
Wikipedia blackout page - pitdesi
http://en.wikipedia.org
======
tokenadult
The time delay in implementation of the black-out on my system (via
JavaScript) probably helps make the point more. I went to the main page (the
link here) not by following the link from this thread, but from my browser
history. I saw a brief glimpse of today's main page, and then the screen image
changed to Wikipedia's black-out page. I went to the information page, and
there it still shows all the headings a Wikipedian will see when logged in:
the user's own user page, and user talk page, and so on. So I followed the
link to my user page, and it too displayed for the briefest tantalizing moment
before showing the black-out page. Slick. I tried some other stored URLs from
my browser history, and they all briefly displayed the appropriate Wikipedia
page before being overwritten with the black-out notice. This will get
attention.

The black-out information page

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more)

says "The Wikipedia community has blacked out the English version of Wikipedia
for 24 hours on January 18th to raise awareness about legislation being
proposed by the U.S. Congress," but I see it also includes advice for
residents of other countries about what to do about the legislation.

The information page even includes a response to the question "In carrying out
this protest, is Wikipedia abandoning neutrality? Can I still trust
Wikipedia?" The response is "We are staging this blackout because, although
Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence actually is not. Wikipedia
depends on its existence for a free and open, uncensored Internet." This
immediately suggests some other countries that it might be important to draw
more attention to on Wikipedia. I wonder if that will happen. If it doesn't, I
may indeed start doubting the neutrality of Wikipedia even more than I already
do.

Mobile devices are exempted from the black-out, according to the information
page, and anyone can turn off the black-out by disabling JavaScript. (I enable
JavaScript on Wikipedia to take advantage of various Wikipedia editing tools.)
I'll have to experiment with viewing the site some more, and I'll be curious
to see what the worldwide reaction is. Again, I wonder what users will suggest
what other countries to protest about with regard to Internet censorship.

AFTER EDIT: In another experiment, I posted a Wikipedia link to Facebook to
tell friends about the background to my new favorite pop song. The link

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_This_Kolaveri_Di>

still shows correct summary text when embedded in a Facebook comment. That the
links are still pasteable and still have usability when submitted to
discussion forums is an especially nice aspect of how Wikipedia implemented
its blackout. (P.S. The direct link to the official video for the new song,
which is rapidly going viral around the world, is

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR12Z8f1Dh8>

from Sony Music India hosted on YouTube.)

~~~
colanderman
_"Wikipedia depends on its existence for a free and open, uncensored
Internet."_

Gah... that should be "Wikipedia depends, _for_ its existence, _on_ a free and
open, uncensored Internet.", but of course editing that page is disabled! :)

~~~
tommorris
The moral of the story: don't let engineers write copy, and don't make them
write copy on a deadline while trying to fix bugs.

(I'm in the IRC channel where the SOPA blackout was planned and executed...
the engineers are running on adrenaline, caffeine and sugar.)

~~~
jcitme
Which IRC channel would that happen to be? I would love to see the logs of the
last few days.

~~~
tommorris
Ssh. Private. ;-)

~~~
mwhite
Heck, I would pay money.

------
ff0066mote
From the wikipedia blackout page:

    
    
      > They [the bills] put the onus on website owners to police user-contributed
      > material and call for the blocking of entire sites, even if the links are
      > not to infringing material. Small sites will not have the sufficient
      > resources to mount a legal challenge.
    

This is beautiful. It succinctly puts forth the problem that SOPA/PIPA and
similar legislation will create: chilling innovation.

------
pash
The black-out page did its job in my case. Here's what I sent to my
representatives:

 _As one of your constituents, I want to make you aware of my strong
opposition to SOPA, PIPA, and any bill that threatens to restrict or encumber
the free flow of information on the Internet.

The monopoly rights that we extend to the owners of intellectual property are
intended to provide an incentive to create and disperse knowledge and culture
for the benefit of society at large. Legislation that imposes potentially
enormous costs on society in order to protect IP rights is antithetical to
that very idea.

I encourage you to do what you can to ensure that these bills do not become
law._

------
daeken
Well, that's interesting. All the content is still there, but then an overlay
is placed on the page using JS once the page loads. How long until someone
puts up a greasemonkey script to unblackout WP?

