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Happy Birthday – Foolsmountain!

by 31 Comments

One year ago – a new blog was launched with a simple post by an anonymous researcher in Boston – a guy whom we have come to know as “admin”:

This is an open blog for anyone who cares about China.
Anybody can comment.
Sign up, you will be able to write a post.
If you want to be an author or an editor, write to [email protected].
We also like to invite people to submit original material or interesting links in Chinese so we can translate them.
Thanks!

Our admin initially launched this blog in the aftermath of the Tibetan riots – in response to what many Chinese consider as unfair treatment of China in the Western press. The perceived mistreatment was deep and broad – regarding a host of issues, including human rights, Olympics, Tibet, Darfur, Taiwan, etc.  For many Chinese, it was obvious that there was a sharp divide between how Chinese and Westerners view history, politics, social developments, governance, among others.  As China becomes more integrated with the rest of the West – it is important that we begin building a dialogue – not just on a gov’t-to-gov’t level, but also on a citizen-to-citizen level. (For admin’s story, check out this post titled a fool’s reflection)

When admin first started – and when many of us first joined – none of us knew how and where this blog would go.  I think it is safe to say, this blog this surpassed all of our expectations. To be sure … many of our debates have at times been very fierce.  And I am not sure how many people changed their minds because of discussions here.  But where else can you go to air out and discuss heated issues with a large community of intelligent people?

This site would not have been possible without many of the early contributors – especially Buxi, Nimrod, DJ, BMY (among others) … and later contributors such as Steve.  This site also would not be successful without all you readers and commenters.  We want to take the opportunity to THANK YOU ALL!

Here is to a Very Happy Birthday to Foolsmountain.  Thanks Admin for providing a platform for people all over the world to discuss issues relating to China.  Thanks to everyone for joining us to discuss all issues relating to China.

If you have any thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc. regarding Foolsmountain, please share them with us – now that we are no longer a toddler – but have grown to be a big 1-year old!

P.S. Ok – maybe we are still a toddler – but do allow us to boast a little on our B-Day, ok …?!  😉

happy-birthday2

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Thanks for making this place available for those of us who’s been scratching our heads and thinking “WTF?”, when these half truth and twist of facts come out as “official narrative” of China.

  3. Good job. I noticed that you don’t have any ads in the website. Is it because you just do this as your hobby with your money or what?

  4. I like the humility of the first message, kind of reminds me of this:

    “I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

    I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them :-)”

    😉

  8. Happy birthday to FM and all the FMers. We have a great time! My anniversary today too!

    祝你
    一家瑞氣，
    二氣雍和，
    三星拱戶，
    四季平安，
    五星高照，
    六畜興旺，
    七星高照，
    八面春風；
    九運當頭，
    十全十美，
    總之快樂快樂，萬事如意！

    辦事處處順，
    生活步步高，
    彩票期期中，
    好運天天交，
    家中出黃金，
    牆上長鈔票！

    棒棒的BODY，
    滿滿的MONEY，
    多多的HAPPY，
    心情天天很SUNNY，
    無憂無慮象個BABY，
    總之，FM 你最快樂。
    Happy Birthday!

  9. Happy Birthday Fool’s Mountain!

    Today is also Samuel Morse’s birthday. From Morse code to internet blogging, surely we’ve come a long way. Morse would’ve never dreamed one day people would type stuff like WTF on a communication device.

    .-.. — .-..

    (that’s Morse for LOL)

  10. Happy Birthday Fool’s Mountain…
    I can’t believe you tried to write your own OS. I have never aspired to write my own OS.. too much work… happy with linux..

  12. Thank you all for the birthday greetings! It’s truly a privilege for me to get to know so many wonderful people on this forum. I am especially delighted that at least 2 of our readers share the same B-day with FM. Happy Birthday to you too. 🙂

    I am also wondering, since many of FMers are bilingual and we want to build a two-way bridge, it might not be a bad idea to set up a sister site of FM in Chinese. What do you guys think?

  15. No, you shouldn’t be ashamed, you’re just too young to have paid attention in 1991, and that’s a good thing! 🙂

  17. @admin #12:

    You don’t need a sister site in Chinese, but you might want a mirror site in China.

    China has the largest internet user population in the world and Chinese language blogs are the most numerous, it’s open to anybody who can read Chinese. Chinese blogsphere is a very crowded place already, a Chinese version of this blog won’t stand a chance against tianya, mop and “猫眼看人“(cat898).

    Also I suspect many active members here aren’t that well-versed in Chinese, and we have more than a couple of Chinese bananas here, who have proudly discarded the much despised “Chinese way of thinking”, likely along with their Chinese language ability. To many, a China blog that argues from a Chinese perspective is too much Chinese already, a China blog that’s actually in Chinese is a definite turn-off.

    On that other hand, a English blog that represents a well-rounded Chinese view is still a rarity in China. And being in English, you can also limited your readership to mostly educated professionals and academia, which I suspect is what most people here want. Right now this place is like a quiet library room where people can actually have a conversation, we don’t want to turn this blog into a noisy market place on weekend where everybody’s shouting but nobody’s listening.

  19. Happy B-day Fool’s Mountain. It wasn’t until I found this site that I felt comfortable really digging into many of these issues (at least in a public forum). I can definitely say that my views have broadened as a result of commenters on this site, thanks to you all too!

  21. @wukong,

    Thanks for the advice. I agree that we have no way to compete against tianya and mop, or boxun and wenxue city for that matter. What I think amiss in the Chinese language blogsphere is, like you said, a quite library room to have a conversation.

  22. Agree with #17 that you do not need to have another blog for Chinese as it is very crowded already.

    Mia, when I was in college, most colleges did not have a CS degree program. I took a PDP11 assembly language class (an undergrad class) in my grad school and ended up as a PDP-11 programmer.

    My first experience on how supply and demand worked. While many other graduates were Xeroxing paper or pumping gas (now no need for this job), I had a professional job even my English was at kindergarten level. Never been laid off (except I fired my bosses several times for better jobs). A lot of interesting jobs may not buy bread and butter and could not raise a family.

  23. This type of blogosphere is extremely entertaining to me. Because my day is filled with testing, programming and then more testing…. occasionally I will sneak in a 15 page paper about ARM Architecture….
    this is definitely a nice break…..

  28. Congrats fools mountain and happy b-day!

    Now monetize the site!!!!! 🙂 muahahahahahaha

  30. Happy birthday foolsmountain. I rarely post but enjoy reading (when I get the time). Very impressive group of knowledgeable regular contributors. Keep up the good work and all the best for the future.

  31. Happy Birthday, foolsmountain! I enjoy reading the posts here, and look forward to your 2nd birthday BASH! You will have a bash, right?

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