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Need Wikipedia-English for January 18, 2012 w/no Blackscreen?
Blackstorm72
Member
I did mention this in one thread but I figure I'll just point it out here.
If your in need to study today or research (like me today... due papers yay!) then there is a small, yet slightly annoying workaround to Wikipedia's 'blackout'.
As the page loads, hit the ESC (escape) key. This should stop the blackscreen from loading and you can start working on your studies as you normally would.
Now if they change it, they change it lol. I have confirmed it is working on my Google Chrome browser.
In addition, use your mobile phone for research as they did not black that out either.
Source: ndtv.com/article/world/wikipedia-blackout-lets-in-some-light-168086
Comments
Or disable javascript in your browser, that's reported to work too.
Hopefully individuals are doing as much to spread the word about Wikipedia & SOPA, as they are detracting from the effectiveness of their campaign. If someone is so inconvenienced without Wikipedia for a day that they need to use this workaround, the individual should stop and think about what it will be like if SOPA does go through in its current form.
I understand Wikipedia also put notice on their site about getting to it via mobile etc, however it would be good to see people contributing more to spreading the word than devaluing the exercise.
Today it's Wikipedia you can't cope without a work around, just wait until it's the whole internet...
Well put Joel. It's just bad for me today as I was told to specifically to get information from my classmates today from Wikipedia. Even they didn't know - I didn't know about the blackout but I knew about SOPA strikes today.
Just disable Javascript in your browser when browsing Wikipedia, the blackout page is nothing more then simple Javascript.
You could also just use the mobile version of the site: http://en.mobile.wikipedia.org/
The SSL version works nicely for me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
I;m just dropping the url into google and looking at the cache.
I imagine they did it this way to demonstrate how easy it is to circumvent controls.
It's very simple...But you need to be a little snappy for this. Just press the stop button on your browser as soon as the article is done loading. Maybe around a second or so it depends on your internet connection or just disable the JavaScript or go mobile.
I concur with @Joel. Sure there may be a few rare cases where getting to the site is actually needed (although I must admit, I would have my doubts of any academic program that required Wikipedia as the primary credible source), but circumventing the blackout only builds apathy.
Of the folks that are currently disabling Javascript or using alternative browsing methods to view the site, it's probably fair to assume that a good number of them will continue to procrastinate on the SOPA/PIPA issue under the reasoning of "Look how easy it is now, I'm sure I can just get a proxy or something later if it does pass".
Well said...Well the SOPA isn't really bothering me at all for the moment. People are like that from the start you know get your stuff done and walk out.
lol@ the JavaScript blackout
I was using NoScript and didn't even notice that there was supposed to be a black screen, only after i whitelisted wikipedia.org i got redirected to the black page
I would have really preferred to see them go truly offline, instead of a javascript bedsheet drawn over their page....
But then how would they put across their personal appeals to the folks circumventing the JS? :P
Ha! Speaking of personal appeals, I'm sure they would achieve greater effect if they put Jimmy Wales' sad-puppy-dog face on there, like we usually see during donation time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Anyone see Google today?
No, I don't like google
lol