It's never been easier to start a petition online, and thanks to social media there are now thousands of individuals and groups online appealing for support for their cause.

Currently there are petitions online calling on Mount Isa council to grant a reprieve for a pet pig, two 12-year-old boys are asking for a half pipe in their neighbourhood, as well as a request to the House of Representatives to create a ladies-only beach in Perth.

Thousands more sign the petitions and share them on social media, but do any of them ever cut through and lead to real change?

The short answer — probably not.

"Just getting a whole bunch of signatures and people's addresses won't in itself have any effect, you have got to add to it in terms of adding some political pressure," Dr Ian Cook, senior lecturer in political science at Murdoch University, said.

"The House of Representatives has an online petition system that allows people to create them, and if they get enough signatures, then it goes to a standing committee, and then they talk about the petition.

"[But] they don't even have to do anything."

Even wildly popular petitions, like a call for a second referendum on the UK leaving the EU which got 4.1 million supporters, can fall flat.

Online democracy stalls

The internet age came with optimistic ideas about the possibilities of e-government, with increased transparency and citizen involvement, but it has not been borne out in reality.

"All the governments set up plenty of means, including petitions, as ways of contacting people in government — but a lot of that stuff just seems to disappear into a black hole," Dr Cook said.

"You get automated responses."

The House of Representatives e-petition site appears to bear this out according to Dr Cook — the most popular petition has just 12 signatures, most have only four, and many are campaigning on issues the Federal Government has no influence over.

"We are going through a process of realising that it's a bit of a rabble, it's not well organised — but there probably are petitions that are meaningful and we are just not yet able to work out which is which," he said.

The positive effects of petitions

Dr Sky Croeser, from Curtin University's Internet Studies Department, researches how activists use technology for social change, and she is more optimistic about the potential of e-petitions.

"A lot of the people who might sign something online, it's not like they would otherwise have been dedicating a bunch of time to protesting on the streets or lobbying or other forms of advocacy," she said.

"It might be something that they do in passing where they wouldn't have done anything else."

Over 140,000 people signed a petition supporting same-sex marriage. ( AAP: Paul Miller )

And online petitions can have other positive effects.

"They are also a form of awareness raising, so when somebody signs a petition often that also means they have become aware of issue that they wouldn't have known about otherwise," Dr Croeser said.

Petitions can create publicity

The act of creating a petition can itself generate media attention, which can then translate into pressure on a company or politician, which they will then respond to.

"The impact isn't necessarily the petition being received and them seeing, 'oh there's 5,000 names on this, I have to do something'," Dr Croeser said.

"It is also them knowing that this petition has brought this issue to the awareness of 5,000 people and there is then broader publicity.

"An effective petition will always be just one part of a broader campaign."

In 2016 an online petition that attracted 62,000 signatures was part of a campaign that convinced Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to retrospectively cancel the visa of so-called pick-up artist Jeff Allen.

This forced the cancellation of his workshops in Australia, which critics said promoted violence towards women.

Petitions can also buoy their creators with a show of support, even if they do not create real change.

In May 16-year-old schoolgirl Chloe Scott, concerned about her parents' dairy farm, started a petition calling on Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce to help deliver a better pricing system.

It garnered almost 80,000 signatures in a week and Ms Scott told the ABC that she was happy to read "all the comments and see such love and support from everyone from all backgrounds".

Discerning the key issues above the online noise

The challenge for politicians is to interpret all the online outrage and work out which campaigns should get their attention — and this becoming increasingly difficult.

"We used to have a system where we would look at letters to the editor and say that if one person writes a letter about an issue, it means that 5,000 people agree with them," Dr Cook said.

"To fill in a petition, click, click done, it's so little effort, does it mean any more than that?

"Our politicians are old and not that invested in IT either.

"They are used to the traditional ways of things being done, and it's hard to break them out of it.

"They are pretty willing to dismiss everything online, including online petitions."

Be strategic

For people considering setting up an online petition, Dr Croeser suggested they think hard about what it was they want to achieve.

"I would suggest thinking strategically about who your audience is," she said.

"If you are trying to create social change, a petition isn't necessarily going to be very effective because what you want is for a lot of people to change how they think about an issue.

"If you are trying to get one company to change, a petition can be really effective, in combination with doing other things, like getting media attention."