~~~
Hrundi
Here goes a "small" bookmarklet:

javascript:(function(){document.getElementById("mw-page-
base").style.display="block"; document.getElementById("mw-head-
base").style.display="block";
document.getElementById("content").style.display="block";
document.getElementById("mw-head").style.display="block";
document.getElementById("mw-panel").style.display="block";
document.getElementById("footer").style.display="block";
document.getElementById("mw-sopaOverlay").style.display="none";})()

~~~
Stevenup7002
I somehow feel bad about being able to access it now :).

~~~
steve-howard
I think Wikipedia still gets to make its point if you have to pepper in some
JavaScript or CSS to get back to it. Much more work than your standard
interstitial.

~~~
dhimes
This is the best point to make: the SOPA will only stop people who don't know
how to get around it, just like the Wiki blackout. That is _precisely_ to
point to be made here.

------
gizzlon
Seems like it worked: SOPA got mainstream coverage for the first time in
Norway today.

Here's a chart showing mentions of SOPA in Norwegian newspapers:
<http://was.id.ly/storing/files/sopa_in_newspapers_opoint.png>

~~~
icebraining
Same here in Portugal[1]. It says "The great protest on the Internet against
piracy laws has started" and it mentions the arguments of the opposition.

And it already has a comment saying how to disable the block :P

------
joeyh
Amusingly, at first the "Learn More" was a link to a wikipedia page .. which
was blacked out. Fixed now :)

------
yogrish
It has blacked out except for info on SOPA and PIPA
ex:[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act#Argument...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act#Arguments_against)

------
biafra
Interesting reactions of (former) wikipedia users on twitter collected by
@herpderpedia <http://twitter.com/herpderpedia>

~~~
molmalo
It's interesting how many people read SOAP instead of SOPA.

eg: "What does Wikipedia have against soap?", "Why doesn't Wikipedia want us
to use SOAP anymore.", etc

~~~
Xion
If we could get rid of SOAP along with SOPA, I would be doubly happy.

------
cmelbye
Seems really poorly implemented. Doesn't explain why it's blacked out in a
concise manner, it was unable to look up the House rep for my zip code, it
doesn't autolink Twitter, refers to the bills only as "SOPA" and "PIPA" and
never actually uses the full names, certainly doesn't employ any innovative
methods of getting people to call their reps like Tumblr did, etc...

~~~
sfg
"Doesn't explain why it's blacked out in a concise manner, it was unable to
look up the House rep for my zip code"

Yeah, I couldn't see how to look up my house rep either. Probably because I
don't have one, not living in the USA.

Why did they have to make this protest of US domestic politics international?

~~~
gwillen
If a blackout of the English language Wikipedia affects you, then the
destruction of the English language Wikipedia by US domestic politics would
_also_ affect you, whether you like it or not.

~~~
sfg
I am unable to influence US politics. My point is not that SOPA would not
affect me, but that I am unable to actually do anything about it. Thus, this
protest is annoying, without achieving anything.

Google, far more sensibly, and with the understanding that domestic US
protests are not relevant to the entire world, took the route of only blacking
out their logo for US users.

------
wakeless
Personally I wish that the peeps over at Wikipedia could use nice design like
the black out page on their donation drives.

------
aslewofmice
Adblocked:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:BannerCont...](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:BannerController)

and it works fine for me... Kinda defeats the purpose though.

------
oceanic
Viewing source on any blacked out Wikipedia page also lets you read the
article text.

------
yaks_hairbrush
Oops... clicking the "Learn more" link also results in a blacked-out page.

------
CmdrKrool
I was prepared for an un-circumventable blackout myself, and on reflection
also think that the JS overlay is pretty smart.

I'm certainly over-thinking this, but perhaps there's also a parallel between
the way that many people will be finding out how to dive into their
configuration and turn off Javascript, install bookmarklets or whatnot today,
and the way that people may be finding out how to set their machines up to use
alternate DNS servers if and when SOPA's DNS blocking ever comes to pass.

------
n0mad01
Sorry Wikipedia, i want to use you anyway today ... just click on this
bookmarklet on any blackouted Wiki page:
javascript:(function(){document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('script')).src='[http://www.soluch.at/other/JavaScript/bookmarklets/testsuite...](http://www.soluch.at/other/JavaScript/bookmarklets/testsuite_3/loaded.js;}\)\(\));

------
Valid
Plenty of tools already posted, but there are a few more here, including a
native FF add-on (so you don't have to keep hitting the bookmarklet) and
userscripts for greasemonkey in FF, or native chrome:
<http://www.theobamastore.com/stopsopanotknowledge/>

~~~
NicholasMatt
Thanks for this, I needed to get homework done!

