Since about 10am today my site has been blocked. Hopefully in a few hours I’ll be able to say, “False alarm” and delete this post. But until then, I’ll be a bit nervous. Maybe it’s because of my comment in this thread yesterday, where a reader asked if I was worried about getting blocked and I replied:
this site has been blocked from time to time, but at this point the government realizes that while foreigners here can tolerate youtube and twitter being blocked, going without TPD would be altogether unacceptable.
In case one of the 30,000 censors felt offended by my seeming arrogance, let me explain – I was being humorous, ironic, funny. Now, can you lift the block?
Adding to the irony, for the entire week prior to the block this site was running June 4 stories non-stop. As soon as I stopped and put up a non-TAM post the ax falls. Go figure.
To be fair, it’s possible this is not a block at all but a server issue, though the way it times out, without the usual server error, makes me suspicious.
1
By otherlisa
Well, I’m getting through okay in California, though I did have one “unable to connect” message earlier tonight. Hope it’s a false alarm.
June 9, 2009 @ 3:47 pm | Comment
2
By Richard
If you just got on in California, that means it’s not a server issue.
June 9, 2009 @ 3:55 pm | Comment
3
By ecodelta
No problem from Spain
Hhhhhmmm…. So maybe our posts are considered “harmful” for the Chinese people… How tender they are…. π
Definitively or post are not pornographic, not even erotic and least of all sensual…;-)
But well. Different cultures different customs, who am I to criticize…. maybe there is something in CH sensuality, eroticism and/or pornography that is beyond me.
June 9, 2009 @ 4:14 pm | Comment
4
By otherlisa
Still here. Still connecting. Though like I said, I did have an issue earlier tonight.
June 9, 2009 @ 4:15 pm | Comment
5
By ecodelta
Twitter open and PD closed
Who said the net nanny didn’t have a sense on humor?
This is one on you Richard.
You got the retribution of the goddess nemesis for your hubris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(mythology)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris
June 9, 2009 @ 4:30 pm | Comment
6
By safarinew
seems true: NETWORK TIMEOUT
seems i’ll read your blog more after all
June 9, 2009 @ 5:07 pm | Comment
7
By Richard
And I’m here on a proxy. Site traffic is dead since 70 percent of readers are in China.
June 9, 2009 @ 5:08 pm | Comment
8
By 257453
From china I can only read you with VPN with normal connection I get Network Timeout
June 9, 2009 @ 5:28 pm | Comment
9
By Dror
I like it. All the Chinese trolls are gone too.
June 9, 2009 @ 5:45 pm | Comment
10
By Si
No probs from the UK. Can you pull a few strings at your new job?
June 9, 2009 @ 5:47 pm | Comment
11
By ecodelta
” since 70 percent of readers are in China.”
Maybe that is the reason. You just became too popular. π
June 9, 2009 @ 5:48 pm | Comment
12
By Richard
Heh. Yeah, let’s hope the site stays blocked to keep the trolls out. Luckily for us Math managed to slip in one last comment in the Twitter Unblocked thread shortly before the ax fell.
June 9, 2009 @ 5:50 pm | Comment
13
By Raj
Bad luck, richard. I suppose the only question is how long this is going to last.
Dror, many of the “Chinese” trolls on this blog that I’ve seen come from comfy locations like North America and Australasia. Perhaps richard could enlighten us whether that’s still the case or not.
June 9, 2009 @ 8:20 pm | Comment
14
By AndyR
8:22 PM Dongguan, VPN connects, no VPN no connection, sorry looks like your are blocked. Boooooooooooo!
June 9, 2009 @ 8:24 pm | Comment
15
By A Chinese
Sounds like a good youtube movie
River Crab Strike Back
It was a long time ago in a place not so far awayβ¦β¦
a Beijing Duck was having its lunch in Ma Le desert with a bunch of of grass mud horseβ¦β¦
June 9, 2009 @ 8:31 pm | Comment
16
By pepper
I think so long as you were discussing TAM, it was ok as you see the b-washing is done already on that account. Since the discussion veered towards economics in that thread, you got blocked as the b-washing is still underway. IMO
June 9, 2009 @ 8:55 pm | Comment
17
By Dror
Raj: In any case, I was joking. We love them!
