How to Access Wikipedia During Todays Blackout

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Wikipedia recently announced that it will protest SOPA (more information about SOPA can be found here) and PIPA by shutting down. Today is the day Wikipedia has gone blank. If you visit http://en.wikipedia.org you will get the following screenshot:

 

This has created a big problem for many people. Wikipedia is the 6th most visited website in the world. Many students rely on it to write their High-School, college, Masters, Doctorate etc. papers. People who are uninformed visit the site to argue about esoteric topics, like Turkish treatment of the Kurds. So we are hear to help you and tell you that not all is lost. There is away around the system, infact, there are several ways:

The first method is perhaps the simplest: use the mobile version. It, too, displays an anti-SOPA message on top of articles, but it will let you access the content freely. You can access it on your PC or mobile phone by visiting this address: en.m.wikipedia.org.

You can also use the Simple English version of Wikipedia, which is available at simple.wikipedia.org. However, since this version of Wikipedia uses only simple English words and grammar, topics aren’t covered as thoroughly as on the standard version.

If you’re fast enough, you can also hit the Print Screen (cmd+shift+3 on a Mac) button on your keyboard just as a Wikipedia article loads, since it takes a second or two for the site to redirect to the SOPA blackout landing page. You can then paste the screen capture as an image in your favorite editor.

Finally, you can disable JavaScript in your web browser.

In Chrome, for example, you can do it by hitting Settings – Under the Hood – Content Settings and turn off JavaScript from there. (You can turn JavaScript off only for Wikipedia by clicking on “Manage Exceptions” and then typing “en.wikipedia.org” as the hostname pattern.)

In Firefox, the option to disable JavaScript is available under Tools – Options – Content.

However, keep in mind that turning JavaScript off completely will alter your web browsing experience. We don’t recommend changing this option if you’re not sure what you’re doing.

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