SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr • Hacker News Board

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#21

Post by reidmain » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 10:45 PM UTC

artursapek wrote: post #19

PedroCandeias wrote: post #8

...And some of them highlight just how steep a hill it is to bring tech matters to the general public's attention: https://twitter.com/#!/herpderpedia

Honestly, I think these organic responses are valuable and eye-opening. They are coming from "common people" who don't heavily involve themselves in internet issues/browse reddit and therefore hadn't heard of any of this. I am so used to reading about SOPA on HN that I sort of forgot that most people who use the internet don't visit these corners. I understand the point of that twitter account is to be funny (and it…

I truly hope these aren't common people.

Based on those tweets it appears that the vast majority of them are still unaware of the legislation and the outrage has been directed everywhere but at SOPA/PIPA. Hell some of the most tweeted responses are about how Obama is ruining America and now he's taken down Wikipedia to boot.

Hopefully this is just a microcosm of the people who have been affected by the Wikipedia outage and most of them have made an attempt to contact their representative or at least talk about SOPA in a more intelligent manor with someone around them.

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#22

Post by agscala » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 10:50 PM UTC

Others were mentioning before today that "Twitter should black out because it's one of the few services the people in the government use, so they would experience the impact of SOPA."

Twitter is a sounding board for the internet, and I think by having it available, SOPA is getting much more attention than it would have gotten than if it was blacked out. 250k/hr regarding one topic sure is nothing to sneeze at!

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#23

Post by artursapek » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 10:58 PM UTC

reidmain wrote: post #21

artursapek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I think these organic responses are valuable and eye-opening. They are coming from "common people" who don't heavily involve themselves in internet issues/browse reddit and therefore hadn't heard of any of this. I am so used to reading about SOPA on HN that I sort of forgot that most people who use the internet don't visit these corners. I understand the point of that twitter account is to be funny (and it…

I truly hope these aren't common people. Based on those tweets it appears that the vast majority of them are still unaware of the legislation and the outrage has been directed everywhere but at SOPA/PIPA. Hell some of the most tweeted responses are about how Obama is ruining America and now he's taken down Wikipedia to boot. Hopefully this is just a microcosm of the people who have been affected by the Wikipedia outa…

Hahahah I share your hope, but I don't believe it to be true. Then again, maybe what we're seeing there is just a "best of" all the reactions.

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#24

Post by kevinh » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 11:35 PM UTC

PedroCandeias wrote: post #8

...And some of them highlight just how steep a hill it is to bring tech matters to the general public's attention: https://twitter.com/#!/herpderpedia

And with the recent retweets, the latent homophobia present in the general public.

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#25

Post by dekz » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 11:55 PM UTC

kevinh wrote: post #24

PedroCandeias wrote: post #8

...And some of them highlight just how steep a hill it is to bring tech matters to the general public's attention: https://twitter.com/#!/herpderpedia

And with the recent retweets, the latent homophobia present in the general public.

I'm not sure you could classify the use of the prevalent terms in those tweets as homophobia. Words also evolve over time, I highly doubt those twits are implying that wikipedia prefers same-sex websites. We're seeing the evolution of words through generations, where in this context it now means 'sucks'. This is an inevitable outcome and we see it time and time again.

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#26

Post by spdy » Wed, Jan 18, 2012, 11:56 PM UTC

PedroCandeias wrote: post #8

...And some of them highlight just how steep a hill it is to bring tech matters to the general public's attention: https://twitter.com/#!/herpderpedia

But this looks a lot better

https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23wikipediablackout

But there is now an awareness on this matter. I hope this gets more viral when people ask about it in school etc.

The whole blackout day shows one thing. Never rattle the wrong cage or make the "nerds" angry. Creative people will get their voice heard. Tech Companies can reach more people in less time than any other group on this planet and this was just one of many battles to come.

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#27

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 12:18 AM UTC

drhowarddrfine wrote: post #10

Following the tweets through one service, I mostly saw pissed off college students with papers due within hours who lambasted Wikipedia for doing this.

[deleted]

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#28

Post by bad_user » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 12:30 AM UTC

danudey wrote: post #17

missing_cipher wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also shows just how powerful the blackout is. I much rather these people asking what's going on, then going on with their day in ignorance. Maybe a few hundred will learn what's up and phone their representative.

The fact that most of them seem to be completely ignorant of the reasons (which are spelt out right there on Wikipedia's blackout page, with a link to even more details) implies to me that these people are going to go on with their day in ignorance regardless. Half of them seem to be angry at Wikipedia for taking away their free reference material the day before their papers are due, rather than angry at the governme…

That feed is filtered. Saying "half of them" is not telling the truth.

Here's a saner stream of tweets: https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23wikipediablackout

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#29

Post by kevinh » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 1:50 AM UTC

dekz wrote: post #25

kevinh wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And with the recent retweets, the latent homophobia present in the general public.

I'm not sure you could classify the use of the prevalent terms in those tweets as homophobia. Words also evolve over time, I highly doubt those twits are implying that wikipedia prefers same-sex websites. We're seeing the evolution of words through generations, where in this context it now means 'sucks'. This is an inevitable outcome and we see it time and time again.

The conflation of gay as being both homosexual and stupid is a result of homophobia and continuing to use it as such is a conscious decision that marginalizes a group of people. Whether or not they outright intend it that way, they are using homophobic speech.

Re: SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr

#30

Post by IgorPartola » Thu, Jan 19, 2012, 1:54 AM UTC

agscala wrote: post #22

Others were mentioning before today that "Twitter should black out because it's one of the few services the people in the government use, so they would experience the impact of SOPA." Twitter is a sounding board for the internet, and I think by having it available, SOPA is getting much more attention than it would have gotten than if it was blacked out. 250k/hr regarding one topic sure is nothing to sneeze at!

Those messages would have come through tomorrow. And what is better: a few million tweets most of which are inarticulate or a single well presented page that EVERY TWITTER USER would read?