61–70 of 294 posts
Why is shutting down considered a good method of protest. Why not just donate money to the political opponents of those who support SOPA? SOPA is about money, not about public opinion.
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 tough stuff after all.
I understand the solidarity point, but we need results here. The aim is to stop SOPA, not just protest against it in a private corner of the internet.
That's exactly why we should have the blackout, because that's a small taste of the nonsense that could come from SOPA in relation to many other sites we all check daily.
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…
Besides, it'll give us something to do!
Absolutely. HN's effectively dead if SOPA passes. I know that there aren't a lot of SOPA supporters that use it, but as I said elsewhere, the point of a blackout isn't to punish supporters - it's to motivate people to get involved against SOPA. If your favorite site is inaccessible in protest of SOPA, it might get you more involved in fighting it, which is the whole point.
How so? I'm having trouble recalling offhand anything posted to HN that would cause HN to run into SOPA trouble.
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…