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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?

#201

Post by dolbz »

gaius wrote: post #199
swombat wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world doesn't give a toss or have an iota of awareness about HN. Blacking out HN would be like switching off your computer in the privacy of your own home. Nobody knows or cares. All that would achieve is to remove an important vector for communication and information spread in the tech community.

I'm English and would be annoyed if a site I used vanished for a reason that is nothing to do with me. You don't like what your govt is doing, vote it out.

I'm English too but totally support US sites blacking out in opposition to SOPA. It will affect the entire internet if the bill passes and may be used as a template for other countries (Note: I don't think HN blacking out will have much impact so I don't support this particular question)

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

#203

Post by fauigerzigerk »

VonLipwig wrote: post #185

The answer is no, people who say yes are wrong. You black out your website to raise awareness to the cause. I think it is a fair bet that an extremely high number of HN users know a lot about SOPA / PIPA. So there is no point doing this to educate regulars. Perhaps news will spread. Sure, it will spread in the tech community. In the tech community knowledge of SOPA / PIPA is well known. Shock waves from HN being blac…

Announcing a hacker news blackout could sway the big guys to do the same.

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

#204

Post by dhx »

lallysingh wrote: post #80
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…

FWIW, I think if Google, Twitter, and/or Facebook joined, they'd just put up custom messages (maybe with a link?) to an anti-SOPA page. Of course, the question is, how do they define their political neutrality after this?

It's not even a case of politics for these companies. They need to avoid regulation to survive.

The most important asset these companies have are highly skilled and sought after researchers. How appealing will Google be to work for if the projects they work on are designed to:

* prevent access to information that researchers require for their studies

* stall or prevent innovation

* favour established and inflexible industries over startups

* increase the amount of bureaucracy everyone has to deal with

* force problems into hiding rather than providing real solutions

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

#206

Post by Sandman »

abibibo wrote: post #143
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…

>> 2) Perhaps a blackout will give some HNers the final push (and time) to make some phone calls to their representatives. I think far more effective than a complete blackout would be requiring HNers contact their representatives before they can access HN content. Not sure how best to implement, but a email form that grants a token upon completion should be feasible (you'd need to decide how to handle non-US based IP…

This is exactly what HN should not do. Making a statement by having the site down for a day is one thing (although I'm also opposed to that, and I voted no in the poll), but actively forcing your users to help some cause even though they may have completely different opinion is something else entirely. I, for one, wouldn't want to participate on such a website. HN should support free thinking, not suppress it. I, as well as probably 95% of people here, am against SOPA. But if, for some reason, some of the HN users are pro SOPA, we should respect the fact that they have a different opinion on the matter and not force them to accept our views, even if we strongly disagree with them.

If people want to write to their congressperson, they should do that of their own accord, not because they're being pushed into doing that to access HN content.

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

#207

Post by ticks »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #62

I wanted to vote no, because it seems so Pyrrhic, maybe a little gimmicky: "See, we shut down a site you don't use!" But if you're asking people to make a sacrifice you're not willing to make yourself, you're a bad leader, period. I'm not saying HN is the bastion of the tech world. But if we're upvoting the Reddit shutdown (at least I did), and we can't turn around and do it ourselves, well, we're not made of very to…

I voted 'no' but I think Hacker News is driven by fads to a degree - you see one story on the site, then a few hours later there's a load of others with slightly different views. A few hours/days/weeks later, all is forgotten.

So 'yes' will win. It may happen. Few people will remember it a year from now.

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

#208

Post by bbrizzi »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #117
kevinh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I love how there's an unwritten rule to never talk about HN on Reddit. I never even saw it mentioned, and myself try to avoid mentioning it while I see talks about Reddit and proof that a lot of HNers are former redditors almost daily on this site.

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

#209

Post by Flenser »

VonLipwig wrote: post #185

The answer is no, people who say yes are wrong. You black out your website to raise awareness to the cause. I think it is a fair bet that an extremely high number of HN users know a lot about SOPA / PIPA. So there is no point doing this to educate regulars. Perhaps news will spread. Sure, it will spread in the tech community. In the tech community knowledge of SOPA / PIPA is well known. Shock waves from HN being blac…

Google + Bing + Yahoo turned off the switch for a couple of hours at the same time... that would be a statement.

I think that would only annoy people. They should make everything above the fold go dark, and make people scroll down to get their regular content.

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

#210

Post by Kesty »

VonLipwig wrote: post #185

The answer is no, people who say yes are wrong. You black out your website to raise awareness to the cause. I think it is a fair bet that an extremely high number of HN users know a lot about SOPA / PIPA. So there is no point doing this to educate regulars. Perhaps news will spread. Sure, it will spread in the tech community. In the tech community knowledge of SOPA / PIPA is well known. Shock waves from HN being blac…

If you support others doing it (google,bing yahoo) there is no reason not to do it yourself.

You can not control google or bing shutting down against Sopa, but you can at least control your own website and try to be supportive on HN doing so too.

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