8 ms·

Well it embodies the best and the worst of internet movements. While the foundations are good: protecting the web from bad laws, restrictions etc... the execut

• ralfn 14y ago
  I think you have democracy backwards. We are not to serve our politicians, they are here to serve us. They dont care what a small group of nerds and tech companies want and think. They care what average people think they want. Symbolism, accessable tone of voice .. Thats extremely relevant. You shouldnt compare it to lobbyist webites. You should compare it those of political movements and politically oriented charities. The memification of the message is brilliant marketing, because its funny, accesible and honest. Rescue the lolcats from the evil clutches of the internet hate league! So load up your meme gun and blast these seniors out of congress.
  • alttab 14y ago
    Rescue the lolcats from the evil clutches of the internet hate league! So load up your meme gun and blast these seniors out of congress. That right there. Tell me GP when youve found someone who can't get behind that. I think you'll be surprised.
• eshvk 14y ago
  > It really feels like a little club of geeks trying to have an impact in the world and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It kind of is though. Also some of these "little club of geeks" have extraordinarily deep pockets and any Senator/representative worth their salt knows how much that matters. I don't want to make demean important movements in the sixties by making comparisons of their oddities but money/power worked then and Senators/Representatives know it.
  • dholowiski 14y ago
    Deep pockets, and web sites with millions of visitors.
• smokeyj 14y ago
  > It really feels like a little club of geeks trying to have an impact in the world and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Yeah, there's nothing worse than geeks trying to have an impact. What a bunch of ass holes! I'm curious, what impact do you have on "old style Senators"?
  • jmduke 14y ago
    You're missing the point. I'd argue initiatives like these should have the aim of educating as many people as possible: things like a 'cat signal' may undermine that effort.
    • ralfn 14y ago
      Im sorry. But a cat signal is awesome. And the problem with educating people isnt the quality of the informational value of the message, its the lack of entertainment value. Consider the daily show or colbert report, do they make people read less well informed newspapers? Most of their viewers were not reading those. It is however taking attention away from reality shows. Likewise this is not to replace the EFF, but to widen its reach, and get people actively involved, that wouldnt get involved otherwise.
• kitsune_ 14y ago
  As if an "old style Senator" would base his support for or against a bill on a website's design. This is about engaging young nerds and non-nerds, average citizens and making an impact on main stream media. It's a marketing and PR stunt. It will trigger media coverage and thousands of phone calls... politicians fear at least one of those two things like the plague. And it's probably not the phone calls. We already have a formal projects such as the EFF. They are the backbone of all this.
  • mcguire 14y ago
    ...and the EFF hasn't been all that wildly successful at bringing the mass of cute-cat-photo-loving 'net users into the issue.
• _delirium 14y ago
  My guess is that the targeting here is aimed more at internet users than at Senators, i.e. it's an attempt to get more people who vaguely care about these issues actively involved in them and feeling that EFF et al represent their interests.
• catenate 14y ago
  I'll second this. That stupid-looking cat tells me nothing about the goal of the movement, what it's fighting against, or the character of its supporters, other than they probably also like nyancat or hello kitty. If you want a serious symbol, use the liberty cap that Congress couldn't bring themselves to use on their statue of Columbia.
  • petitmiam 14y ago
    Is the Internet Defense League just an American thing?
    • catenate 14y ago
      Don't think so. The liberty cap has been a symbol of emancipation from slavery in Western culture since ancient times. There's a statue of Columbia, goddess of liberty, atop the dome of Congress. She was designed with a liberty cap, but was created too close to the American civil war for the south to accept the symbolism.
      • petitmiam 14y ago
        Thank you for the explanation. I couldn't find a nice succinct explanation in my quick google search.
• crazygringo 14y ago
  I totally agree that the cat/league/etc. is ridiculous. The problem is not with old style senators. The problem is with the 95% of the general population that is confused or turned off by it. You're trying to convince the general electorate, which then determines who gets elected. It does feel like a little club of geeks, which is not effective as a movement that aims to convince/beyond that circle.
  • sukuriant 14y ago
    Honestly, the 95% of the general population is the percent that still throws around cat pictures as though they're the newest and greatest things. My mother is often sending me cute animal pictures that were popular in the 90's and early 2000's.
    • gauravk92 14y ago
      We start it, early adopters. The mass picks up on it after a few years, only if it gets started in the first place.
      • sukuriant 14y ago
        Exactly!
      • kahawe 14y ago
        > We start it, early adopters. The mass picks up on it after a few years, only if it gets started in the first place. Which, coincidentally, is a LOT of what you can see happening these days with "social networking" and "cloud computing" and all those other hypes and trends that basically existed very well in the 90s and before but now the public is "catching up" with technical developments.
