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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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

Good luck to you fellow HNer.

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.

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

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.

At least hopefully this isn't the end.

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.

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.

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

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...

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