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Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

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Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#111

Post by Joakal »

astrofinch wrote: post #105
Joakal wrote: post #101

pg, if you're going to blackout, could you try advocating Internet Freedom alongside going dark against the SOPA as a way to show HN wishing to have Internet Freedom to do business? It would also show that there's a technologically advanced audience here that has great concerns of the anti-Internet attempts.

I think our blackout says more if we ask for just one thing.

We're a sophisticated audience though; the audience here will read more into it. The audience of Reddit, Facebook, Google, etc, are unlikely and may get overwhelmed.

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#115

Post by lsc »

dreamux wrote: post #84

We should also consider the media message we'd be sending to the uninformed. A site called Hacker News opposes SOPA; what do you think the average person's response to that would be? Frankly I think that HN is the wrong vehicle to bring attention to the matter strictly from a marketing/outreach perspective. However, YC is a great channel to carry this message, and PG has already taken a very public stance on the issu…

Personally, I think this co-option of "hacker" to mean "semi-technical entrepreneur" is at best silly, and at worst leads to the sort of confusion of which you speak. Personally, I thought the hacker dojo should have been called "The Mountain View Computer Club" - it's got a nice retro feel. I mean, I'm a member, and I like the place, the people, and the organisation, but the name is unfortunate.

I think this is a separate discussion from reclaiming "hacker" to mean "technologist" - Hacker news is about semi-technical entrepreneurs, and we are rather different from people of similar technical skill levels that are not entrepreneurial. That's an important distinction. I mean, I introduce myself as "the tall guy" as a reference to "Every technical business has a tall dumb guy and a short smart guy." - It would be useful, I think, to have a word for 'semi-technical business guy" because while my compatriots could also call themselves hackers, I usually act in the semi-technical business guy role. (I mean, outside of my peer group, I'm a semi-business technical guy of unremarkable height- obviously, this is a continuum.)

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#117

Post by Samuel_Michon »

kevinh wrote: post #47
polshaw wrote: post #21

Something 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.

On the other hand - publicity gained by going dark along with reddit would raise the amount of people who were aware of HN and could cause more people to come here. Either way, I don't think it's that big of a concern.

"publicity gained by going dark along with reddit would raise the amount of people who were aware of HN and could cause more people to come here."

I know it's elitist, but I have no wish for this community to get exponentially larger.

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#118

Post by nknight »

pestaa wrote: post #71
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #10

1) The more sites decide to shut down on the 18th, the easier it becomes for major websites like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to join. It also increases the chances that this is going to be covered by the mainstream media. 2) Perhaps a blackout will give some HNers the final push (and time) to make some phone calls to their representatives. 3) It can serve as a demonstration of what the web will be like if SOPA kick…

What's the probability that major websites join the movement? One one hand a 24-hour outage would result in loss of a couple of bucks, but on the other, they in fact participated in the IPv6 day, so I'm not sure.

I think they can and should, but I think the IPv6 Day comparison is a bad one. It was a pretty small portion of users with broken IPv6 configurations/networks who were expected to be significantly inconvenienced, not the entire userbase.

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#119

Post by sumukh1 »

jerrya wrote: post #16
Detrus wrote: post #6

HN could go dark with Reddit to see what happens when nerds have nowhere to hang out.

I think Paul Graham and the Admins of Reddit should go around Silicon Valley and ask to be paid to take HN and Reddit down for the last three weeks of every quarter.

I've got to say, that's a cunning business model. Give away the addicting product. Sell the (temporary) antidote.

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#120

Post by mgkimsal »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #110
zerostar07 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pragmatically speaking, maybe YC could come up with a statement threatening to move businesses outside the US to circumvent some of the provisions of the law. Shutting down HN - i doubt any congressman is in here to notice. In any case i could use a daily detoxification, so yes. p.s. Pyrrhic is not the right word, maybe futile

The expression "Pyrrhic victory" is also used to describe a triumph of little consequence. I'd say the way GP used it is correct. If you unroot a tree in a forest with your bare hands, but there's no one around to see it, will you get applause? Edit: Blah, I couldn't find any sources to back up my earlier statement. It's just how I've often used the phrase. My bad, I stand corrected.

Here's a source to back up your "little consequence" use of pyrrhic...

http://gyazo.com/7ac0551554255bd91bac6600ad9b9647

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