OMG Wikipedia is down, how will I research [insert]?

As many of you probably experienced yesterday Wikipedia and a number of sites were down for the SOPA protest, in particular I enjoyed seeing random people freak out on Twitter about how Wikipedia was down like the world was ending!

Focus: What website if it was to cease to exist would you miss most and why?

 

This site is pretty much the only sire I care about on the entire internet. There are a few others I like, but this is my e-home.

There is simply no site funnier or with a faster wit than this. The quickest people on the planet post here. Let us not forget our deliciously evil nature. All fact.

 

To be honest, Facebook. If I need to research something there's no shortage of other websites with relevant information so the loss of Wikipedia wouldn't bother me.

Facebook on the other hand helps me keep up with people I'd otherwise never see or talk to because I refuse to hand out my cellphone number. Shitty as it sounds, its easier to send a friend request to the a girl you used to carpool with six years ago, than to try and keep up a functional relationship of some sort.

 

For me it's about how easy the website would be to replace. Most of the sites I go to have alternatives that are just as reliable. Search engines,news sources, and gaming sites all have viable alternatives. I used to love facebook, but it's just become a breeding ground for inanity and useless info about what people are doing in their daily lives. So yeah, I have to pick TiB for the simple fact that I hate, absolutely loathe other message boards I've visited. Aside from the funny, I'd also miss the opportunity to so quickly gain access to intelligent/diversified opinions that can be hard to find in real life depending on the topic. For just about everything we've discussed there's a board member with a knowledgeable background, or at least a hilarious perspective.

 

Google,

I checked my search history <a class="postlink" href="http://www.google.com/history" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.google.com/history</a> and I average 35+ searches every day.

Sure there are other search engines but really, who yahoos, or altavistas or bings or...

I would be fucked and forced to go back to web rings like in the dial-up days.

 

YouPorn.

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EDIT: Of course that was a joke. I'd miss Wikipedia the most, because reading stuff for free is awesome.

 

If youporn were a bookshelf, Fapdu would be the entire library. Just saying.

TIB or Wikipedia for me.

 

I think porn sites are the ultimate antithesis to this thread, to be honest. If we lost one porn site, that'd only leave what, 50 billion others? Hell, there's even like, 100 other tube-style sites. Porn sites are the homogeneous good of the Internet.

I disagree with Kampf Trinker completely. I think there's no where that comes even close to the accessibility, breadth, and utility of Wikipedia. No where has the information as readily assembled and easy to find. Outside of things like GMail (which only gets on the list because it has my personal email in it, not because of any peculiar site function), Wikipedia is winning this race my a country mile.

 

Total Google searches, 26366. 355 visits on January 7th. And that seems to only count when I'm signed in on that email. Fuck Skynet, Google is the future.

 

I want to say I'd be sad if Reddit disappeared, but I actually think I'd feel gloriously liberated.

GIVE ME MY LIFE BACK, YOU BASTARD ALIEN!

 

I think just about every site has a replacement out there other than Wikipedia. My most visited sites are Google Reader, Facebook, TiB, Wikipedia, Google, Reddit. Probably in that order. Reader, Facebook, Google, and Reddit all have alternatives. While message boards always have equivalents, this place is mainly special because of the amount of time I've spent here. Wikipedia, however, is probably the biggest source of information on the planet and there is no other website that even begins to compare.

 

PostSecret.com: Mostly because I have an OCD obsession with the Facebook thing at the bottom. If I don't see someone I know that has "liked" Post Secret, the rest of my week is shitty. I know it's weird, but it's a routine.

 

I'd never checked it before, but Google History says I've made 19020 searches. I guess I never realized how often I google lyrics, addresses, news, porn, ex-girlfriends, etc.

Otherwise, I probably use Wikipedia and YouTube the most. I don't know how I'd waste time without them.

 

What I would miss most of all are the automotive messageboards. Finding out insider tips and tricks while working on cars is an invaluable resource to a person in my line of work.

Sure, I'd miss this place, Cracked, Mr.Satanism, YouTube and Wikipedia, Maddox, etc. I check onto all of those sites every day. But if they were gone, I'd probably get a lot more work done.

 

Austlii - the Australian Legal Information Institute.

I couldn't do my job without access to legislation and case law. Without this site, I'd either have to regularly run to various law libraries to look up cases or pay thousands of dollars for case journals that I would only pick bits and pieces out of. I can get the legislation through various websites, austlii puts it all nicely in one spot for me.

 

I would miss ESPN fantasy hockey, wikipedia, TiB, youtube, and thechive.com the most. I'm not a computer guy and if I'm not looking on westlaw or lexis for some stupid assignment or cruising around for porn, these are really the only websites I go to. Each are fantastic for wasting time and learning interesting shit. If I'm not doing schoolwork and my computer is on, I'm on one of these five websites.