Hong Kong Discuss Forum

Hong Kong Discuss Forum

Screenshot of Hong Kong Discuss Forum (2009-8-16)
Web address http://www.discuss.com.hk/
Slogan 一個香港只得一個香港討論區 (The one and only forum of Hong Kong)
Commercial? Yes
Type of site
 Internet Forum
Registration Optional
Available in Traditional Chinese, Cantonese
Content license
 Discuss.com.hk Limited
Owner Discuss.com.hk Limited
Created by Discuss.com.hk Limited
Launched 2003-10-14.[1]
Alexa rank
 3,128 (April 2014)[2]
Current status Online

The Hong Kong Discuss Forum (Chinese: 香港討論區,Referred to DISCUSS) is a major Internet forum based in Hong Kong. As of January 1 2016, it is rated the 9th most frequently visited website in Hong Kong.[3]

With the slogan "DISCUSS, Hong Kong No.1" (香討，香港No.1), meaning claiming to be "champion" in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Discuss Forum is criticized by members of Hong Kong Golden Forum.

History

HK161

Hong Kong Discuss Forum was founded on February 17, 2003. It was an Internet Forum adopted phpbb2.06 forum system. Registration began on February 22, 2003. The name of the forum was "HK161" at that time. The domain(url) was hk161.com. It was a forum for adult content. This was the entire forum of HK161:：[4]

(Announcements) (Announcements)
(Administration)
(love affairs news) (Report)
(love affairs in Hong Kong)
(love affairs in Mainland China)
(love affairs in Macau)
(After dine) (Photos)
(Sexual Article)
(Chat Room)
(Meet Friends)

Sex141

On July 31, 2003, the 「馬照跑、波照踢(Horse racing and soccer)」section was added to HK161 as soccer gambling became legal. The name of the forum was changed to "Sex141". There were not many forums in Hong Kong, and the addition of a new section attracted more people to come to the forum. On January 1, 2004, the "Fashion" section was added to the forum.

Hong Kong Discuss Forum

On 14 October 2003, the site of the forum was moved to www.discuss.com.hk, and the name of the forum was changed to "Hong Kong Discuss Forum". On 2 February 2004, www.discuss.com.hk was made the permanent domain. In March 2004, the forum was moved to a more stable server. A newer system, Discuz!3.0, was also adopted, in attempt to obtain reliable technical support.

Blockade by PRC Government

Since 2007, PRC Government has blocked Hong Kong Discuss Forum, preventing members in PRC to visit to the website. Users there have to browse by proxy on CHINA.[5]

Blockade by Primary & secondary

Hong Kong Discuss Forum violates the rules of some schools, because it contains obscene, gambling, illegal and other objectionable material.[6]

"Viewing pornography....on WIT computers is strictly prohibited." by Computer Rooms Rules and Regulations on Waterford Institute of Technology.[7]

Partnership with Uwants Forum

In December 2007, Hong Kong Discuss Forum and Uwants Forum began a partnership with each other.

Current Member Level

Member Level

Administration Level

Updates

Simplified Chinese Translation

On February 20, Traditional Chinese to Simplified Chinese Translator had been installed to the forum. Users can translate posts by a click, but the translation are not always correct. There are some characters that did not get translated, also there are some words has mistaken. This can be found at any posts in the forum.

Income

Hong Kong Discuss Forum's income mainly comes from advertisement. Its main clients include Systematic Computer Training Centre, Dao Heng, 2TheMax, Go2Tutor.com, Orbis, Dragon Centre, Modern education etc.

Users

According to Alexa Internet, Hong Kong Discuss Forum ranks as the fourth most visited website in Hong Kong, and the eighth most visited website in neighbouring Macau. Additionally, it is also within the top 100 most visited website globally.[8]

The forum claims to be politically neutral and allow free speech. However, right of users will be easily & readily prohibited, down-graded and banded from posing or replying any messages if the user posts anti-communist messages, messages against Hong Kong government's public policies, or against any of the post-communist or communist peripheral organizations in Hong Kong. Many post-communist messages are placed at the default top of columns by the administrators which are intentionally twisting or misinterpreting history or news to make them favorable to the PRC communists.

Recent members' responses was that the forum was flooded with messages from the "Fifty cents Gangs" (五毛黨, the nickname of the peripheral organization of PRC communist party specially trained to manipulate communication over the Net. They are officially named "Internet Modulators" (網絡評論員) and gains that nickname on the rumor that they can earn 50 cents on every post they send.) who post massive amount of messages described above. Latest news reveals and suspects that members of iProA, a communist peripheral organizations in Hong Kong, is organizing all the above activities in Hong Kong. They are funded to distribute the said messages in the cyber space, online forums, social media, YouTube, etc., in order to "brain-washing" the people of Hong Kong. Moreover, Hong Kong governments' officials are suspected to be funding this organization indirectly by employing their services or unfairly contracting government services to the organization.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Whois The Launch Date of Hong Kong Discuss Forum whois.domaintools.com. 27 November 2009
  2. ↑ "Discuss.com.hk Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  3. ↑ Alexa.com- Top sites by countries: Hong Kong
  4. ↑ HK161.COM Forum (Web archive)
  5. ↑ Discuss.com.hk been blocked in China 100%
  6. ↑ Computer Rooms Rules & Regulations by Ho Fung College
  7. ↑ Computer Rooms Rules and Regulations by Waterford Institute of Technology
  8. ↑ Alexa Rating
  9. ↑ http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/template/apple/art_main.php?iss_id=20110610&sec_id=4104&subsec_id=12731&art_id=15329162

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.