LHBA Membership Beyond the 'Net

[John17three]

If you've not noticed, numerous websites are showing their opposition to some privacy protection laws our intrusive gov't (SOPA/PIPA) has been trying to push upon the internet. AND, many of us (at one time or another) wondered what would happen if our nation experienced a cyber attack on the 'net.

Wikipedia has posted, in part: "SOPA and PIPA would put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn't being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA would build a framework for future restrictions and suppression. Makes you wonder--WORSE CASE SCENERIO--what would happen to our online member forum?

I've not built a house yet, and the member forum of experienced and amateur builders was a big influence in my decision to become LHBA. I was highly skeptical that in two days I could absorb all the necessary techniques to build a home. I need(ed) the LHBA member forum. So, maybe LHBA members should have something in place outside the internet to communicate with each other in case of "cyber fallout." Any ideas? Thoughts? Recommendations?

[rocklock]

Pick up almost any object in your house and you will find one or more government required stuff (packaging, labeling, bar codes, warnings, etc.). Check out any ladder with all the stupid stickers and labels...Then taxes are on everything (in Hawaii we have an excise tax...), and it seems that everyone has an opinion on everything.
Then, we (the US) must police the world.
Now the internet! when we are broke and can't figure our even the most simple things like the XL pipeline...
enough...

[rkissinger]

I hope this thread comes to life as it should! I don't have any insightful things to add, but one piece of obvious advice that you already know. Get to know your neighbors in the real world, go out and meet as many LHBA'ers near you as you can. Only good things will come of it. You are probably right there should be a phone tree or something, but I suppose if it gets so bad we can't even email each other then our phones probably won't work either. Maybe we should transcribe the Google members map onto an actual paper map just in case, however travel "privileges" may be suspended for our own safety... Yep eerie stuff to think about.

[LogSurfer2]

I hear you John....and let's hope enough publicity and opposition prevent this from happening. As you said, this would just be a step in the direction of more & more infringements. We all know this. Sadly a large portion of the US population is just to busy or distracted to pay attention to all the rights they no longer have.

I guess this is where trying to get/keep in touch with your LHBA friends and members might help. If we all get several contacts outside of the forum, ie. phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc. perhaps we can keep in touch that way if, heaven forbid, we couldn't access the forum.

The admin is pretty ingenious, so I don't doubt they've put a little thought into it, and I believe they maintain a database of many or all members. There would probably be some type of e-mail communication down the line should something "unthinkable" happen....?

Never hurts to plan ahead ;-) If all else fails....learn Chinese.

[Ellsworth]

Gee, reddit goes off line for a day and suddenly there's panic in the streets!

I understand and appreciate the concern. Rest assured the LHBA forum isn't going anywhere.

Worst case we adapt, like every other forum will have to -- like how forums adapted when Righthaven was a threat. Hey, Wikipedia is back online so I can post a link to Righthaven info. To be clear, you will still have this forum as a resource if SOPA and PIPA pass.

The following is just personal opinion: SOPA and PIPA are examples of bad legislation. Everyone who cares about the internet is right to be worried about these pieces of legislation becoming bad law. But remember, "Don't Panic."

Constructive action helps prevent panic It's really easy to use the NRA website to look up contact information for your local members of congress. You might want to send them snail mail, email and also call them (literally, do all three). Reference Senate bill S. 968 and House bill H.R. 3261.

[edkemper]

IMPO, ain't gonna effect us on this site. The admin has always been quick to stop questionable activities by anyone and to protect our private data. Censorship or protecting our house?

[panderson03]

I have no doubt that Steve (sir, your little one doesn't seem to be growing much. got a new avitar??) and Ellsworth will keep this place up and running even if Gov't imposes more rules. BUT if something really nasty occurs and we cannot access any internet or phone at all, I wonder if we could all connect via ham radio?

[Steve]

It looks like SOPA and PIPA are effectively dead in their current form already, so there's not much sense in worrying about them for now.

By market capitalization, silicon valley is worth more than that of the Hollywood studios and the various big-label record companies all added together. The tech companies are now slowly learning the lobbying game. And fortunately, online forums including us have our interests in common with the tech companies at the moment. So we get all the benefits of their lobbying efforts for free.

I don't think our interests will always be so well-aligned. But it worked out nicely in this case...

@panderson03 Yeah I'm slow with the pics, I'll try and fix it soon.

[JeffandSara]

Although the immediate issue seems to be resolved, Judy's comments reminded me of the problems I had recently when my computer crashed and I was unable to retrieve my complete e-mail address book.

I was able to connect with several friends here through PMs, but I have lost a few miscellaneous correspondents until/unless they contact me. Not the end of the world, since my closest friends I do have alternative (non-digital) contact information; and internet friendships are sometimes fairly transitory.

However, it's probably worth looking through my contacts (here and elsewhere) to re-think if there are still folks that I WOULD feel really devastated to lose touch with for whom I DON'T have alternative contact information. Good idea, Judy!

Happy New Year, Steve, and kiss that cute kid.

Welcome all January class new members.

Sara

[edkemper]

My wife just got an e-mail from me that I didn't send. It was a porno or drug link. I use a Mac and we're fairly virus proof. Since I just got my 'puter back from the shop, I gave them a call to see what they recommended. No virus protection was recommended. He emmediately knew what the problem was. He told me he got this same call about 3 times per week. Just told me to go to Yahoo (my AT&T server is yahoo) and check to see if I had an address book on Yahoo. Or old e-mails in the Sent folder, etc. He told me Yahoo gets hacked and they harvest e-addresses from my Yahoo acct. I deleted every address in every file.

Hopefully my wife won't need to ask me about strange e-mails I send her in the future.

The other recommendation is one you already know, regular back-ups.