I'm all for solidarity, symbolism, awareness, etc. but even though you and I and everyone who has ever caused more than two requests from this server knows that "Hacker News" has nothing to do with illegitimate activities, I'm just scared that our technologically-challenged Congressional representatives will hear about us and get the vague idea that "hackers are blacking out the Internet cuz they don't like this anti-piracy bill".
Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
31–40 of 294 posts
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#32No because anyone who already reads HN already knows SOPA. The only thing that will be effective is if sites that normal non-tech people visit go dark.
Agreed. I'm all for raising awareness, but many of the articles surfacing here over the past few weeks have been SOPA related and taking down the whole site to put up one message may actually reduce the amount of SOPA/PIPA-related information people are reading.
For reference, all SOPA related articles on HN: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=SOPA
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#33HN should go dark to protest SOPA. Its all about sending THE message. Every bit helps and this gesture from HN will go a long way.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#34Anyone else think the 5 year PRISON sentence SOPA is proposing is just a tad hefty? lil bit?
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#35Something to consider - if HN doesn't go dark it may become a refugee camp for a good chunk of bored reddit users (c. 70m daily pageviews), which could lead to a radical change in HN's userbase. Good to support, too.
I'm afraid.
Isn't HN becoming enough like Reddit already with the kind of stories that are posted? Last thing we need are the redditors then it's Reddit 2.0.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#36HN is a very small group of people. Its not worth the blackout. Infact we need it to be up to keep ourselves updated on that day.
Instead, create labels [the mailing labels] named 'Stop SOPA' that can be stuck on our shirts. That'll create some awareness and easy to distribute.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#37Why is shutting down considered a good method of protest. Why not just donate money to the political opponents of those who support SOPA? SOPA is about money, not about public opinion.
Because people vote for the politicians in power. If they want to get re-elected, they need to follow what their voters want. At least, that's the idea. Plus, it adds shame to the politician if he supports something that his constituents hate. For people filled with the pride of being a politician, some good old-fashioned shame could work wonders.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#38I don't think it's true that everyone who browses HN knows everything about SOPA. Sure everyone who reads a chunk of articles daily and comments knowns all about it and are agreeing amongst themselves that everyone knows. I think there would be a massive long tail of busy people, occasional lurkers and those that are new to stuff covered by HN or it's only a hobby.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#39HN itself? No All the startups/sites that everyone on here runs? Absolutely You don't even have to go 100% dark, you can just have a splash telling your users about SOPA. You need to realize
Show, don't tell.
For most viewers, just showing a notice explaining SOPA will be too abstract. Shutting down your site or service, while putting up a notice, has a higher chance of bringing the point home.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#40I voted yes.
But I think HN should populate the days articles with tongue-in-cheek titles like:
The article titled "New start-up to disrupt business model" has been taken down to SOPA compliance concerns.
and,
"All hail our mighty overlord: "
and,
"The failure of democracy and the rise of corporatism! Would you like to know more?"