June 9, 2009 @ 9:14 pm | Comment
18
By ecodelta
I think the outside world should build another Great Firewall around the GCF ™ to block Chinese web sites like the following ones
China daily news
Global times
anti-cnn
all CCP related websitesin english and chinese
etc.. etc…
To make them unaccessible from outside China. You could access them through a proxy in China anyway… π
Ah! Also block all TV transmission from CCTV! π
June 9, 2009 @ 10:06 pm | Comment
19
By A Chinese
@ecodelta
Not a bad idea, I am thrilled!
But how are you going to deal with these oversea Chinese websites that are blocked in China yet still subscrible news from Xinhua?
June 9, 2009 @ 10:27 pm | Comment
20
By Cypher
Maybe the censors are also trying to be funny too,like the situation in the old American cartoons.Just kidding. π
Richard,trust your readers,if they really find your site interesting and informative,it won’t be much trouble to penetrate the GFW and keep reading,like me π
And by the way the FireFox-Vidalia combination is really some neat tools.
June 9, 2009 @ 10:47 pm | Comment
21
By ecodelta
@By a Chinese
“….yet still subscrible news from Xinhua?”
Easy one. Redirect to anti-Xinhua website. π
June 9, 2009 @ 10:57 pm | Comment
22
By pug_ster
Posting the Hong Kong candlelight vigil picture will get you blocked.
June 10, 2009 @ 5:10 am | Comment
23
By ecodelta
Secret CIA plan to collapse the Chinese internet.
Worm/troyan/virus that insert a root kit in websites.
Rootkit contains ciphered pictures of sensible images like HK TIA square candle vigil. Image are inserted randomly in several webpages of infected sites.
Net nanny enters automatically in action and blocks the site.
When all major government and private websites are attacked, they are all blocked by net nanny. Result total net nanny overload and collapse of CH internet….
π
June 10, 2009 @ 7:10 am | Comment
24
By Bill
I guess they are scared. Really scared.
June 10, 2009 @ 7:11 am | Comment
25
By Dror
By the way… did anyone notice that Microsoft’s new search engine is caleld Bing (η )? This could be an issue if they ever try to market it in China….
June 10, 2009 @ 8:12 am | Comment
26
By Richard
Pug, that would be alarming if they blocked the site for the Hong Kong candlelight vigil photo. That would mean some guy is clicking through blogs and blocking them based on photos or whatever else bothers him (or her), as opposed to some computerized system looking for key words. And the photo was up the night of June 4 through the morning of June 9. I can’t see why they’d suddenly block the site because of it. Then again, it’s never a rational system.
Getting on with a proxy is now lethally slow. Any guest posts are welcome in the meantime.
June 10, 2009 @ 9:25 am | Comment
27
By stuart
“Posting the Hong Kong candlelight vigil picture will get you blocked.”
You have inside info, Pug? I had my suspicions.
June 10, 2009 @ 10:39 am | Comment
28
By Serve the People
Yes, Richard. You are blocked inside China. freedur.com has a solution to this problem. Cheers.
June 10, 2009 @ 12:29 pm | Comment
29
By Serve the People
Yes, Richard. Your site is blocked in China. freedru.com has a solution to this problem. Cheers.
June 10, 2009 @ 12:34 pm | Comment
30
By Serve the People
Sorry, I meant to type freedur.com. Check the software out. It’s free for 30 days.
By the way does anyone know a good free alternative? For Linux if possible?
June 10, 2009 @ 12:36 pm | Comment
31
By Serve the People
Sorry. I meant to type freedur.com. Check out their software. It’s free for 30 days.
By the way, does anyone know a free alternative to this software? Preferably open source and for Linux.
June 10, 2009 @ 12:39 pm | Comment
32
By amIajerk?
Haha, you are pwned by Chinese government, like on 6-4.
Don’t worry, you can laugh at my ass when I get arrested…any day now.
June 10, 2009 @ 3:44 pm | Comment
33
By Richard
Things are getting strange in here. I’d better put up a new post. Something special.
Serve, I use hotspot shield, though the way it usurps my screen every few minutes drives me nuts.
