Hacker News Reader

Comment by Mizza | Hacker News Reader

How would HN feel about joining in support? I would be in favor of it.

My god.. the productive output of Silicon Valley is going to triple on the 18th!

My first though after reading your comment was that there's probably a very small number of people that read HN and support SOPA. After thinking about it a little bit more I realize that my dismissive attitude was inappropriate.

When Reddit goes down there are going to be news stories about it and these will raise awareness about the issue to people who aren't Reddit users. If HN or any other sites join in then they will most likely be mentioned in these articles and to the casual reader this will only make the message stronger even if they aren't familiar with the actual sites. In addition, HN has a huge audience of people who are in a position to blackout their own sites. If HN were to join in then I think that this could be influential in making these people consider more seriously whether they should follow suit which will only further the reach of these actions. At the very least, HN being down could serve as a good reminder that opposing SOPA isn't enough by itself and that if we really care about this then we should be contacting representatives or doing something else that could have even a small impact.

For these reasons, I would also be in favor of HN joining in support.

I think it's also easier for the "opposed-but-lethargic" crowd to get involved when they lose their favorite toy. I don't think there are likely to be a lot of SOPA supporters on HN, but it might help spur people to action.

The point of the blackouts should be to make people uncomfortable and inconvenienced enough that it sticks. It's not just to educate, it's to motivate.

It would be huge if Google search, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter would be blacked out.

prafulls - you should know that your account is a zombie...

On the other hand, with the common understanding of the word "hacker", do we really want news stories mentioning a site called Hacker News opposing SOPA?

Its high time that we stop worrying about this.

I doubt I'm the only one to suppose that people who do not understand SOPA also have an outdated or narrow definition of "hacker". Both of those are unfortunate, but if we're being constructive about one (through our combined voices), we may as well take a moment to be constructive about the other - perhaps calling HN "Y Combinator News Aggregator, popularly referred to as 'Hacker News'".

How about a site called Y Combinator opposing SOPA?

It's up to the media, not us, what we're called when this is reported. It's much more likely that they would just go with 'Hacker News', as that's what it's known as.

I was initially worried about looking up Hacker News at all from a work computer due to the name. Then my lack of caring overtook my concern.

unless an official HN person sends out a press release, or asks the reddit people to include it in their press release (assuming they do one).

Good point. Many people have remarked it when they see me browsing the site.

I would love to see HN join in support. PG, what are your thoughts on that?

What if pg requested all YC companies to go blank on January 18?

Not a YC company, but we would do this in a heartbeat. Would love a unified message/homepage replacement that could be standardized. Count us in.

> My god.. the productive output of Silicon Valley is going to triple on the 18th!

Personally I'll be blacking out my productivity as a show of solidarity.

All joking aside, I actually think it would be difficult to maintain the rhythm, if you know what I mean, without my favorite social news site on one monitor. On the other hand, it might give the browser's refresh button a much needed break...

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.

There 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.

> 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.

It'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.

Seeing 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.

The big deal is: who else steps up. Imagine if FaceBook did a blackout.

I doubt FB would do a complete blackout - Google on the other hand..

I'd guess at least half the startups run by HN users would/could be affected if not roll the dice destroyed by SOPA - basically anyone with freeform user-created content shared with others would be

I would be fully in favor of an HN blackout and call to action. The tech industry is finally starting to have enough de-facto power to have short-notice, mass-action grassroots political sway, and ought to begin practicing the art as soon as possible - the damage and danger to industries in the old economy is growing exponentially, in hand with startups' user bases

They're starting in earnest to fight for their survival. Are you planning to fight back?

Even though I doubt there's anyone on here who actually supports SOPA, this could at least get people to do something about it and call their representatives on that day.

One benefit of keeping HN online is that it provides a place to have a discussion of the effects of other sites' blackouts.

In many ways blacking out HN is preaching to the choir. On the one hand it's a symbolic gesture which won't do much to raise awareness among HN visitors; on the other hand, such a move adds one more name to the list of protesting sites and has value in that respect.

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