  • ralfn 14y ago
    Everybody considers themselves a geek these days. Because they like batman, board games or scifi movies like avatar. Lets hope a majority of people will be fooled into thinking they are part of a special club of l33t interweb freedom f1ght3rs. I am being both sarcatic ( about how everyone thinks they are a geek these days ) and honest ( about that it could actually work ) here.
• Produce 14y ago
  What? This is an awesome design and approach which will appeal to most people. Everyone's seen Batman, watched cartoons and comedies. This hooks into popular culture and uses it to deliver a message. I don't see references to memes here - can you point any out? Besides, just what the hell is wrong with cats? Maybe you're a dog person but a lot of us are not. Elitist.
  • doc4t 14y ago
    The easiest position to take when disagreeing with someone is to stick a label on the opposition as if this justifies that you should not take their argument seriously. I for one think he has a point and if you don't please come up with something better than name calling.
    • Produce 14y ago
      That last sentence was meant as a joke. I sincerely hope that HTML6 gets those <humour> tags.
• dholowiski 14y ago
  >it really feels like a little club of geeks trying to have an impact in the world What's wrong with that? Go geeks! Don't you think the first time the "Cat Signal" is activated, it will make the news, and bring attention to the issue? Also, old senators die. We'll replace them with redditors.
• mindcrime 14y ago
  For old style senators I am talking about basically any person over 35 that has no idea what reddit/ twitter/ cat facts are and who will find that ridiculous. Yes Senators and representatives are supposed to work for you, but it's like for everything they have to take you seriously. We belong to the Z generation but in order to talk to other generations we have to use common references and avoid cats or internet memes or super hero folklore for what it matters. Serious business in two words. OK, I don't disagree with the general sentiment of what you're saying... but I think you overstate the extent to which you can generalize the youthfulness of the audience here, and/or the extent to which the Internet is only know nto the young. As a 39 year old "Gen X"er, I'm aware of plenty of people my age who know and use Reddit, Twitter, etc. Plenty of people roughly my age were in college in the 90's when the Internet was first becoming widely available, and are 'net savvy.
• pnathan 14y ago
  victork2 has a very good point. There is a massive disconnect between the online nerd world and the offline non-nerd world. As a marketing strategy - and let me be clear, this is a marketing & people problem, not a technical one - you need to be able to reach the "Joe the Plumber" types. Someone who checks his facebook & email on the weekends, possibly forwarding glurge. Someone who does not own a smartphone, because they are confusing. Someone who will not get troll culture, memes and lulz, seeing them as juvenile foolery. Put another way: a campaign like this needs to drive on many fronts, including the internet culture drive, the corporate drive, and the blue-collar drive.
  • sageikosa 14y ago
    Well, from my quick glance at the site, the league isn't aimed at "Joe User", but internet savvy "Lance Site-Owner" so they can show solidarity with the fight against evils to be yet illuminated by "Fight for the Future". Basically they are trying to institutionalize a network of "like-minded" internet activists; which will at least be interesting as a sociology experiment to see how it evolves and what kinds of reaction it gets.
    • pnathan 14y ago
      Yes, but in order to move outside of the Lances, a different approach has to be developed. It needs not to be a geek-only campaign and instead needs to be a campaign that includes non-geeks. Remember, most of the world are not geeks, and in a representative democracy, that means very few people in power are geeks. Geeks need to be able to communicate these socio-technical issues to non-geeks. I really hope that the Internet defence league works to communicate to the mainstream of the culture - the non-geeks - what's going on, because the mainstream is the primary driver of how we move politically (technically it's a feedback loop with the mass media playing a large part, but mainstream culture carries a large momentum and sway).
      • sageikosa 14y ago
        I believe the idea is that when the Committee for Public Safety decides something so heinous is about to be passed in (some?) legislature somewhere in the world (a little hazy on what will be actionable), they will fire up the cat-signal and provide updated campaign code to League members to demonstrate solidarity via a "hunger-strike" of sorts "going-dark" protest. Not sure if the cat signal will be involved in this "final-mile" of the distributed protest action or not.
• guelo 14y ago
  This cat league stuff is marketing for the network itself, the actual message that will be sent over the network will depend on the specific issue being addressed and will probably be tailored for a more mainstream audience.
• rapind 14y ago
  35? Really? I'm over 35 as are most of my friends, and I seriously doubt any of them are going to be scratching their head at the cat reference. Suggesting we would is a little insulting to be honest. Not to mention the Justice League play is more my generation than yours. I think you need to up your age boundary a bit. Maybe 45, and even then... Anyways, all of you youngsters who get the cat signal are certainly capable of calling or writing your local representative. I'll cheer for anything that raises awareness and reduces apathy among my generation and yours.
  • waterlesscloud 14y ago
    Kids today. People over 35 invented internet culture.