------
varenc
Here's a bookmarklet to show it. Just drag it into your bookmarks bar.

[http://varenhor.st/2012/01/bookmarklet-to-bring-wikipedia-
ba...](http://varenhor.st/2012/01/bookmarklet-to-bring-wikipedia-back/)

javascript:$('#mw-sopa-blackout,#mw-sopaOverlay').remove();
$('body').children().show();

------
eapen
Use IE6 to continue to access Wikipedia. This is the first and last time, I
recommend using IE6.

------
krigath
"Wikipedia Blackout Workaround"-extension for Google Chrome:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/glfkamdjgidnjgfpmf...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/glfkamdjgidnjgfpmfgmbpegfnnhnifa/)

------
paws
Chrome's built-in JavaScript blacklist proves really useful today.

<http://www.onpaws.com/2012/01/sopa-wikipedia-blackout-hack/>

------
jagira
This displays the content. Or one can click the browser stop button just after
the page is loaded.

$("#mw-sopaOverlay").hide(); $('body').children.show();

I thought they were going to use 503 redirects.

------
Vivtek
I have to say, I just spent as much time browsing all the different languages
represented on Wikipedia nowadays as I normally spend on TV Tropes. There's
one good result of SOPA!

------
wiradikusuma
Reading the comments, I have feeling many people outside HN would miss the
essence and only think of it as a challenge ("Look, I can access the content!
I'm JavaScript ninja!").

------
fl3tch
Get on Twitter and search "wtf wikipedia". Enjoy the show.

------
bchen
Content is still viewable -- just disable JavaScript.

~~~
simonsarris
Alternatively use the mobile version of a page:
<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article>

------
16s
If you use noscript, you'll never see the blackout. Very few people do, but I
thought I'd point that out.

------
bad_user
Obligatory XKCD link: <http://xkcd.com/903/>

------
dickfickling
Looks like they forgot to un-blackout their info page. Whoops!

Edit: And... fixed.

------
cbs
Look at Special:RecentChanges nothings happening.

~~~
tantalor
Editing has also been blocked for everybody except "stewards" and "staff".

------
amorlovee
This is so sad. Wikipedia is so helpful.

------
guynamedloren
Disable Javascript to browse Wikipedia.

------
kyt
It's not blacked out in mobile Safari.

~~~
notatoad
It is in iPad safari.

Wikipedia is blacked. m.wikipedia.org isn't.

------
kalius
bookmarklet solution goo.gl/9cvCu

------
obilgic
this overlay will drive people crazy

~~~
icebraining
Kinda the point, isn't it?

------
tkahn6
For all intents and purposes it's blacked out.

You can count on one hand the number of people who are both unaware of SOPA
and PIPA and know how to disable javascript.

~~~
exDM69
Maybe it's intentional to actually serve the content but then black it out
using a simple script (rather than 503'ing and serving only the blackout
page). It's similar to the proposed SOPA censorship in that it only affects
the most clueless of us and anyone who really wants to get there can
circumvent it.

------
drhowarddrfine
Just as I predicted last week, Twitter is filled with people complaining about
the Wikipedia blackout. College students in particular are screwed cause they
can't get their work done. StratGirlStories writes, "WTF WHY IS EVERYTHING
BEING BLACKED OUT!!!! I HAVE A FUCKING PROJECT DUE IN 5 HOURS!!!! I NEED
WIKIPEDIA!!!! FUCK FUCK FUCKKK"

And that's only one.

~~~
lucisferre
<https://twitter.com/#!/herpderpedia>

------
aravindkumar
yeah lot of ways to access wikipedia during the blockout

use the noscript is one and using wget the other and a lot of other such .

i want it block whole if they really wanna balckout . :(

