Wikipedia English is down

[Black Arrow Officer]

Wikipedia is protesting SOPA by shutting down its website for a day. It seems that some wikis are down as well. YouTube, Facebook and a few others are set to follow. This is great! More attention will brought to SOPA, since most news media are ignoring it altogether. With these popular websites down, people that aren't currently aware of this bill floating around will be, since even the least tech-savvy person most likely has a Facebook account or goes onto Wikipedia.

EXAMPLE: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Skyrim

 

[Marter]

This is why I opened the Wikipedia page I needed before the blackout started. However, all that information is available elsewhere....

Also, mobile Wiki still works. Just insert "mobile." after the "en." part of your URL. Annoying, but if you desperately need something on it, you can use the mobile page on your real computer or on your phone/tablet.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Google joined in in part as well. The word Google is now covered in a big black bar and if you click it takes you to an anti-SOPA thing. I'm rather glad it's still usable though.

Me too.

I was wondering how google would do this, and now that question is answered. Very clever.

OT: Tomorrow is going to be very interesting, and hopefully the word about SOPA will reach more people since people use google and wikipedia a lot.

 

[ResonanceSD]

You can also press "esc" right before the page loads its anti-SOPA/PIPA banner. Granted, it's not like I hate what Wikipedia's doing, it's just that it's easily outmaneuvered.

Maybe they're trying to make a point about DRM and other methods put in place by the entertainment industry.

But still, Wikipedia isn't a place to get content from, at best, it's a gateway to someplace else where you can get content that's properly sourced. Just like Google and Reddit.

 

[Nouw]

Yes I admit it, I was looking for a walkthrough when I realized it was down >.>! And Google NZ doesn't seem to be doing anything, a pity really.

 

[Ectoplasmicz]

Is facebook going to be taking part? i havent heard anything on their behalf..

 

[Ham_authority95]

Wikipedia is protesting SOPA by shutting down its website for a day. It seems that some wikis are down as well. YouTube, Facebook and a few others are set to follow. This is great! More attention will brought to SOPA, since most news media are ignoring it altogether. With these popular websites down, people that aren't currently aware of this bill floating around will be, since even the least tech-savvy person most likely has a Facebook account or goes onto Wikipedia.

EXAMPLE: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Skyrim

Sweet. The Escapist should follow suit.

Imagine all productive "real-life" things we could do if the internet blacked out for just one day? And for such a good cause as anti-government censorship!

Also, there has been nothing on Facebook about it blacking out for this bill. They totally should, though. It would chop off the bills fucking head with hundreds of millions of people against it.

 

[thylasos]

You realise that if you actually read the statement, they tell you how to access normal wikipedia (i.e. disable javascript)?

As it is, I support their protest, and I own enough books to get by without indulging my desire to learn about random crap for one day.

 

[Dosbilliam]

And in doing so they have joined the ranks among the biggest tools protesting SOPA for the dumbest reasons conceivable.

Hey how about we protest shark finning by wasting electricity, because that's what shark finning is all about, wasting electricity.

When you consider the bill would blast this site, and many others like it, into oblivion (no Elder Scrolls jokes here), it would be rather moronic to call them "tools".

 

[Bluntman1138]

What i dont get is why they are STILL protesting SOPA..It was shelved days go and NOT being voted on.

 

[RJ 17]

I don't have a Facebook account, but I'd imagine that's going to be the big one. Good god, there's going to be riots in the streets when they initiate their one-day blackout (if they haven't already).

Though by "blackout", I wonder if it means they'll be taking the entire site down for the day. I know that Google simply put a big black bar across the word "google" above the search field on the main page, clicking the bar takes you to a page that tells a little bit about SOPA and PIPA and has an online petition you can join. The search engine itself, however, is still running perfectly fine.

I do know that a number of the webcomics that I read have taken their sites down and replaced them with a page that has some variation of the phrase "The internet is on strike! Stop SOPA now!"

:3 I just wonder if Facebook is going to shut all the way down and make all the people who are truly addicted to it go through a day of withdrawl, or if it'll be like google and just black out the word "facebook" while keeping the site still functional.

 

[brighteye]

"What i dont get is why they are STILL protesting SOPA..It was shelved days go and NOT being voted on."

Unless you count the new vote day in the beginning of February. This is what they do, backpaddle, regroup, rewrite (PIPA anyone ?) and keep voting on it until they get the votes they want.

 

[Bluntman1138]

Unless you count the new vote day in the beginning of February. This is what they do, backpaddle, regroup, rewrite (PIPA anyone ?) and keep voting on it until they get the votes they want.

Congress and the Senate can do whatever they want. The Administration has already said it WILL NOT sign the bill into Law (this is why it was shelved). So as long as Obama is president, then there is NO reason to even continue the discussion.

So for all you SOPA haters, then you have 2 options...Vote Obama, or vote Ron Paul.

 

[BlazeRaider]

And in doing so they have joined the ranks among the biggest tools protesting SOPA for the dumbest reasons conceivable.

Hey how about we protest shark finning by wasting electricity, because that's what shark finning is all about, wasting electricity.

What do you mean? SOPA could potentially close down all those sites just like the protest demonstrates, they are completely related. Instead of your shark fin analogy, it's like showing you how much you value food by going without it for a day or so, this protest is trying to show you how important a free internet is by demonstrating how inconvenient it would be to have such heavy regulation.

 

[TheLazyGeek]

*Refreshes*

Well played, Escapist.