Does a petition starter have to include a process for lobbying on behalf of the signers? If there is a "web development community", it should be able to elect a representative on an issue to poke Bill with a stick every now and then.

I've got a note in to Microsoft. I'll let you know if I get a response.

The simple thing to do would be to flood Microsoft with phone calls and letters. If a company has palpable evidence (phone rings, pieces of paper arriving daily on the topic at hand), if the same information is cc'd to media outlets so that they realize the matter is important, then it may become nessary for the company to respond. Online petitions are a fine idea, but in practice they fail because all of the notes and signatures are on a screen. Move these thousands of notes to hard copy and this will create a broader perception that the issue is important.

I wrote the following email to Microsoft:

To: Microsoft
From: Steven Garrity

I realize that this is not the place for technical support or features requests. I'm not writing to request a feature. Rather, I'm writing to request a response (positive or negative) to a deluge of feature requests.

Prominent web developer and weblogger Jeffrey Zeldman wrote today on his site about the unfortunate lack of support for PNG transparency in Internet Explorer for Windows. You can find his comments at the following URL: http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0503c.shtml#pngofregret

Mr. Zeldman links to a petition that thousands have signed asking for improvements with this functionality. I don't expect you to pay too much attention to this petition (there's a petition for everything!). However, Mr. Zeldman speaks as the voice of a large community of web developers. As a member of this community, we would greatly appreciate a response from the Internet Explorer development team on the support of PNG transparency.

Even if that response is negative, or just "we're working on it", it would show that you are listening.

Thank you,
Steven Garrity
Creative Director, silverorange Inc.

and two days later (not bad), I got this reply:

To: Steven Garrity
From: Microsoft.com Customer Support

Hello Steven,
Thank you for contacting us at Microsoft.com regarding Jeffrey Zeldman's comments on Internet Explorer.

We have forwarded your mail to the proper Microsoft group for review. If appropriate, we will be responding to you directly. Your comments are very important to us, and will help us to provide the best possible products and services.

Sincerely,
Charisse
Microsoft.com Customer Support

It's a start.

You are in! Now you just have to cross reference Charissee of Microsoft at home and bug her personally until something gets done or she spills the beans as to who is in the "appropriate Microsoft group".

I've been "escalated":

Hello Steven,
We have escalated this to our Microsoft Internet Explorer contact for an answer. We'll get back to you shortly. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Charisse
Microsoft.com Customer Support

"escalated"... that's a great euphemism for "forwarded"

I am impressed that you're getting anything beyond an auto-responder at all.

That is an auto responder on a two day delay.

Have you heard anything since?

Nothing new, Brad, no. However, Microsoft has since stated that IE will not be updated until the next version of Windows (2005).