thebeijingers.com forum closed!

[flameproof]

The forum from thebeijingers.com closed suddenly on Friday with this message:

http://www.thebeijinger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26116

We're closing the forums for a couple of weeks while we prepare for the relaunch of our website

It's of course completely unrelated to the Olympics and therefore I will not mention the Beijing2008 Olympics here.

[dncdoor]

I'm bitterly disappointed that the forum is closed, however, I would prefer if this thread was deleted or in a matter of days chinese-forums will also be taking a couple of weeks to relaunch.

[gougou]

But it's not closed, is it?

[muyongshi]

We're closing the forums for a couple of weeks

I would prefer if this thread was deleted or in a matter of days chinese-forums will also be taking a couple of weeks to relaunch.

What type of logic would lead you to assume this??? The forums is upgrading (well hopefully as opposed to downgrading) and has nothing to do whatsoever with Chinese-forums! And if you are thinking it's the government that closed it, that is the most illogical assumption ever!

Topics like the protest topic are more likely to get us shut down than mentioning the closing of the beijinger. Let's not overreact people. Like Gougou said it's not really closing! (it was a rhetorical question I'm sure). The notice said for a couple of weeks while they upgrade!

[imron]

By closing it, they don't mean taking it offline, they've just locked all the posts. Or, as they put it in that post:

this way our IT team can focus their efforts on the relaunch and not on trying to moderate all the crap that gets posted here.

[roddy]

however, I would prefer if this thread was deleted or in a matter of days chinese-forums will also be taking a couple of weeks to relaunch.

Nonsense. Even if - and I honestly don't see this happening, and certainly not because of this topic - we were to have 'regulatory issues' in China, our server is in the UK. It'd be a blow, but not a mortal one.

I'd take the statement at face value - True Run have been talking about a major upgrade for years, the Olympics and more importantly the change in business circumstances they've seen lately are probably adding a bit of urgency to that. And while I'm not about to comment on other forums and how they're run, I will say that if I was responsible for that site, I might also need to turn it off to get anything done.

[dncdoor]

I'm glad to see that everyone is positive about what has happened to the beijinger (albeit in a negative pitch at 我). Those of you living in Beijing these last couple of months have surely witnessed a tightening up in many different areas, so this has obviously had an impact on my reasoning.

Good to know that chinese-forums is UK based!

[adrianlondon]

Is "pretentious, 我?" the even more pretentious version of "pretentious, moi?"? ;)

[imron]

Chinese is the new French!

[adrianlondon]

oo la aiya!

[imron]

I once had the following phone conversation with a Chinese friend in France:

Hi is that SW?

Hello?

Yes, hello, can you hear me?

Oui (actually, this was not oui, but rather 喂 and at the time I couldn't speak Chinese, and as we'd often speak a mix of English and French, I thought she was saying yes in French).

As it turns out, there was a problem with the line and she couldn't hear me, and the next 30 seconds or so were her saying Hello followed by a pause, followed by 喂, with 喂 seeming to be perfectly timed to answer my questions like:

"are you sure you can hear me" - Oui - ok good, blah blah blah, which was then interrupted by her saying Hello? again, and the process repeating.

[adrianlondon]

sacre 蓝!

Oh, ok, I'll stop now.

[billiardsmike]

Gee, I don't know. Could it possibly have something to do with this? http://www.danwei.org/magazines/expat_mags_what_rough_beasts_a.php

I apologize if the link doesn't show up, but his is my first attempt; something that should not be done after as many drinks as I've had. As much as I love Chinese-forums, there are other sources out there. Check out Danwei.org for more info on this subject.

Over all - if you found a way to make money and the government finds out about it, good luck!

[dncdoor]

Thank you for that input Adrian. A lesson on being pretentious is warmly received from a Londoner.

Further, this is a Chinese-related forum and therefore the usage of any Chinese character, phrase or short passage is common.

Ah, how I miss the 80s and 90s Tiocfaidh ár lá.

[gougou]

Could it possibly have something to do with this?

I don't really see how that is connected; it neither has to with the trademark dispute nor with the publication license as either of these would first and foremost affect the print publication, not its online offspring.

[dncdoor]

Hey, dissenters - do I look like the OP?

[roddy]

@mike - yeah, that's what I was referring to by 'changed business circumstances' or whatever it was I said earlier. But I don't think there are any legal or political issues here - more likely it just prompted them to buckle down and get the upgrade done, which meant turning off the more time-consuming part of the site for a while. The admin staff over there don't have an easy relationship with a lot of their users.

If there was any more to read into this, you'd be looking at the entire site being offline or something. All they've done is stop new posts on their forum.

[flameproof]

more likely it just prompted them to buckle down and get the upgrade done, which meant turning off the more time-consuming part of the site for a while.

I doubt that. Admin rights were also given to normal users and they did cleaning functions too. I am sure there were enough reliable users, if not they could have simply got more from their large pool.

[trevelyan]

This might be a bit off-timu from the French discussion, but my understanding is that there will be a ban on new website registration and server rental starting later this month. I'm not sure how long it is intended to last, and would be curious if anyone has heard anything different.

[imron]

Not just that, but there will also be a freeze on getting broadband/phone lines installed lasting until around the 25th of August so as to ensure network stability during the Olympics.