    • rapind 14y ago
      shakes fist
      • alttab 14y ago
        "but it's our thing. Get off Facebook grandma"
      • rdtsc 14y ago
        Get off my virtual (VRML) lawn!
        • lucisferre 14y ago
          Oooh boy was that ever a flash in the pan.
  • Spearchucker 14y ago
    Kids today. People over 45 invented the Internet.
    • chris_wot 14y ago
• ondrae 14y ago
  Where is your internet defense league?
• mcguire 14y ago
  I think you're looking at it from the wrong side. I believe the point of the goofy "league" and cat are to bring in sites, which are mostly made up of reddit'ors and weird-ass-looking-cat lovers. Once the sites are onboard and the "league" sends out the "signal", this site has to attract the users, who are the redditors and cheezburger-ites. Some small, minuscule fraction of those will do things like call their senators, resulting in tied-up phone lines, angry recriminations, and general panic.[1] That is what your old-style Senator is going to take seriously. The organizational style is very similar to that of other organizations that attempt to motivate constituents like the NRA and AARP and if you really want to spend some time boggling, check out their communications to their constituency. In other words, the "general public" is not the target here. Neither are representatives, directly. The target is the "Z generation"[2], which are underrepresented in political debates, I think. And if you want them to do something, you probably want to use some memes. [1] That's hyperbole, but I do suspect that if .01% of the American readers of icanhascheezburger were to call their representatives, [2] "Z generation"? I prefer to think of it as "Force Z".
• rwhitman 14y ago
  Except that the target audience for this launch campaign is other website owners / webmasters, not the senate or the general populace. I'm sure if they start doing anything in earnest for the general public the campaign materials will change.
• chez17 14y ago
  What's important is that you've found a way to feel morally superior and do nothing about the problems we face today. A true internet warrior.
  • jff 14y ago
    Wait, are you talking about the GP, or the "Internet Defense League"?
  • MSM 14y ago
    Whoa whoa whoa... Don't act like signing up on a website is equivalent to doing something. It's literally the absolute least you could do.
    • chez17 14y ago
      No, the least you could do is make snarky comments about the people who are actually trying to do something. This isn't about 'signing up' for a website. This is about trying to mobilize a group of people that often times is not that involved with politics. The idea is that when you sign up, you'll take action on the items that the site informs you about. There is literally nothing like this on the internet for this demographic and the OP gets the most upvoted comment complaining that they used the term 'cat signal'? Politics and protesting can be fun and inviting. This has zero effect on anything except for grump old people who think that they know better. We stopped SOPA with a few days of action and a few big names stepping up. This is simply an attempt to harness that power and dedication. People who are already shitting on this, on day one, while typical is still extremely sad.
      • MSM 14y ago
        > We stopped SOPA This is what I'm worried about. Who really stopped SOPA? You can bet that anyone who signs up for this will go around touting how they stopped SOPA, just like the guy next to me pretty much single handedly saved Haiti in 2010 with his $5 donation to the Red Cross. There is a disparity between giving money so that others can continue to do work and being the one doing the work. I want that distinction clear, and to remain clear. The doctor who flew down to Haiti to personally help is infinitely more valuable than someone who donated. EDIT: I'm not saying that this is useless or dumb. It's a step in the right direction, albeit (IMO) a small one. I just don't want to see "I signed up- I'm going to save the internet!" I think the people who really devote themselves to these causes should be respected on a different level than those that, for instance, sign up for this.
• fleitz 14y ago
  No but old style senators still like good old fashioned vote buying, vote early, vote often my friends. If shitty internet legislation costs them popularity or makes them look out of touch then they'll stop doing it. The key is that this is going to be put in place on many sites so that the power can be readily abused to bring the kinds of legislative changes we want to see. If it works within a few years you should start seeing earmarks for whoever controls the switch.
• humblepie 14y ago
  I agree with your premise. But I think when it gets momentum and gets picked up by the news media, there will be lots of 'explainers' on TV and the web.
• sophacles 14y ago
  I find that the words used are equally ridiculous: "League", ... To be fair, the following all get a lot of congressional hearing time: * American League * National League * National Football League
  • mcguire 14y ago
    * League of Women Voters * Anti-Defamation League
    • chris_wot 14y ago
      League of Nations... Oh sorry, that's the UN.
• deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
• Shorel 14y ago
  > It's like saying a meme out loud Lots of memes are only said out loud. Don't forget the original meme definition.
• cabalamat 14y ago
  > Do you really think it's going to make them think you're anything but a joke? After what happened with SOPA and ACTA, they can regard it as a joke at their peril.
• spanktheuser 14y ago
  I'd agree if IDL were meant to be a serious policy organization or directly lobby Congress. But that isn't the case - it's a way of applying grass roots pressure by making people like your average redditor aware of issues and motivated to do something about them. That's the target, so thus the geek pop style of communication. Wholly appropriate for what they're actually trying to achieve.