[doubt_me]

Its now December 2017. Everybody knew about his plan the day he was sworn in as chairman.

Between the resources at Google/ Yahoo/ FB/ Ycombinator alone they have the money, lawyers, know how, and have had since November of last year to do something about this, anything. anything at all. Actually, any fortune 500 company. Not a single whisper from wall street. not a single whisper from the private sector. Obviously insane levels of fraud happening with the comments being written by russian bots, fake names, and missing real comments with all investigations going nowhere thanks to shit pai.

We will probably loose it for good. it will most likely be a very slow process to make sure nobody is riled up enough to actually do anything about it.

I can almost guarantee instead of fixing or trying to solve any issues. Verizon, comcast, At&T, Tmobile and sprint all have new plans ready to roll out will full marketing behind them.

It is up to us state by state to dismantle the communication cartels once and for all.

But naw, some bot will flag this post just like the other 500+ threads that have popped up since November of last year critical of the government in any way shape or form. Seriously HN get your shit together, absolutely pathetic that it has even come to this point.

Ycombinator is who they are directly attacking, 12 gauge to the head, yet nobody around here seems to actually think they are worthy enough to live. Let alone get a fast, dependable, and cheap/ fair price on our own internet that the tax payers have paid for over and over again.

If that is the case then maybe we all deserve to loose it. I kind of am hoping we do. I want a new internet with blackjack and hookers. only way possible to make it happen is if the entire country were to be pushed at once to move on beyond ISPs grasp and make our own mesh networks. This is that opportunity to build something new and fresh and in our own control, something that will most likely take years and years to accomplish but once its done and stable enough to handle the countries users there will literally be zero use for an ISP beyond a public utility.

THEY ARE LITERALLY GIVING US THE KEYS TO THE FUTURE AND EVERYONE IS FUCKING MOPING AROUND LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THIS COMING.

Communication cartels RIP was a good run guys. See you around when you crash the markets!

[BFatts]

"Between the resources at Google/ Yahoo/ FB/ Ycombinator alone they have the money, lawyers, know how, and have had since November of last year to do something about this"

They did. They petitioned, used their own money, tried to convince Pai that his changes were bad. They did their part and Pai ignored them - flat out ignores them as if they don't matter. So... what about your argument works?

Pai was "hired" to screw the Internet and help the big ISPs make more cash. Trump is only there to overturn everything Obama did, nothing more. So Pai is just there to overturn NN, nothing more.

[doubt_me]

Petitioning works as a PR stunt and you know it.

Everybody blacked out for SOPA/ PIPA?

It needs to be more public, an actual movement from within to change something that will not end well for the vast majority.

Trying to convince isn't enough either, they shouldn't have to convince Pai of anything they know why he was appointed.

Why haven't they tried convincing their own users?

Would be wonderful to have a majority of the countries engineers rally overnight and protest by not showing up to work. It would literally take 1 day, less than 48 hours to permanently change the course of history forever. Wont happen of course, mainly because everybody is to busy planning on how to benefit from the repeal.

[redler]

They did their part and Pai ignored them - flat out ignores them as if they don't matter

It's actually worse than that. He uses the imprimatur of the federal government and the commission he leads to ridicule opposing arguments. There's no honest and logical engagement; just the use of Twitterverse-ready phrases like "absurd", "desperate", and "utter nonsense".

[colordrops]

Every last bit of the spectrum will be privatized and they will eventually make it illegal to use the Mesh.

[cr0sh]

Including light (ie - free space optical networks, which are usually commercial, but the Ronja project shows they can be DIY'd too)?

I've often thought that mesh networks are where things need to move, but they suffer from a larger problem here in the States:

Chokepoints

Essentially, there are large gaps between cities where there isn't enough population, or there are geographic features in the way (or both) that preclude mesh network relays from being setup by anyone other than a corporation which has the resources to purchase the land needed, and either install fiber, microwave relay towers, or whatnot - and maintain all of it over time.

Sure - you could probably mesh network most of the NE of the country. Maybe even California (though there'd be bottlenecks). But how do you jump from LA to Phoenix, or from Phoenix to Las Vegas or DFW? How do you link any of that to the east coast? How do you get this mesh network to the interior of the country?

Not likely to happen without a lot of money and effort.

What I can see happening, though, is a return to lower-bandwidth communication networks - ie, dust off that old BBS software! Dial-up, or low-bitrate comms (which can pass easier thru congested or low-node count mesh networks) would likely become the way to do things.

