all the petitions you have created on YouMove. Next to each petition on the list there is a “Translate” button. Click on it to add a translation of your petition.

If your translation is in one of the languages we fully support (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Dutch), the new language version will be added automatically after you publish it.

If your translation is in a different language, please press "publish" and contact us at youmove@wemove.eu: we will add your new language version manually.

IMPORTANT: You must not forget to select the language of your petition in the form. This is how our system decides what language all buttons, headings, menus, instructions etc. are in on the petition page.

Adding new language versions of a petition is up to the initiator. In exceptional cases, eg. when we decide to promote your petition and you struggle to find a translator for a less common language, we can assist you with a translation. This must be discussed on a case-by-case basis with our staff.

YouMove Europe is a new platform that we are excited to be developing further. Our small team is working hard to make this reality, but it is important to remember that this platform is a work in progress. This means our ability to offer full support in all European languages is still being worked on. WeMove Europe staff currently work in seven core languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Dutch.

If you set up a petition in...

a) English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish and Dutch → your petition will have full language support:

• the form to start a petition will be in the respective language
• all buttons, captions, instructions, etc. will be in this language
• confirmation and share emails will be in this language
• persons joining the WeMove Europe community via the petition will be contacted in this language in the future

b) Portuguese → your petition will have basic language support:

• all buttons, captions, instructions, etc. will be in the respective language
• confirmation and share emails will be in this language
• persons joining the WeMove Europe community via the petition will be asked in which of the six core languages they want to be communicated with in the future.

c) Other language → your petition will have minimal language support

• some buttons, captions, instructions, etc. will be in the respective language, others might be in English
• the confirmation and share emails will be in English
• persons joining the WeMove Europe community via the petition will be contacted in English in the future, unless they switch manually to another language.

There is a possibility for you to support YouMove in expanding the language support for your petition by translating buttons, caption, instructions, share and confirmation emails into the desired language. If you want to help us with this task, please contact us at youmove@wemove.eu.

Yes. Please contact our team at youmove@wemove.eu to request this. We will send you the html code of the widget.

Please let us know which language version should be displayed as default. The petition in the widget will have the normal language switcher to switch to other language versions. If your webpage is run in several languages and you want to have a different default language on each of them, you will need several different codes.

You can change the width and length of the widget by changing it in the respective places in the code. At the moment, the widget cannot be edited when it comes to fonts, colours and general layout. We are working on this feature.

Yes, this is possible, but can only be done by WeMove Europe staff. Please contact us at youmove@wemove.eu and send the file you would like to add, and we will upload it to the petition page.

The form automatically generates two headings for the two parts of your text: "Petition" and "Why is this important?" This fits most campaigns, but not all. Sometimes it is better to call your text an "Open Letter" or an "Appeal" or a "Manifesto", or something else. This can only be done manually by our staff, so in order to do it, you must ask us by emailing us at youmove@wemove.eu.

In the case of non-profit organisations, there is a possibility to enter into partnership with WeMove Europe on your campaign. Please contact us at youmove@wemove.eu to learn more.

People who sign the petition agree to give their data for the purpose of the campaign. This means that we usually only generate such a list for the delivery of the petition or other significant moments of the campaign. Only in justifiable cases can we generate the list of signatures just for the initiator to have insight. In the list, we don't include email addresses or other contact data.

We can generate for you a list of signatures in .xls and/or .pdf format. The list can be formatted in one of the following ways:

1. J. Smith, United Kingdom, I care about this issue a lot!; or
2. Jane S., United Kingdom, I care about this issue a lot!

A shorter format (e.g. without the comments) is also possible.

Once a month we can generate simple statistics about your campaign for you: the number of signatures divided into languages or countries, and top signature sources (e.g. Facebook posts or mailings). These statistics are available for petitions with more than 1000 signatures, upon request.

Setting up a petition does not make the petition visible for others. Adding the petition to the YouMove webpage doesn't usually increase its visibility. For people to see it and sign it, the petition needs to be promoted via other channels: through private messages, on social media, through email, etc. Use your private and institutional contacts to encourage people to sign and share your petition. Remember to add interesting and engaging share texts for social media in the petition form!

The YouMove homepage (https://www.wemove.eu/your-campaign-starts-here) is where you find petitions that are gathering a lot of momentum, are particularly time-sensitive or relevant to current affairs, or just need a final push to get them over the finish line. Our team decides which petitions are published there. Also, petitions that are a good fit with WeMove's values and have a clear demand are more likely to end up on the YouMove homepage.

If you think your petition fulfils these requirements but has not been published on the YouMove homepage, please contact us at youmove@wemove.eu.

Note: Publishing your petition on the homepage doesn't usually translate into a big boost in signature numbers. Channels like social media, email and private messages are a much more effective way of collecting a significant number of signatures, so make sure to spend time promoting your petition on these platforms.

Promotion on social media is best done around a political moment connected to the petition ask (e.g. an important meeting where a decision is supposed to be made, news connected to the petition, when the topic is trending etc.). For this reason, we mostly promote YouMove petitions which are particularly time-sensitive or relevant to current affairs, are gathering a lot of momentum and fit with our values. Please note that promotion on social media is not always possible, due to our busy posting schedule.

If your campaign is getting attention and you have interesting material like graphics, videos or articles connected to your campaign which you would like us to post on our social media, please contact us at youmove@wemove.eu and send us your materials.

Starting a petition does not automatically mean it will be emailed to WeMove Europe members. In general, the office team looks out for campaigns that are a) time-sensitive, b) have a good chance of achieving their goals, c) attract people's interest and d) are connected to issues we think other WeMove Europe members would care about. We always start by emailing the petition to a small number of people and only then decide whether and how to promote the campaign further, based on that group's engagement with the campaign.

Whether or not a petition ends up being emailed to our full list also depends a lot on how many other campaigns are going on at WeMove Europe - we have to make sure that WeMove Europe members aren’t overwhelmed by receiving too many emails. There are only so many campaigns the small office team can take on at one time. But that’s exactly why we created YouMove - to give everyone the opportunity to campaign on the issues they care about!

This is possible only via our internal system, and only for petitions with a significant number of signatures. You can draft your message, which we will then approve, and we can send the message in your name. Only people who agreed to be contacted will receive your message. Please note that due to the very limited capacity of our team, it is not always possible to send your message.

Other options for contacting the signatories are available for organisations which enter into partnership with WeMove Europe about the campaign.