Wikipedia to stage blackout in protest at SOPA

[Warren Dew]

My point was that the main intention was to draw attention to the issue - making wiki inaccessible, or making it difficult to access, would both achieve that effect. I can't see this having much impact on its perceived reliability though - with its perceived neutrality however...

I guess for an encyclopedia, I see neutrality as an element of reliability. I do also think that some people who previously thought, "I can always look it up on wikipedia," now think, "I can almost always look it up on wikipedia, as long as they're not engaging in some political crusade." The average wikipedia user probably doesn't even know what javascript is.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

My point was that the main intention was to draw attention to the issue - making wiki inaccessible, or making it difficult to access, would both achieve that effect. I can't see this having much impact on its perceived reliability though - with its perceived neutrality however...

I guess for an encyclopedia, I see neutrality as an element of reliability. I do also think that some people who previously thought, "I can always look it up on wikipedia," now think, "I can almost always look it up on wikipedia, as long as they're not engaging in some political crusade." The average wikipedia user probably doesn't even know what javascript is.

Just like the overwhelming majority of multi-cellular organisms has no idea (except in the vaguest possible terms) what a cell is!

[JimC]

Interesting, Warren. I can see how all of that would work.

My point was that the main intention was to draw attention to the issue - making wiki inaccessible, or making it difficult to access, would both achieve that effect. I can't see this having much impact on its perceived reliability though - with its perceived neutrality however...

I don't see it as having an effect on perceived neutrality on most issues generally; this situation directly relates to core Wiki issues, after all, and most people would see them as having a legitimate stake in this case...

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Wiki is back up and running. A million essay-scribbling students just initiated a hurricane with their collective sigh of relief!

[Drewish]

I tried to read about SOPA, but the Wikipedia page was down!

[PsychoSerenity]

My point was that the main intention was to draw attention to the issue - making wiki inaccessible, or making it difficult to access, would both achieve that effect. I can't see this having much impact on its perceived reliability though - with its perceived neutrality however...

I guess for an encyclopedia, I see neutrality as an element of reliability. I do also think that some people who previously thought, "I can always look it up on wikipedia," now think, "I can almost always look it up on wikipedia, as long as they're not engaging in some political crusade." The average wikipedia user probably doesn't even know what javascript is.

But it's hardly just "some political crusade", and I think they made that clear, even if the newspapers didn't (and it fucking infuriates me that so many newspapers are so shit, or even intentionally misleading). It doesn't effect their neutrality any more than it would effect the neutrality of a library by protesting book burning.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Interesting, Warren. I can see how all of that would work.

My point was that the main intention was to draw attention to the issue - making wiki inaccessible, or making it difficult to access, would both achieve that effect. I can't see this having much impact on its perceived reliability though - with its perceived neutrality however...

Wiki is going to have to prove itself over the long haul to be considered a reliable source. It's uneven right now, but a good starting point for research. Anybody turning a paper in to me that only cited Wiki articles would be bounced back ungraded.

[PsychoSerenity]

Wiki is going to have to prove itself over the long haul to be considered a reliable source. It's uneven right now, but a good starting point for research. Anybody turning a paper in to me that only cited Wiki articles would be bounced back ungraded.

Sure, but Wikipedia was never meant to be the ultimate unquestionable source. The whole point of it is that it links to millions of other sources.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Wiki is going to have to prove itself over the long haul to be considered a reliable source. It's uneven right now, but a good starting point for research. Anybody turning a paper in to me that only cited Wiki articles would be bounced back ungraded.

Sure, but Wikipedia was never meant to be the ultimate unquestionable source. The whole point of it is that it links to millions of other sources.

And that's what I told the undergrads, read the article, and then track back to the sources. I even allowed "From Wikipedia, citing The Great Crusade, p. 237" if they could show me that the volume was not available in our library.

[Hermit]

Good news. Support among lawmakers in the US for SOPA and PIPA is waning. More congressmen and senators are finally becoming aware of the bills' civil rights implications.

Eight US lawmakers have withdrawn their support for anti-piracy laws, after "blackout" protests on thousands of internet sites.

Two of the bill's co-sponsors, Marco Rubio from Florida and Roy Blunt from Missouri, are among those backing away.

(Read more here.)

[Warren Dew]

But it's hardly just "some political crusade", and I think they made that clear, even if the newspapers didn't (and it fucking infuriates me that so many newspapers are so shit, or even intentionally misleading). It doesn't effect their neutrality any more than it would effect the neutrality of a library by protesting book burning.

Wikipedia's lawyers reported that SOPA was very unlikely to affect wikipedia - it was targeted as search sites like Google.

If wikipedia wanted to take on an issue that was critical to their mission like books are to libraries, they would have saved their goodwill for genuine net neutrality, since they don't have the money to buy preferred access like Google does.

[Warren Dew]

Good news. Support among lawmakers in the US for SOPA and PIPA is waning. More congressmen and senators are finally becoming aware of the bills' civil rights implications.

Yes. Seems like Washington is kind of clueless about the internet.

[JimC]

Good news. Support among lawmakers in the US for SOPA and PIPA is waning. More congressmen and senators are finally becoming aware of the bills' civil rights implications.

Yes. Seems like Washington is kind of clueless about the internet.

Our politicians are the same. I blame the fact that they are mostly white males in their 50's...

wait...

[Ronja]

.

Good one, Jim

[redunderthebed]

The bill has being withdrawn huzzah!!!

Wiki is going to have to prove itself over the long haul to be considered a reliable source. It's uneven right now, but a good starting point for research. Anybody turning a paper in to me that only cited Wiki articles would be bounced back ungraded.

As someone else pointed out you use the links that are cited as evidence in the article the founder of wikipedia said so as much.

Wikipedia is a wonderful start point whether you are doing an assignments and want a basic understanding of what you have to research or just get a basic idea of a topic your curious about or to easily explain something to others.

Hail wikipedia!