But I doubt it would become mainstream, as most people just don't seem to be able to live without their streaming TV channels and bookface feeds. But maybe that would be ideal; the hardcore and tech conscious using these lower-level channels to figure out a way to fix the problems in the mesh, so that one day all could share it.

Worst case, the signal to noise ratio would go down, and we geeks could finally have a space with intelligent discourse and fewer trolls.

[thisacctforreal]

Routing from LA to Pheonix via volunteered (albeit crippled) home/business lines seems like a fine solution. ie The mesh network connects cities through small slices of shared lines.

In that case censoring P2P connerilns would be ISPs next step, which would hamper a ton of progress, especially in regards to privacy.

Managing the functionality/thoroughput/UX of that kind of network sounds like a big challenge.

Having a good UX for rate limititing clients on volunteered lines, and good UX on how routes are temporarily "leased", might be places to start brainstorming.

[doubt_me]

How about the future?

Sound like someone who doesn't want to be apart of the future. Or anything really.

Good luck to you fellow HNer.

[colordrops]

I don't really understand your comment.

[superdug]

probably because it's troll bait

[doubt_me]

you don't seem to be interested in or for the open internet with your comment.

Literally a non comment.

Of course they will try and make it illegal. Of course its privatised, do you have a few spare hundred millions to buy some up and use it?

If you put some thought into the future of this country for just 1 second. You wouldn't have made that sort of non comment. Your not interested in the future. Which makes you a liability for all of us who are interested in it.

Good luck.

[binaryblitz]

Imagine the beginning of the new meshnet. It'll be like the internet was in the beginning. A bunch of computer nerds. I actually would kinda like that.

[FilterSweep]

I'm guessing they will begin honeypotting devices connected to meshnet and ensuring that its users get persecuted (and prosecuted) for high crimes they didnt commit.

[beager]

YC is unique in the list that you give insofar as they're likely to not benefit from a repeal of NN, whereas the consolidation of money and influence in the big four has made the repeal of NN very attractive to them, and they're not inclined to fight it. Wall street, private sector don't care, they can reason about the repeal of NN and migrate to where the lopsided gains will accrete as a result. The money and market share at stake for these big players creates a suicide pact that pits them against the sentiment of their users and the instincts about freedom of the Internet that brought them into tech in the first place.

Direct action is required. Go vote. Route around broken Internet. Hit them where it hurts them.

[leadingthenet]

> Direct action is required [...] Go vote.

I had so much hope for your last paragraph and then you just regurgitated the bullshit “go vote” mantra.

If that’s what direct action means to you people then no wonder you’ve had this pushed down your throat.

[QAPereo]

Talk about any other kind probably doesn’t flourish here on YC’s site.

[beager]

Both/and

[nrhk]

It's fine, the real innovation moves on. Telecommunication is a history of openness followed by control, radio, tv, internet and whatever comes next.

At least hopefully this isn't the end.

[jvagner]

It's disturbing the degree to which this attitude is common for things like climate change, tax reform, net neutrality, etc.

To some degree, of course we have to adapt to what will happen. But as a society, we're supposed to have standing on important issues for the population as a whole.

There will be harm, routing around it is inhuman to those immediately affected. Seeing "opportunity" in every case is capitalistically narcissistic.

[nrhk]

It's just a tendency for things to become more restrictive and less open as the masses get on board.

It's a problem with human scale. We're not meant to scale to the billions despite technology enabling that. Once the internet scaled, all the human problems came with it. The innovators are part of a smaller and smaller % of the population. The inertia of current systems bogs down potential future changes. Innovation is traded for security, convenience and entertainment. Certain things become ingrained.

So, all the people move on and start again in a greenfield. Maybe its not the best but honestly, taking the lessons of the past and applying it to a new greenfield can't be the worst approach.

[revmoo]

> comments being written by russian bots .

Let's tone down the McCarthyism a bit shall we?

[Tushon]

I guess it is still an assumption when they use Russian emails, submit through API, and are so formulaic as to be near identical ... but maybe it was legit. Sure.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/fake-view...

https://www.wired.com/story/bots-broke-fcc-public-comment-sy...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/11/24...

[bo1024]

You probably didn't realize but the post is (I think) referring to comments on the FCC website, where several investigations have shown beyond all doubt that many "repeal NN" comments came from automated bots (though whether Russian in origin is not known).

[rexpop]

I thought McCarthyism was the practice of blacklisting sociopolitical opponents w/ unfalsifiable claims of their allegiance to a foreign power.

Ok, you're suggesting the bot-comments were just domestic.

[matthberg]

It's true and documented, though: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/fake-view...