Chinese interest in our forum?

[Bobo08]

Today I hopped over to alexa.com to see the traffic statistics for cassiopaea.org. It shows our forum's growth has been really remarkable. The most impressive statistics are pageviews per user and time on site, which increase by about 5 times over the last year. However, something caught my eyes: The percentage of visits from China to cassiopaea.org is nearly 20%, compared to nearly 60% from the US. But I don't see nearly as much participation by Chinese members. What am I missing here?

 

[shijing]

Today I hopped over to alexa.com to see the traffic statistics for cassiopaea.org. It shows our forum's growth has been really remarkable. The most impressive statistics are pageviews per user and time on site, which increase by about 5 times over the last year. However, something caught my eyes: The percentage of visits from China to cassiopaea.org is nearly 20%, compared to nearly 60% from the US. But I don't see nearly as much participation by Chinese members. What am I missing here?

The answer could be as mundane as language barrier -- I know that there are a lot of Chinese people who have learned textbook English in school and can read it, but who feel very self-conscious about actually using it (particularly speaking, but also writing). However, since some internet sites are censored by the government, another interesting question would be whether the forum is one of those or not. I have a Chinese friend who returned to Shanghai last week and promised to let me know if they could bring up sott.net once they got back, but I haven't heard back yet. If this is a blocked site, it would mean that those visits from from China are government -- if its not blocked, then maybe there are a lot of shy but avid Chinese readers?

 

[Nautilus]

Well, being Chinese myself (although growing up in an English environment throughout most of my life), I agree with shijing. I used to live in Taiwan for a few years and the educational system involved learning English as a second language as early as elementary, so there are many Chinese who can listen, read, and write in English. However, almost everyone I interacted with during my stay was self-conscious when it came to practically applying this language (i.e. speaking in front of a westerner), and seeing that this forum is in English involving people from all over the world, it may be intimidating to post on here.

That being said, although my Chinese is not 100 percent competent, I would be glad to assist if any help is needed in translating this forums content (or whatever needed) into Chinese! Please let me know if the mods are interested!

 

[Adaryn]

Hi Eddie,

That being said, although my Chinese is not 100 percent competent, I would be glad to assist if any help is needed in translating this forums content (or whatever needed) into Chinese! Please let me know if the mods are interested!

If you want to help with translations, check this thread.
:)

 

[Kesdjan]

I don't see nearly as much participation by Chinese members.

A lot of users don't list a location on their profile (in fact, you don't), so I don't see how you figured out the number of Chinese users.

 

[Hildegarda]

edited for content:

I understood that Bobo meant that while 20% of of Cassiopaea site page views are from China, there is not nearly as many posts by people who are obviously posting from China.

Although you are right, Kesdjian, people may not be indicating their country of residence on their profile and not mentioning it in their introductory posts.

 

[Chu]

The answer could be as mundane as language barrier -- I know that there are a lot of Chinese people who have learned textbook English in school and can read it, but who feel very self-conscious about actually using it (particularly speaking, but also writing). However, since some internet sites are censored by the government, another interesting question would be whether the forum is one of those or not. I have a Chinese friend who returned to Shanghai last week and promised to let me know if they could bring up sott.net once they got back, but I haven't heard back yet. If this is a blocked site, it would mean that those visits from from China are government -- if its not blocked, then maybe there are a lot of shy but avid Chinese readers?

Well, I don't know how it is now, but I spent a year in China between 2005 and 2006, and at that time I could access SOTT, cass.org and the forum regularly. Thanks God! Many official news websites were censured, as most of the .edu websites and Wikipedia (except the Chinese section). So, I think the government hadn't spotted all the "alternative" websites. Which is good!

However, I had an interesting experience: I had subscribed into an online database of a Gurjeffian group in China. A Chinese man contacted me saying that he was glad to know some people were interested in G's material, but that we shouldn't talk about it even by e-mail, 'cause all esoteric discussions were being "watched" by the government :/ I never heard back from him. FWIW

 

[shijing]

However, I had an interesting experience: I had subscribed into an online database of a Gurjeffian group in China. A Chinese man contacted me saying that he was glad to know some people were interested in G's material, but that we shouldn't talk about it even by e-mail, 'cause all esoteric discussions were being "watched" by the government :/ I never heard back from him. FWIW

This may be another very good explanation for why there could be much reading of forum material but little active participation from folks in China -- they could be spooked about registering as forum members out of fear of repercussions from the government.

