72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is • Hacker News Board

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#51

Post by Spivak » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:14 PM UTC

losteric wrote: post #43

leeoniya wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Net Equality would have likely perked up more interest. yeah, marketing is nuanced like that and i think this distinction would have made a good difference. net-favorism, anti-throttling, anti-discrimination, equal-access would have also done better, i think.

I can't think of a hot name, but net neutrality is fundamentally about preserving a free market of information.

You have to be careful about that, because there's nothing in net neutrality that prevents restricted data silos, censorship, takedowns; it's really only about forbidding a specific network management practice that allows ISPs to impose a time cost on sites and services they disapprove of.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#52

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:17 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#53

Post by anonymfus » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:19 PM UTC

losteric wrote: post #43

leeoniya wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Net Equality would have likely perked up more interest. yeah, marketing is nuanced like that and i think this distinction would have made a good difference. net-favorism, anti-throttling, anti-discrimination, equal-access would have also done better, i think.

I can't think of a hot name, but net neutrality is fundamentally about preserving a free market of information.

Notice that "free market" is a contronym: concurrent market and unregulated market are opposite things here.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#54

Post by icebraining » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:21 PM UTC

IntelMiner wrote: post #50

sandov wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it would make too much sense to criticize the artificial monopolies created by the state instead of complaining about ISPs!

"artificial monopolies created by the state" I'm sorry, what? While I'm sure you're going to beat a drum about "regulation" and "free markets" it might be worth stepping back and actually assessing the issue from a practical, rather than ideological stance Utilities naturally gravitate toward monopoly. Would you want to have multiple sewer lines running to your house, because your upstairs bathroom costs more money t…

And yet, in my Western European country, I have four ISPs offering service (with their own cables) to my apartment.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#55

Post by jeremyt » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:22 PM UTC

100% of the remaining people don't know what net neutrality is. Pick two of them at random and their definitions will not line up.

It's just a blank slate for people to project their political biases on.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#56

Post by KGIII » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:22 PM UTC

JTon wrote: post #22

__sha3d2 wrote: post #14

If you're here, you can likely set up a VPN on a VPS provider. Do yourself a favor and spend the $5 / month for an instance. Get your hands on your parent's, spouse's, friend's, sibling's phones and get it set up for them too. Nobody needs to put up with this bullshit from ISPs or the Government. There is a great and easy to follow tutorial from DigitalOcean here: digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-an…

> Get your hands on your parent's, spouse's, friend's, sibling's phones and get it set up for them too. Nobody needs to put up with this bullshit from ISPs or the Government. I... I don't do this anymore. I've found myself overburdened with support calls when the tech I've configured invariable breaks. Whether it's weeks or months later. Even if what I've configured isn't the culprit, I'm still on the hook. This is a…

When I retired, I moved to a new, very rural, area.

This led to what was probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done.

Wanting to be nice, I fixed a new neighbor's computer. I then fixed another, and another, and it kept going. For an area with so little population, I was shocked by the numbers.

The good news is that this drove me back to Linux. Now, I can truthfully tell them that I don't use their OS and am not qualified to fix their problem.

Still, don't fix someone's computer. Certainly don't do it for free.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#57

Post by icebraining » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:25 PM UTC

nxsynonym wrote: post #38

stephengillie wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also struggle with metaphors. - A company who owns roads, and charges you to drive on them, wants to charge more for highly-used routes. - A bus company is raising fees on routes with the most riders. - Cable companies charge more for high-demand "premium" channels. - Stores charge more for items that are higher in demand. - Electric utilities charge surge prices during high demand times. So do some ride share taxi…

I think the high-demand "premium" channel is the best - simply because there is no limited supply. I used the bridge metaphor for a while, but unlike bridges there is no maintenance required from increased usage or traffic jam generated from high traffic to netflix or google.

Of course there is. Bandwidth isn't infinite, there's certainly congestion and maintenance required to upkeep and upgrade routers and cables.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#58

Post by shmageggy » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:26 PM UTC

leeoniya wrote: post #16

dieterrams wrote: post #5

Survey methodology and all that, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if most of the affected population didn't know. Net Equality would have likely perked up more interest.

> Net Equality would have likely perked up more interest. yeah, marketing is nuanced like that and i think this distinction would have made a good difference. net-favorism, anti-throttling, anti-discrimination, equal-access would have also done better, i think.

Anti-throttling is great. It's better rhetorically (who wants their data throttled?) and arguably clearer too, since that's what it comes down to in the end -- the ability for ISPs to throttle some content more than others.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#59

Post by danschuller » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:26 PM UTC

I think net neutrality would do better if was rebranded as the "free market" for the internet. Then it's got a cultural touch point that people already understand.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#60

Post by whatshisface » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:29 PM UTC

danschuller wrote: post #59

I think net neutrality would do better if was rebranded as the "free market" for the internet. Then it's got a cultural touch point that people already understand.

That wouldn't be exactly accurate. A free internet market would probably be the pairing of net neutrality repeal with the repeal of all local restrictions on running cables under roads and into appartments.