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The nation’s most popular volleyball online forum will be blocked for one-day in protest of bills being debated in the U.S. Congress.
Volley Talk will join other websites such as Wikipedia today in a self-imposed one-day blackout to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act.
Volley Talk is a online forum exclusively for volleyball content that allows individuals to post comments and start discussions about the sport. Off the Block frequently will post links to its articles on Volley Talk and interact with fans on the forum about various college men’s volleyball topics.
Officials for the website released a post Tuesday announcing it would participate in the one-day blackout.
“Like Wikipedia, this is not an easy decision, as I try to remain neutral,” the website moderator stated in a post. “However, the nature of these laws would make it impossible for a forum relying on user-generated content to thrive and threatens your anonymity. If you like websites like Volley Talk, wikipedia, Facebook and Google, these laws could change the future.”
SOPA is being debated in the U.S. House of Representatives, while the PIPA is being discussed in the U.S. Sentate. Both bills were created in an attempt to stop Internet copyright infringement, but opponents to the legislation have argued that the bills would restrict the freedom for individuals to post content to the Internet.
All Volley Talk comment boards expect for a “blackout board” will remain hidden throughout Wednesday. However, old comment threads can still be viewed if an individual knows the comment thread’s specific url on the website.
The popularity of Volley Talk has continued to grow in recent years. The men’s volleyball board on the website had more than 10 percent increase in traffic last year compared to 2010.
Click here to view the full Volley Talk announcement about the blackout.
Good for them! More sites should have gone dark. I just read eighteen senators have come out in opposition to the bill today thanks to the protests.