Blogspot’s been unreachable in China for a while now. And this morning I read from Woai’s blog that it’s been joined by Facebook and Twitter (again, if I don’t remember things wrongly twitter was also blocked in the beginning of June? I personally don’t use it but I heard from others). Apparently it’s now as a result of the riots in Xinjiang. I’m just wondering when the whole net is going to be shut down over there. What’s the point of the Internet when information cannot flow freely?
I’ve been thinking about getting a new blog host for the fall. It bugs me that my blog isn’t accessible from China. Then again, the thought of moving the blog gives me the creeps. And if I get a new host, I bet that host is eventually going t be blocked too… so let’s see. I’m definitely not a computer wiz, so this wouldn’t just be a 1 hour fiddling-with-my-computer-thing.
By the way, a huge trade event between Finland and China is about to take place in Helsinki this Friday. Guess who’s going (according to my Finnish boss because ‘your Chinese is sooooo gooood Jonna!’ ‘Ehhh… but u don’t even understand Chinese?!’ ‘No, but I heard you talk to some Chinese co-worker’ ‘Yeah, but you have no idea if I am asking them about what they had for lunch today or discussing climate change…. To you it all sounds the same?!’ ‘Well, I reckon it is good!!’ Righty-o!).
I told one of my Finnish friends and she reacted with a mix of relief and fear.
-Yeah gosh, that trade event… I’m actually glad that you are going because now you can stop them from buying all of Finland. Will you do that, please?!
I promised I’d do my outmost.
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I use self-hosted Wordpress (on my own domain). This is what I use for The Casual Observer. Migrating data from the old blogger location was a one click process.
I'm lucky that a buddy of mine is a Wordpress whiz and installed wordpress for me (and also hosts me for free, which is awesome).
I've found that Wordpress gives you a lot of flexibility - a plethora of plug-ins, for example.
You would have to pay for hosting + domain registration, though. On the bright side, they would actually have to specifically blog YOU - unlike Blogger where you get blocked as part of a larger effort to block Blogger.
I've fiddled with my setup a LOT, but I'm an info tech guy - there are a lot of nice Wordpress themes that work great with no modification.
I don't want to get into too many tech details and bore everyone :) But if you have more questions, shoot me an email. I'll try to answer any questions.
I guess you can try use a chinese domestic blog sit, so your blog can be viewed in china. http://blog.sina.com.cn/ . just click “开通博客” under da thick red line.
fei
So how do you post and comment when you're in China if it's blocked?
casual observer & Fei -thanks for the tips!
Maynard -I'm not in China at the moment. When I'm in China I use a proxy server or VPN.
Hi Jonna. I really enjoy reading your blog, and hope that you are not forced to move it. Blogger seems to be a pretty nice site... too bad it gets blocked when things get stirred up in China. Keep up the great writing, Jonna! :D
Hey Jonna - try www.libertyvpn.com
I know it maybe inappropriate here, but have you guys seem the Michael Jackson's public memorial service?
I thought it was very touching.
fei
When Chinese government saw the lesson from Iran, they must do something before worse... you know Green Dam is also such item.
It's always disturbing to see freedom of information limited in such a way, especially since it's senseless. Just because China blocks Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever, doesn't mean people won't talk. There's still IM, SMS, E-mail, and who knows how many public forum boards. It didn't work in Iran and it's not going to work in China. The government there is wasting its money on this endeavor. Information is like water. It'll eventually get where it's going. The only way they could prevent it would be to shut off all electricity, ban batteries and prohibit travel between villages except for government agents, and even then the government agents would talk. Oh, and they'd have to stop running a regular mail system. Eh, I'm rambling now but you get the point.
Anyhow Jonna, you've got a good, well read blog. Even if you move it, you're still going to get read, and your commenters will follow you. You'll just have to find a person you trust to do the setup for you if you're not comfortable with it yourself.
I would be sorry to see you leave blogger, Jonna. I will hope that someone in the government over there will come to their senses and stop trying to stop the unstoppable!
mantse -yeah that green dam... hm... no comments. Could get nasty if I reveal what I think about censoring filters.
carl, tales, kate -IF I decide to move it it won't happen until after summer...I promise you'll be the first ones to know! :)
The only thing censoring the internet does is block off the older generation. I've yet to meet anyone in China who actually cared about accessing some of the blocked websites who couldn't find a way around the filters. It feels more like a way to reassure the older generation that something is being done to keep harmful influences away from the new generations. Then again, people in government aren't exactly young. Internet illiterate old guys.
To my knowledge, blogger and wordpress are two major free blogging service providers. With search enquiry like "compare wordpress blogger”, you will get many insightful posts comparing these two. Although some say wordpress gives more flexibility, others claim they don't see anything in wordpress that can drive them away from blogger. You can do some research before making a decision. Personally, I think you can just stay in blogger.com. An IT giant like Google won’t be blocked for long. Blockage of a few days shall be tolerable.
About fei's suggested blog.sina.com.cn, it is the largest blog site in China. With all your great writings, you stand a good chance to attract millions of Chinese readers and get famous there. But one weakness of sina is its unfriendly comment interface which doesn’t allow a non-registered sina user to leave a hyperlink to his website while leaving comment in sina. This feature hinders mutual communications somehow. So I think you can give sina a try, but only use it as a mirror to blogger.
Jonna - Yes, I also have my own domain and use Wordpress blogging software to host so it is IMPOSSIBLE for my blog to be blocked by a blanket block of a popular host like Blogger. The only way my blog can be blocked is if the censors target my blog specifically and that is unlikely as my content is not offensive. Highly recommended!
I have my own domain (like WoAi) but still use Blogger to publish to it. You would need to get a company to host, and register a domain name. (A lot of host companies will give you a free domain name, like "www.sheinchina.com".) Then, you just change Blogger's publishing settings to "publish via FTP". Easy! It should cost you about $4 per month for a host. I'm happy to help if you need more info.
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