 

[knowledge_of_self]

However, I had an interesting experience: I had subscribed into an online database of a Gurjeffian group in China. A Chinese man contacted me saying that he was glad to know some people were interested in G's material, but that we shouldn't talk about it even by e-mail, 'cause all esoteric discussions were being "watched" by the government :/ I never heard back from him. FWIW

This may be another very good explanation for why there could be much reading of forum material but little active participation from folks in China -- they could be spooked about registering as forum members out of fear of repercussions from the government.

Yes this is very true. I am originally from Iran and I know how fascist a government can get when it comes to information that can set you "free".

During the whole election fiasco, many of my family members who were active on facebook and other places, talking about freedom, and vote fraud and such, immediately deleted their posts when the riots began. Some of them even unregistered completely, because the government was tracking down followers of Mosavi.

During the Islamic revolution, many of my mom & dad’s friends were killed because of information interception by the government.

It’s an ugly world out there, and people have to always keep in mind the state of which they live in. It’s not always smart to be fully open about your identity when you’re dealing with fascists.

 

[Franco]

Alexa gathers data independently by people who install their toolbars so its not super accurate but just an indicator.

Only the ISP hosting this server and server logs will know truely where everyone is coming from and even then its not 100% accurate.

I assume most people in China search in Chinese, can someone confirm?

It is unlikely they will find this site through browsing but China is of course a massive country.

China is however famous along with some other countries for hacking, fraud and other negative activies online.

 

[mkrnhr]

China is however famous along with some other countries for hacking, fraud and other negative activies online.

??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Adaryn]

Hi Deedlet,

During the whole election fiasco, many of my family members who were active on facebook and other places, talking about freedom, and vote fraud and such, immediately deleted their posts when the riots began. Some of them even unregistered completely, because the government was tracking down followers of Mosavi.

I'm curious whether you've read the SOTT articles and Connect the dots series about the Iranian election, which clearly show the "Green revolution" was manipulated by the CIA and the US to overthrow Ahmadinejad. I say that because I'm confused over your mention of "election fiasco". Could you clarify? Thanks :)

 

[knowledge_of_self]

Hi Deedlet,

During the whole election fiasco, many of my family members who were active on facebook and other places, talking about freedom, and vote fraud and such, immediately deleted their posts when the riots began. Some of them even unregistered completely, because the government was tracking down followers of Mosavi.

I'm curious whether you've read the SOTT articles and Connect the dots series about the Iranian election, which clearly show the "Green revolution" was manipulated by the CIA and the US to overthrow Ahmadinejad. I say that because I'm confused over your mention of "election fiasco". Could you clarify? Thanks :)

Hiya,
Oh yes I have read those and I do definitely believe the CIA has a hand in a lot of stuff dealing with the elections in Iran. And that the CIA dealings with Iran goes far back to before I was born more than 25 years ago, maybe even longer. When I said "election fiasco" I meant the people getting duped and the violent up-rising in the streets due to false information from people, presumably CIA or MOSSAD agents through twitter, facebook and those avenues pretending to be part of the “Green Revolution” etc…

Sorry that I wasn’t clear, I hope this clarifies what I meant. :)

 

[Adaryn]

Ah OK, thanks for clarifying. As you talked about members of your family being active on Facebook and talking about fraud/supporting Mosavi, I was not sure if you agreed with them and if by "fiasco" you meant the "fraud".

 

[knowledge_of_self]

Ah OK, thanks for clarifying. As you talked about members of your family being active on Facebook and talking about fraud/supporting Mosavi, I was not sure if you agreed with them and if by "fiasco" you meant the "fraud".

Oh yes i did mean "fraud" for sure. My family and I don't see eye to eye on a lot of government issues regarding Iran. Because they mostly see the Iranian government as EVIL and they don't allow for such arguments as what if the CIA has something to do with it? So i don't discuss my political beliefs with them because they are already set in their ways/beliefs.