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As Wikipedia sits silent and dark for legions of despondent would-be users (who, apparently, never thought of Googling for some help around the blackout), a trio of old-school publications have stepped into the void to try and replace the collective knowledge of the Internet. The Washington Post, the Guardian, and NPR have been taking tweets from information-deprived Webizens and trying to provide answers to all life’s questions, large and small. Just smack an #altwiki tag at the end of a question and the combined brainpower will try to supply you with an honest-to-goodness answer.
Even though chuckleheads have been flooding the tag with ridiculous questions – such as “Shoot, who played that guy in that thing? You know the one.” – the trio of publications have still been dropping knowledge about everything from speedy mammals to the speed of light in a vacuum, along with a host of other topics. Don’t mistake the help for a Stop SOPA endorsement, however, as Washington Post blogger Elizabeth Flock explains:
#AltWiki, of course, doesn’t seek to replace Wikipedia, or indicate that The Post is taking a stand against the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or the Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). It does, however, tell us quite a bit about how much 477 million people a month rely on Wikipedia.
Other crowdsource-style hashtags have popped up, too, including #FactsWithoutWikipedia and #WorldWithoutWikipedia. In fact, #FactsWithoutWikipedia seems almost as hoppin’ as the #altwiki tag. You have to admire what The Post and others are trying to do here -- unless you're on The Post's research team, of course, in which case today probably really, really sucks.
Twitter user Herpderpedia takes a totally different tact, but one that brings a smile to our faces nonetheless.
Comments are closed on this article
Blaze589
January 18, 2012 at 4:45pm
Strange wikipedia.org isn't blocked out to me (Js is on). I figure certain DNS servers might bypass it.
rubbachicken
January 18, 2012 at 2:00pm
While we all try to find ways around this lets not forget the entire point was to raise awareness ---- not to hide the answers that the wiki has...
While you're avoiding the JScript in order to get your answers, make sure not to overlook the realism of what you would have to do if the Wiki were gone...
You wouldn't be able to simply disable javascript, you'd be reduced to asking your questions to individuals or groups of individuals and awaiting them to manually respond. Wiki is blacking itself out to demonstrate the negative impacts of SOPA and raise awareness in how they actually affect end users --- rather than just 'discussing'
wolfing
January 18, 2012 at 1:19pm
it's even easier than that, just disable javascript. All wikipedia is doing is a redirect to the blackout page by javascript.
MvanA
January 18, 2012 at 1:13pm
If you want info from Wikipedia you could just follow the directions FROM Wikipedia:
Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way?
Yes. During the blackout, Wikipedia is accessible on mobile devices and smart phones. You can also view Wikipedia normally by disabling JavaScript in your browser, as explained on this Technical FAQ page. Our purpose here isn't to make it completely impossible for people to read Wikipedia, and it's okay for you to circumvent the blackout. We just want to make sure you see our message.
Mortal_M
January 19, 2012 at 9:56am
I know right, they have the directions right there and they can't even follow them? no wonder they need to use Wikipedia everyday instead of figuring things out using logic before going there.
Slurpy
January 19, 2012 at 12:19am
Hell, you didn't even have to disable JS. All you had to do was hit the stop button while it was rendering, and you were good.
