This blog is hosted on blogspot.com, so I can't pull the plug on it. What I can do instead is simply change the template so that the the background is black and the foreground is also black. I've done this for the demonstration site http://sopa-protest.blogspot.com. You can see that all the articles, such as this one and this one, have the same template, and thus have the same blackout effect, so I don't need to edit the articles individually to cause the blackout. After January 18th, I'll simply change the template back again.
Thus, the steps are:
- SAVE the original template first!!!
- Change the template ("Edit HTML") so that the text is black-on-black, so nobody can read it.
- Add the protest message to the template, such after the <body> tag.
- Save the new template at 8am on January 18, 2012.
- Restore your old, saved template at 8pm January 18, 2012.
- This November, send donations to the competitors of those politician who voted for SOPA.
(Of course, only a couple thousand people will notice the difference on our blog, most of whom oppose SOPA anyway, but the symbolic gesture is still important).
Update: Here is a list of other websites blacking out on Jan 18.
Update: You can easily change your Twitter picture to include a SOPA reference here: http://www.blackoutsopa.org/
Update: Here is a great link http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120111/09293817377/as-sopapipa-becomes-toxic-frantic-congress-test-runs-dropping-dns-blocking-provisions.shtml that discusses how the problems with SOPA aren't simply with the well-known "DNS blocking" issue. It's a wide range of issues that gives too much power to copyright holders, and forces websites to block content because of liability risk.
Update: BTW, it's interesting how Reddit has become the new center of geekdom. Even though this blog has been Slashdotted a few times, far more traffic has come from Reddit. I wonder if Slashdot plans to similarly blackout their site in protest.
Do the RSS feed, too!
ReplyDeleteThere's a countdown to the Blackout here. http://vrsry.com/sopa Thought ya'll'd like it.
ReplyDeleteI made a deluxe template. I hope you don't mind that I borrowed some text from your idea.
ReplyDeletehttp://sopa-blackout-template.blogspot.com
It preserves all of your widgets, tucks them at the bottom, and hides them from view.
Cool. I'll copy yours on Wednesday.
ReplyDeletehey, there i get an xml error message and i don't know why. it says: "The entity name must immediately follow the '&' in the entity reference."
ReplyDeletethanks, mate
TheRedHippieTeenager:
ReplyDeleteSave your template first, then make changes. You can restore your blog exactly as it was before by using the saved template.
There is a app you can download too, that would have blackened things out for you. Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/apps/stop_censorship
ReplyDeleteI'm collecting screen-shots of the blackouts and posting them on my own blog. (http://notsosecretsecretblog.blogspot.com/)