Launch Post-Mortem: #BlackoutSOPA

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Update: We peaked at > 30QPS right out of the gate. Doing work tonight to scale because i think we can tip this on Tuesday with your help!

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Politicians are starting to realize that SOPA/PIPA are toxic but we need to stay top of mind. Did you know that the news networks owned by media companies are ignoring the debate and not reporting on SOPA/PIPA? This media blackout pissed off me & grex so much that we decided to do something about it.

Blackout on SOPA? Fuck that, let’s BlackoutSOPA! 

At 1pm today we launched www.BlackoutSOPA.org which lets you replace your Twitter avatar with one of several choices to protest SOPA. It also lets you change it back with one-click so don’t worry about losing that awesome pic of yourself 🙂 We’re trying to get 10k people on-board this week in order to show the world this matters. Yes, it’s just a small gesture but take the step with us

Quick launch post-mortem:

  • 1pm: I tweet out the call to action. Pretty cool that immediately folks like @bfeld, @fredwilson & @parislemon change their avatars and RT.
  • 1:15: Not as cool when http://www.BlackoutSOPA.org gets pounded with several thousand hits over the course of the next few minutes. We thought it would be a slow, gradual build of demand, not a burst. Site goes down.
  • ~2pm: Site back up. Work tonight to increase stability.

Since launch i’ve been poking a few people via Twitter. Also trying to get a few companies to adopt #BlackoutSOPA on their corporate account.

Artists, bands, video folks – SOPA really would mess up your world so i’m trying to get the word out in your communities too. Targeting journalists also.

I’ll report back on Tuesday as to how stuff is going.

10,000 strong!