Admin View of Petitions
For organization administrators, the admin view of a petition contains useful information.
This article will cover each page included in the left-side menu on this admin page, but you can also skip ahead using the following navigation links.
Details
This tab includes basic information about the petition. Starting at the top of this page, you can see:
- Campaign creator and campaign admin information: The first section of this page deals with information about the petition creator and other campaign admins.
- To view a user's full profile, click their name.
- To send an email to the user, click their email address.
- To change the campaign admin, click Switch User. (This will remove the current petition creator's access and update the petition creator information shown on the petition page.)
- To add an additional admin (who will have access to all of the petition creator tools), click Manage Additional Campaign Admins.
- Campaign Mentor: The campaign's mentor is the person in charge of making this campaign successful. They may reach out to the campaign creator to answer questions, provide tips, etc.
- Labels: Labels are chosen by admins and can be used to filter lists of petitions. Learn more about Labels.
- Region: This section shows the region that the petition has been assigned to (either manually by an admin or automatically based on a petition's location). If the petition has not been assigned to a region, you can click the Assign button choose a region. If the petition is already assigned to a region, click the Change button to switch the region. Learn more about regions.
- Theme: The theme assignment determines the fonts, colors, logo, links, etc. that are used when the petition page is viewed. Learn more about Themes.
- Signature Graph: The signature graph shows when and how many signatures have been added to the campaign.
- Decision Maker: Next you'll see decision maker information. If the petition doesn't have a decision maker, click Add Decision Maker to add one. If a decision maker has already been added to the petition, you'll see their information here. You can associate a different decision maker with the petition by clicking Switch Decision Maker. Learn more about decision makers.
- Notes: In this section you can make a note on the petition — maybe you contacted the creator to give advice and want other admins to know. If so, you can add that type of information here. This note is visible to all other org admins. (N.B. You can also include hashtags in this notes section. Searching for a hashtag in the admin tools will return any petitions who have that hashtag in their notes section.)
Campaign Status: This section of the page details the campaign's status – whether it's active, whether it's visible, its moderation status, etc. In this section, you can also see if the petition is being currently being promoted on the homepage or via daisy chains.
To promote the petition on daisy chains, move the toggle to Yes. To add the campaign to the homepage, click the + button.
After promoting a petition on the homepage, you'll be redirected to the Promoted tab of the settings page where you change the order of the promoted petitions.
Associations: This section details the campaign's associations. A campaign's associations include partnerships, local groups, and/or Landing Pages/Efforts. To add the petition to a Landing Page/Effort or group etc., click the + button and complete the URL. To add a petition to a partnership click to Add to Partnership and select the partnership from the dropdown.
To remove a petition from an association, click the X or Remove button.
- Tech Bits: This section contains various pieces of information about the petition, including when it was created, its source code, and the IP address it was created from.
- Delete: If you want to delete the petition, click the Delete Petition button. Please note that this cannot be undone. You may wish to use moderation statuses instead.
- Anonymize Petition Data: Anonymizing a petition will remove signature and creator data, but will keep the petition on the platform. Learn more about anonymization.
Content
The Content page allows admins to edit the text of the petition. Editing from the Content page does not trigger the moderation step.
Settings
The settings tab contains the petition's admin settings. Because of the number of settings contained in this tab, information about individual settings is detailed in a separate article in this help center. (If you're following the new ControlShift admin tutorial, we'll look at admin settings soon.)
Signatures
The signatures tab includes information about the signatures that have been added to the petition. At the top of the page you'll see statistics about the petition's signatures.
The sources and buckets graphs explain where petition signatures have come from. As a CSL organization administrator, you'll probably be using sources and/or buckets often. You can learn more (or, if you're following the new ControlShift admin tutorial, we'll look at this section later).
You can then see the full list of signers, search for a particular signature, and download a CSV or PDF of signers.
