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Honestly, I don't see the point. The effectiveness in the blackout is going to lie in its ability to inform users who might not be aware of the threat SOPA pos
by jmduke 15y ago
Honestly, I don't see the point. The effectiveness in the blackout is going to lie in its ability to inform users who might not be aware of the threat SOPA poses: I think the number of regular perusers of HN who are unaware of SOPA is middling at best, which might not be true of Reddit, Wikipedia, or some of the bigger sites considering the blackout.
That being said, anything helps, and this is the sort of issue where action trumps inaction.
- prophetjohn 15y agoThere are still going to be very few Redditors who are not aware of SOPA and its implications, even if a larger percentage than HN. I started typing up a post similar to yours until I stopped to think about it. I think that there is more to this than just awareness. Reddit going down for a day, not only makes those few aware who were not already, but it stands to motivate those that were aware and had not yet taken action. Another big point for me is that Reddit taking the first step may motivate other web companies to follow suit. In that respect, I definitely support HN participating.
- chollida1 15y ago> There are still going to be very few Redditors who are not aware of SOPA and its implications, I don't think this is true. Reddit now reaches a very large and wide non techie audience. I have no data, but I'd guess more than half of redditors haven't heard of SOPA.
- redthrowaway 15y agoIt's been all over the front page for at least a month, including a (very) popular announcement a month ago that all redditors see, regardless of subscriptions. Besides /r/sopa, there have been top-voted posts in: /r/technology (625k subs) /r/politics (>1M subs) /r/funny (>1M subs) /r/android (100k subs) /r/games (50k subs) /r/gaming (>1M subs) /r/pics (1.25M subs) /r/wtf (900k subs) /r/trees (170k subs) and countless others. I'd be very surprised to find many redditors who haven't heard of it by this point.
- corin_ 15y agoSeeing it is very different to knowing about it, and I'm not just talking about in-depth knowledge. Nobody clicks every link, there are plenty of things I see on the front page of sub-reddits, or HN, that I read the title and don't click. So, how many users have seen SOPA stories and thought "that doesn't interest me"? My guess is quite a lot.
- michaelfeathers 15y agoThe big deal is: who else steps up. Imagine if FaceBook did a blackout.
- dutchbrit 15y agoI doubt FB would do a complete blackout - Google on the other hand..