I think, and believe this isn't presumptuous, that the overwhelming majority of the regular users here are anti-SOPA and mostly aware of the issues so the preaching would only serve to annoy the choir. Good on Wikipedia though.

The blackout isn't - at least in this case - directly for PM regulars. But i think it might still significantly add to the cumultative effect on the minds of outsiders. And that of the press.

PM is one of the major, well known software developer forums. I think, having the industry and press be aware that SOPA can also affect the economy of purely in-house projects (by cutting of the in-house developer from the community) is worth the effort, too.

"You have reached the Monastery. All our helpdesk monks are busy at the moment. Please press "1" to instantly donate 10 currency units for a good cause or press "2" to hang up. Or you can dial "12" to get connected directly to second level support."

I applaud the sentiment but PM, though it is easily my favorite, is not even remotely a major forum. Now if /. or SO and any of its 60ish sub-sites wanted to join the blackout, that would be something.

PM is one of the major, well known software developer forums.

Buhahahhaa.

Sorry to blow your bubble, but Perlmonks is just space dust. It's unimportant in the global scale. Noone significant will have heard of Perlmonks, let alone be impressed by a blackout. Really, do you think there's an American senator or congress (wo)man who will say, "I was going to vote in favour of SOPA, but now that Perlmonks is blocked for 24 hours, I vote against it"?

Not that I expect Wikipedia going black will matter. That's as useful as wearing pink for a month in breast cancer awareness month, or sprouting facial hair in November in an effort to cure or prevent cancer or some other disease. Changing your life style or donating to research may though.

I've been saying this for 2 decades: if people keep violating copyrights, it will come back and bite you. SOPA doesn't surprise me -- that it has taken this long does. Sure, "our" community is now mighty upset about SOPA, but I seldomly hear anything constructive from the same community to prevent piracy. In fact, the community is full of people with hundreds of gigabytes of illegally downloaded music and movies. Fess up, how many of you have never downloaded a pirated copy of a movie, a piece of music, a book, or something else that should have been paid for?

[Cue the flock of people that will come with arguments that the entertainments industry business model is outdated: that's irrelevant. It's not your product, it's theirs, so they can use whatever business model they want. And then there are the people who claim "but if I really like it, I'll buy it". Yeah, sure.]

P.S. If Microsoft shutdowns Bing for 24 hours, will we give up open source?

"I think, having the industry and press be aware that SOPA can also affect the economy of purely in-house projects (by cutting of the in-house developer from the community) is worth the effort, too."

Not sure how cutting off access for one day to PerlMonks would undermine any in-house projects. I like this site a lot too but — c'mon!

In general: Even the most ardent supporters of SOPA/PIPA have not effectively demonstrated how the passing of either law will hurt the paycheck of your average coder — (the wallets of bigger companies like Google/Facebook is another debate). Regardless of if these bills pass or not programmers will still be able to create and share code.



"...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote

"There are quite a lot of others sites also doing something to protest."

I don't think Reddit and about a dozen sites I never heard of count as — a lot of other sites"

"Should we, as PerlMonks, join in the effort?"

I may possibly be in the minority but I would say — NO

"What do you think?"

I doubt this would make a dent in the awareness campaign and I also don't see how it will do any good to inform visitors. While there are some parts of SOPA I don't agree with I support the overall goals of both SOPA and PIPA. I have spent a considerable amount of my time reading up on the issue (including reading the proposed bills) to come to this position. Yet I would NOT consider myself an expert by any definition. A black banner isn't going to 1. teach me something new. or 2. Change my mind.

You may want to read up on the bills. AFAIK you're safe to quote whatever you want within current citation guidelines. The bills are designed to keep sites from posting material that violates intellectual property and/or linking to sites which do so. There are a lot of 'boogie-man' claims being tossed about, it's important not to repeat them. :-)



"...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." — Don Quixote

Wikipedia is staging a SOPA blackout, beginning in a few hours.

Otherwise, you'll still be enable to enjoy Wikipedia.

Why, just this weekend I didn't use the internet for a day. In fact, I never used it for several days over the December school break either. Count me in as an enthusiastic supporter!

Now, what is it am I joining again?

that "others" pay a price is exactly the point. If you can't see that then regardless of your position on SOPA, your opinion isn't worth the key strokes.