But I regress…

Ok, so if you think posts on this site are disappearing faster than foreign hikers, you’d be right. For some reason my site keeps becoming inaccessible. I had thought it was the wikipedia entry, but now I’m starting to think it might be the article about Japan apologizing. Just when I think I’ve got it sorted out (with some creative editing of my databases, as I can’t get into my blog software when the site is blocked), and everything seems to work fine, I get a denial of access again. Grr.

So, regressing a couple posts, I’m going to see if this helps. The others are safely saved in DRAFT mode, and will return (if not in a slightly edited form) if this does indeed solve the problem.

Oh, and if you’ve sent me e-mail in the last day or two… sorry, they get blocked too. I’ll get them all shortly if this works.

Update (Oct. 15: 2pm):
Ok, after removing the suspect posts I’ve had access to my site all day. As such, I’ve edited the posts, removing any “sensitive” material, and they are now where they belong below. Assuming this doesn’t all backfire and I still lose access – enjoy what is now old news. bah!

9 Responses

  1. Hmmm… interesting. Is there any Chinese proxy to help see what sites and content are being blocked? I’d like to see what content is blocked in my sites.

  2. Of course, I’m just talking out of my ass here, but you should be able to configure tor to proxy your access to your blog software. It’s very configurable, from what I’ve seen — just don’t ask me how to do it.

  3. I’m not sure that I can. Basically it’s a security feature of WP that stops redirected IPs (or some similar tech talk) from accessing the site. I’ll look into it if this keeps up. If anyone reads this from the mainland and it’s blocked or not blocked… please mention here.

  4. Ryan,

    I wonder why the censors would be so sensitive on your site while TPD, TTC, etc. all seem to be viewable from the PRC with minimal interruption. Unless I’m missing something. Do they use mirrors or proxies? I’m wondering if I should be more careful myself (YJ constantly warns me of this). Thoughts?

  5. @J: I just don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure this out and just can’t. I have no idea what causes it, but occasionally (nearly, if not always after I write a “edgy” post), I lose the ability to connect to my site, my FTP and my mail (POP) accounts. Sometimes, after disconnecting for a while, I could start to view the site, but then it would cut off – and mail would continue not working.

    Now, about 24 hours after re-setting the status of the last two posts to “draft” so they’re not viewable on the main page, I can access mail, the site, the http://FTP... everything.

    In about five minutes I’m going to edit those two posts, removing any words that might cause ISP censoring to block it and see what happens.

    The other weird part is, it’s not consistant. Talking to people in other parts of China, they’ve not had any problems getting on my site. Such was the case the last time I had this problem as well.

  6. @Ryan: Never had a problem accessing your site from here in Beijing.

    @Ryan and J: Censorship is not universal across China; many problems are of a local nature. Sometimes it also seems to be the ISP (I’ve been able to access some sites through one ISP but not another). Maybe it’s the Suzhou in the title/subtitle/blurb/somewhere prominent that trips off the local Suzhou internet pigs, which gets the Great Firewall (Suzhou branch), as it applies to you, set a little more sensitive from your end.

    I am absolutely no expert on such matters. I’m just putting in my 2 cents worth based on my experience and observation.

  7. Hi,
    My blog and another in the same account has also been closed down, it seems…
    I have written a few things about China, since I am living in Suzhou at the moment, but nothing “revolutionary”— just something about that it is a country with many contrasts and so and there are a few photos from the less developed areas in the city… but I still can ready believe it has been blocked by some government agency or so… or is it really that bad here?

    Martin

  8. Hey Martin, your blog being blocked is a blanked block of all Blogspot (Google) blogs and is quite common. Check out http://www.pkblogs.com for help accessing it.

    The censorship thing comes and goes. Sometimes it feels like it’s a non-issue and then sometimes it’s front and centre in your day… life in China, I guess.

  9. Thank you Ryan…
    I used the link and now I can view my blog again…

    This is really the advantage of the net, instant help from good guys around the world…
    How can the Chinese government think they can really stop the wave of freedom of speech?

    Martin

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