No, this is for awareness. Everyone here is aware.
Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
261–270 of 294 posts
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#262It's a nice thought, but considering the several SOPA-related posts on the front page every day, I really doubt HN needs to go dark to inform its users.
Maybe first take a poll titled "Do you know what SOPA is?"
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#263While I think it should go down, if it doesn't it'll be interesting to see the results of the massive influx of anxiety-driven redditors looking for a place with karma-whoring link-baity headlines to fill with memes.
If I'm right with this it can become the ultimate stress test for the HN community guidelines and it's moderation system.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#264Regardless of whether or not this would be "preaching to the choir", it will still make news, and a bunch of high profile websites all going dark at the same time is much more impressive than just reddit.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#265Yes. Lead by example.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#266The 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…
Which headline you'd rather see in NYT tomorrow: > A leading enterpreneur community website goes black to protest SOPA. ``Our jobs would be endangered'', says PG. or > While discussions rage on the merits of SOPA, a leading enterpreneur community remains calm. ``We aren't concerned enough to protest'', says PG.
Which I'd rather see is irrelevant; neither has a chance to actually appear in mainstream media, especially the second non-news hypothetical story.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#267Yes. Stand with all of us and go dark. If HN doesn't make such a gesture, how can we call ourselves true to our convictions?
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#268We 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 se…
This is kind of off topic but imho "everyone else" coopted hacker away from those of us who consider ourselves hackers.
And for the record I don't consider semi-technical entrepreneur to be the definition of hacker I apply to myself. For me it's more about someone who can take two things and make something new with them, regardless if they should be able to or not.
In any case, its a form of cultural identity, so its up to those who identify with it to define it. If the mainstream doesn't recognize it, its our responsibility to fix that.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#269Instead of going dark Google should go to a page explaining SOPA then after a period of time redirect to what the user was searching for. That way there won't be huge implications for the economy, and the user is forced to confront what SOPA means.
Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?
#270We should learn from the godaddy/SOPA situation... we have the money, we own the internet, we pay for domains, hosting, servers, services. 1 day without WE using/paying the web will do more damage than 1 day with "go dark" websites.
I can live 1 day without internet... can you?