

SOPA/PIPA: More than 250k tweets / hr - huangm
http://hotspots.io/sopa

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PedroCandeias
...And some of them highlight just how steep a hill it is to bring tech
matters to the general public's attention:

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

~~~
missing_cipher
It also shows just how powerful the blackout is. I much rather these people
asking what's going on, then going on with their day in ignorance. Maybe a few
hundred will learn what's up and phone their representative.

~~~
danudey
The fact that most of them seem to be completely ignorant of the reasons
(which are spelt out right there on Wikipedia's blackout page, with a link to
even more details) implies to me that these people are going to go on with
their day in ignorance regardless.

Half of them seem to be angry at Wikipedia for taking away their free
reference material the day before their papers are due, rather than angry at
the government for putting a lot of time and money into destroying the
internet.

~~~
dmix
From just a "users dont read" UX perspective, the wikipedia blackout page does
the worst job of communicating _why_ they are blacked out.

There's only one sentence at the end of the paragraph explaining why: "For 24
hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn More"

The more page has a very detailed explanation in a FAQ format, but noones
going to read this much text to figure it out:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more)

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Achshar
Well today, i feel great. I am essentially glad that the community can stand
as a whole and keep aside their mutual competitive agendas. Today will
defiantly be seen as a special day when they teach "internet history" to the
next generation. And it feels great to be a part of it and witness it first
hand. Plus seeing my non-geek friends posting about SOPA is not very bad
either.

~~~
juiceandjuice
We're mad as hell, and we're not gonna take this anymore!

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

~~~
corin_
For anyone about to click the above YouTube link: if you haven't yet seen the
1976 film Network, don't click the link, watch the film instead.

Watching it probably won't do much to spoil the film, though it is a great
scene that's made greater by context - and it's a fantastic film, that more
people should watch.

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agscala
Others were mentioning before today that "Twitter should black out because
it's one of the few services the people in the government use, so they would
experience the impact of SOPA."

Twitter is a sounding board for the internet, and I think by having it
available, SOPA is getting much more attention than it would have gotten than
if it was blacked out. 250k/hr regarding one topic sure is nothing to sneeze
at!

~~~
IgorPartola
Those messages would have come through tomorrow. And what is better: a few
million tweets most of which are inarticulate or a single well presented page
that EVERY TWITTER USER would read?

~~~
CrazedGeek
That depends, how much of Twitter's userbase uses the web clients?

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wcgortel
As wonderful as this is, we've got to remember that tweets are only a symptom
of success. We've got to continue translating virtual action into actual
action, like the NY Tech Meetup did today.

Even with that, I'm familiar with at least one SOPA agnostic who walked right
by without noticing them. This still doesn't feel life and death to the Bobs
and Marys around the country.

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grandalf
This means nothing b/c if there were a vote, less than 10% of the people would
show up at the polls over this issue... that's actually probably very very
optimistic.

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justindocanto
About 600 of them we're generated from people using my site:
<http://www.piparollcall.com/> =)

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drhowarddrfine
Following the tweets through one service, I mostly saw pissed off college
students with papers due within hours who lambasted Wikipedia for doing this.

~~~
reidmain
And the worst thing is that they still don't know why Wikipedia is doing it.
They just see the blacked out screen and their immediate reaction is not to
read but to go complain on Twitter.

