Last week, we noted that Jimmy Wales was in favor of a blacking out Wikipedia on Wednesday in protest of PIPA, joining with Reddit and lots of other sites, but that the community need to weigh in quickly. It appears they've now done so, as Wales is telling students to do their homework early, because the site is a goner for Wednesday:
In fact, it appears they're going even further than Reddit, who is going down for 12 hours. All English-language pages on Wikipedia will go dark for 24 hours -- starting at midnight DC time on Wednesday. For what it's worth, I've been told by multiple Congressional staffers that Wikipedia is a tool they all rely on pretty much every day -- so expect this to get some attention. The site will also be replaced with an action alert, asking people to call and write Congress -- and Jimmy says his goal is to "melt the phone lines." Considering how much usage Wikipedia gets, that's entirely possible.
This is a big move, and it's great to see Jimmy and the community willing to take a stand like this. Jimmy is also tweeting up a storm about why this is so important. He's also responding to false claims that the bills are "dead," by noting that SOPA (1) may rise again and (2) that PIPA is still alive and well.
Either way, come Wednesday, I'm curious if Congress is still going to be claiming that it's just a "small minority" of people who dislike these bills.
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:02 pm
by Shum
Big ups to ya Jimmy.
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:06 pm
by kidshuffle
Glad to see he ended up following reddit. I'm all for this
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:13 pm
by SunkLo
Too bad people are just gonna use the cached google pages.
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 9:55 pm
by magma
Better brush off my Pears Encyclopedia in solidarity. I hope I don't need to look anything up that's happened in the last 25 years on Wednesday.
Fuck SOPA.
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:06 pm
by saint1
But this is the day of my politics exam
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:10 pm
by Shum
lol surely you shouldn't need it on the day of your exam?
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:14 pm
by saint1
last minute fact cramming
actually nah, i'm gonna fail this exam anyway
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:17 pm
by wormcode
Should be a good wake up call to the wiki generation as well. Too many people rely on it, and there's lots of BS on it too.
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:31 pm
by Lichee
wormcode wrote:Should be a good wake up call to the wiki generation as well. Too many people rely on it, and there's lots of BS on it too.
I find this hilarious, my English teacher always said never ever use Wikipedia, use anything but. So he was saying use a website that has little to no published sourcing, written by one opinionated person and not moderated, instead of a clearly sourced article written and edited by numerous people that is moderated of opinions and inaccuracies as well as possible - all with no advertising for free.
hmmm.....
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:35 pm
by Naan_Bread
SunkLo wrote:Too bad people are just gonna use the cached google pages.
Now if google where to shut down for 24 hours...
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:37 pm
by jameshk
Naan Bread wrote:
SunkLo wrote:Too bad people are just gonna use the cached google pages.
Now if google where to shut down for 24 hours...
The internet would explode...
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:39 pm
by collige
SunkLo wrote:Too bad people are just gonna use the cached google pages.
People who know how to use cached pages already know about SOPA though.
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:41 pm
by Dub_freak
jameshk wrote:
Naan Bread wrote:
SunkLo wrote:Too bad people are just gonna use the cached google pages.
Now if google where to shut down for 24 hours...
The internet would explode...
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:51 pm
by Blenky
Are they actually taking it offline for the day then, or doing what some other sites are doing and using a javascript blackout that will display a message about opa that goes away when you click anywhere. If they're fully going offline then massive respect.
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:38 am
by wormcode
Lichee wrote:
wormcode wrote:Should be a good wake up call to the wiki generation as well. Too many people rely on it, and there's lots of BS on it too.
I find this hilarious, my English teacher always said never ever use Wikipedia, use anything but. So he was saying use a website that has little to no published sourcing, written by one opinionated person and not moderated, instead of a clearly sourced article written and edited by numerous people that is moderated of opinions and inaccuracies as well as possible - all with no advertising for free.
hmmm.....
Surely he just meant do proper research. Using one site/ book/source for something isn't research. He probably gets loads of papers copied right from wiki., that's normal these days Wiki's getting better, but there's still lots of opinions and unsourced claims, and also downright defacements. It should be another source, not THE source. It's never good when everyone gets the same info from the same place.[citation needed]
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:41 am
by Phigure
Blenky119 wrote:Are they actually taking it offline for the day then, or doing what some other sites are doing and using a javascript blackout that will display a message about opa that goes away when you click anywhere. If they're fully going offline then massive respect.
pretty sure they're going fully offline
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 12:51 am
by 3za
Dub_freak wrote:
jameshk wrote:
Naan Bread wrote:
SunkLo wrote:Too bad people are just gonna use the cached google pages.
Now if google where to shut down for 24 hours...
The internet would explode...
Always found her attractive, and wondered if I was the only one? She is fit, in a kind of goofy way imo.
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:12 am
by Jizz
3za wrote:
Dub_freak wrote:
jameshk wrote:
Naan Bread wrote:
SunkLo wrote:Too bad people are just gonna use the cached google pages.
Now if google where to shut down for 24 hours...
The internet would explode...
Always found her attractive, and wondered if I was the only one? She is fit, in a kind of goofy way imo.
lol yeah theres definitely something about her that attracts the penis
Re: Wikipedia switching off for 24 hours on wednesday
Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2012 9:51 am
by brettheaslewood
Naan Bread wrote:
SunkLo wrote:Too bad people are just gonna use the cached google pages.
Now if google where to shut down for 24 hours...
this is more like it, I for one don't care if Wikipedia goes down on Wednesday, I never use the site.