June 10, 2009 @ 8:47 pm | Comment
34
By ecodelta
If you copy your site and replicate it in a different location under a new URL would it help?
For example “Le Canard de Beijing” http://www.LeCanardBeijing.fr. π
Que pensez-vous ?
June 10, 2009 @ 9:24 pm | Comment
35
By Dror
Eco… you mean Le Canard de Pekin…
June 11, 2009 @ 6:10 am | Comment
36
By pug_ster
@Stuart 27,
I blame on math. Since he is posting his nonsensical posting about China wasn’t censored, Richard’s site got banned.
June 11, 2009 @ 7:51 am | Comment
37
By MichaelTurton
LOL. I think it is great that China blocks so many sites that work from sympathetic points of view to explain things to outsiders.
Michael
June 11, 2009 @ 7:57 am | Comment
38
By pug_ster
I heard a survey among the the Hong Kong Journalists and 30% of them practice self-censorship. Maybe you should think about doing that:)
June 11, 2009 @ 8:51 am | Comment
39
By Serve the People
Most proxy bases solutions tend to slow down connection speed dramatically. So they create desire but take away performance. freedur software doesn’t appear to suffer from this problem.
June 11, 2009 @ 9:41 am | Comment
40
By ecodelta
@Dror
“Ecoβ¦ you mean Le Canard de Pekin⦔
Hhhhmmm…… Le Canard Pekinois (www.LeCanardPekinous.fr) π
What about Le Canard Echaine (The chained duck)
Regrettably that URL is already taken π
http://www.lecanardenchaine.fr/
π
June 11, 2009 @ 1:20 pm | Comment
41
By ecodelta
Correction
http://www.LeCanardPekinois.fr
June 11, 2009 @ 2:30 pm | Comment
42
By Richard
Day 3 of the block with no end in sight. Sorry, a little too stressed to put up a new post. It’s incubating.
June 11, 2009 @ 3:55 pm | Comment
43
By A Chinese
Richard
Time to use your Guanxi now. Ask your friends in Global Times and Chinese media, if they know anyone higher up, see if they can help you unblocked this site. Or meet the censors and have a nice and friendly conversation with them, in Wale’s words, have a”friendly meeting to get to know each other a bit.”
Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales did something similar last year,
http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2008/10/jimmy-wales-mee.html
I guess it has something to do for Wiki’s continuing unblock after Olympic Game (also as you pointed out few weeks before, even the article about Tiananmen is accessible).
June 11, 2009 @ 4:27 pm | Comment
44
By Raj
Michael T makes a good point. Despite the fact some trolls will label him as being “anti” China, richard does make an effort to be constructive.
June 11, 2009 @ 8:24 pm | Comment
45
By Dror
Richard. I can help move you to a different server. It might do the trick. The block might be due to various reasons, most likely another site sitting on the same server.
June 11, 2009 @ 10:14 pm | Comment
46
By ecodelta
“The block might be due to various reasons, most likely another site sitting on the same server.”
A collateral damage?
At least It seems that by now Chinese collateral damage just squash peking ducks.
Somewhat better than American collateral damage by all means… π
June 12, 2009 @ 3:27 am | Comment
47
By jed
whoa, you been blocked, consider it a badge of honour
June 12, 2009 @ 2:20 pm | Comment
48
By FOARP
@Raj – Actually I think some of these guys would find even Tiexue and Strong Country to be anti-China lickspittle running-dogs of the west. I really couldn’t think of what more Richard could do to give the benefit of the doubt to the Chinese government whilst still staying in reasonable touch with reality.
June 12, 2009 @ 4:50 pm | Comment
49
By Richard
I am talking with the site designer and hosting company today to see what can be done. I’m actually kind of enjoying it. π
June 12, 2009 @ 5:34 pm | Comment
50
By Ecodelta
Ah yes! The pleasure of been tortured by the net nanny dominatrix. As masochist experience not my prefered one, but I hope you are enjoying it. π
And they complain about pornography! Strange cultural differences indeed
June 12, 2009 @ 7:45 pm | Comment
51 Posted at www.pekingduck.org
[…] course, if Crittenden had done a bit of research he’d know this site has been blocked in China since June, and that it criticizes and questions (and sometimes even praises) China on a fairly […]
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