AcaWiki:SOPA-RWA

A bunch of sites are doing some form of blackout or soft blackout (interstitial) on Wednesday (Jan 18) against SOPA. See mockups for English Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Blackout_screen_designs

It'd be nice if AcaWiki could join in, and even nicer if it also promoted opposition to Research Works Act which would make it for people not at rich universities to access primary research in order to summarize.

I don't know that anyone has done a slick contact-all-relevant page for RWA -- http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/action/action_access/12-0106.shtml may be closest, good to link to if there isn't anything better.

Status

 * http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/acawiki-general/2012-January/thread.html#298
 * Implemented site notice variation below. Text, links, presentation could all surely be improved.

Presentation options

 * Interstitial: would require javascript, adding ref to javascript in, presumably in a MediaWiki theme
 * Site notice: fat banner using https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Interface/Sitenotice (done) and nice to add https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DismissableSiteNotice
 * Blackout: "redirect" entire site to static page. Would require rewrite rule and static html somewhere, or replace index.php

Proposed message
Two bills are making their way through the U.S. Congress that would have highly negative consequences for AcaWiki and the public good. Please take action against both.

Many large sites are blacking out January 18 to spur action against SOPA. Visit americancensorship.org to take action against this bill, which is a censorship and security risk for the entire internet. Wikimedia's General Counsel explains how SOPA would hurt wikis.

RWA would prohibit federal agencies from conditioning their grants to require that articles reporting on publicly funded research be made accessible to the public online. This is unjust, and would specifically harm AcaWiki, greatly reducing the number of people with access to important literature -- access is required to summarize. Please tell congresspeople to oppose RWA.

Time to take down banner?
While I admire AcaWiki protesting against legislation that impacts it, leaving it up for weeks at a time on a site with very little traffic is not going to make a big impact and deter the site from growing so that it can have bigger impact and fulfill its original mission. I think it's about time to take down the banner. Dcoetzee 09:40, 21 February 2012 (CET)
 * You're right, taken down. Thanks for the suggestion. Mike Linksvayer 01:26, 24 February 2012 (CET)