A Work-around for Wikipedia going dark

[MarkCharles]

As you all know, Wikipedia is dark from midnight eastern time for 24 hours.

That's TRUE in ENGLISH!

The French and German or Spanish, (and probably other languages) are still available.

It also might be available in English in other English speaking nations, if you want to call your buddies in the UK or Australia or even Canada on Skype and have them look something up for you.

Users of the Google Chrome browser can have articles in French or German or whatever language translated into computer-generated English by the browser itself. Of course, if you don't know the French or German or whatever language word for something, it might be hard to look it up. But Google translate can help with that, too.

In other words, I'm pretty sure this Wiki shut down only affects servers serving people in the USA, not worldwide. After all, even though we think we're more important in the world than we are, we in America are only about 4.4% of the world's population.

[Tx4obama]

1. Here's a couple

Spanish: http://es.wikipedia.org/

Italian: http://it.wikipedia.org/

French: fr.wikipedia.org/

[MarkCharles]

2. Thanks for that link!

Actually if one simply enters "wikipedia.org" in the search bar, one is taken to the main language menu globe image page, and can select whatever language one wishes.

Only by selecting English in the USA will wiki go dark, I have found.

[AsahinaKimi]

18. Japanese wiki!

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/

[eppur_se_muova]

3. I got your English right here ...

http://ang.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C4%93afods%C4%ABde

[Ecumenist]

8. What kind of english is that? Looks Scandinavian...

[eppur_se_muova]

15. It's Old English, i.e. Anglo-Saxon. nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. Which may have some Scandinavian roots

brought in by Angles, Saxons, and Jutes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvaeonic

A whole lot of "cultural exchange" has happened in Britain in the Roman and Post-Roman eras. Some of it was pre-Internet, I think.

[eppur_se_muova]

17. IIRC one should regard OE as a 'cousin' of Scand. languages, not a descendant ...

West Germanic vs. Northern Germanic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germanic_languages



That's why German and Dutch are so much easier for English speakeers to learn ...

[joshcryer]

4. You can also turn off javascript, or, just press ESC before the page loads completely.

[Tx4obama]

5. Ahhh, that works thanks! Now we just need a workaround for DU :) n/t

[fishwax]

6. that's good to know -- I guess people with script blockers may not even know the site is dark

I was wondering why I was still able to see wikipedia--your post explains it. Thanks for the useful info.

[MarkCharles]

7. What script blocker are you using? Just for my info.

I never have used anything other than an ad blocker. (Adblockplus)

I DO go dark in English if I just use my old bookmark.

[fishwax]

9. I use NoSript on Firefox

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Turn Java Script off if you absolutely need it

or use a mobile device.

Tomorrow I will make a point of NOT using it, not even in Spanish and lord knows I could

[ProgressiveEconomist]

11. MUCH easier, and in English: Use the Google cache

MUCH easier, and in English: Use the Google cache (Google stayed up and just had a censorship blackout rectangle over its search page logo). For example, if you want to see the Wikipedia article on "carried interest", enter into the Google search box

site:wikipedia.org +"carried interest"

Try it at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=site%3Awikipedia.org+%2B%22carried+interest%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1 .

It works now, it worked during the Wikipedia blackout, and it'll work in the future.

[justiceischeap]

12. And Congress thinks they can censor the Interwebs

Look at you folks already finding work arounds to get to Wikipedia! How long to you think it would take for the folks they're really trying to stop to find a work around and disseminate it?

[pa28]

13. You can also hit ESC just when your browser lands on the page. n/t

Used that one a couple of times today

[RZM]

14. I think all of the non-English wikipedias are up

The Russian one is with a banner message about SOPA that says freedom of speech is 'in danger' and that the danger extends to all languages and countries.

It will be interesting to see what they would do if the Russian government made moves to censor the internet. They've made noises about it, but haven't really done much yet. The internet is the only place Russians can go for news without a United Russia spin. The papers and TV (the latter is where most Russians get their news) have pretty much been co-opted by the government.