The Download Signatures button will generate a CSV of signatures that includes all of the information we have about each signature, including things like IP address, browser agent, source tracking, and reason for signing.
Please note: The CSV from this page is more extensive than the CSV that's generated from the petition creator's Deliver page.
If you're looking for information about a specific signature, using the Look Up box and/or the list included on this page here may be quicker than downloading the CSV. Clicking the Details button will bring you to a page that details some of the information associated with a signature. Clicking the linked email will bring you to the member's user profile, which includes all of their activity on the platform. From this area you can also Delete a signature or manually Unsubscribe a user.
Please Note: Each petition has its own discrete mailing list. Therefore, deleting a signature or unsubscribing a user from one petition's signature tab will not completely delete them from your CSL site and will not remove them from all mailing lists (unless they've only signed one petition on the site).
Flags
This option is only displayed if the petition has been flagged by a user.
If a site visitor thinks that a petition is inappropriate or violates community guidelines, they can flag it for review. (This is found on the left side of the petition signature page, below the social sharing bar.) When a petition is flagged, the user's flag will be added to this tab. We include the flagger's reason for finding the petition inappropriate, their email, the date of the flag, and the IP address that it came from.
Letters to Decision Maker
This option is only displayed if the petition is set up to collect messages from signers to the decision maker.
When signers submit messages to decision makers, the messages will be included in this view. From here you can see the messages that were sent and any messages that were rejected by our spam/obscenity filter.
If you click the row, it will expand and the message will be displayed.
From the Automatically rejected tab, you can view the messages that were rejected. If you'd like to send the message anyway, click the Approve button and the message will be forwarded to the decision maker.
Comments
This tab is only displayed if signers have left a reason for signing.
The comments tab includes all of the comments — that is, the reasons for signing — that signers have added to the petition. These reasons for signing are displayed on the petition page, below the petition content and above the timeline section. Comments are automatically made visible to site visitors — they don't need to be approved by org admins first. Visitors can then link to the comment, heart it, or flag it.
Flagged comments are automatically removed from the site, but can be added back if they are approved by an admin. If an admin agrees with the flag, they can click to delete the comment.
Comments are displayed in a way that gives preference to newer comments and those that have been hearted the most. However, if an admin wants to pin one comment to the top of this section — maybe it's a comment that really captures the debate — they can choose to feature the comment.
Contact Messages
This tab is only displayed if the petition creator has been contacted by site visitors, received responses to an email about the petition, or been contacted by the decision maker.
The contact messages tab shows all messages that have been sent to the petition creator by site visitors, petition signers, or decision makers.
Site visitors can contact the petition creator by clicking the petition's creator information block to open a contact modal. From here, they can enter their message, which is sent directly to the petition creator.
Petition signers can reply to emails to send a message to petition admins, if the organization has Mailgun enabled.
Decision makers are asked for their response whenever they are emailed an update about the petition. If they respond to the campaign, the message is sent to the petition creator and org admins, and a copy of the decision maker's message is included in this tab.
To view the messages, go to the appropriate tab and click the message subject line.
Blast Emails
This option is only displayed if blast emails have been sent to petition signers.
The blast emails page shows a list of all the emails that have been sent from the petition leader to their signers. Clicking the subject line will allow you to view the email that was sent to signers. From that page you'll also be able to see the number of people who received the email and any unsubscribe information.
History
The history tab allows admins to review the updates made to a petition. This includes when the petition was launched or edited, and when and by whom it was moderated. Any additions to petition text will be highlighted in green and underlined, while deleted text will be highlighted in red and struckthrough.
Events
This page will only be displayed if the petition has associated events.
This tab displays information about the events associated with the campaign, including the name of the event, the date, the number of attendees, and the location.
If you want to end the association between the event and the petition, click the Detach From Petition button. The event will still exist, but it won't be connected with the petition.
[Next in the CSL Admins tutorial we'll look quickly at signature buckets / sources, before returning to the petition's admin settings.]