Yes. In those days the days the taboo subjects were Emigration, price of HDB flats, PAP MPs, the agenda behind GRC, PAP and Lee family cronies and the democratic world outside. All these subjects were either banned by the Media or it was outright slant. These are now found all over the online world and netizens and bloggers are a plenty. Now you cannot tell the rubbish from the good stuff. Mr Brown who was well regarded and gave the govt a helluva time is now into product reviews. Even our Mr Lucky who started life here ran a serious blog with well researched article gave up.
One example of a restricted society then was that the Migration agencies were prohibited from advertising in the local press. They would conduct their business by word of mouth and surreptitiously in hotel rooms. SBF members than started sharing their experiences. Among the members were few and usual detractors. Either they did not qualify or had bad experiences. Some member you could not convince. They will only be convinced if the Prime Minister issues a Govt Gazette personally to them. It was that bad.
The big occasion was the run-up to the 2006 elections and in many ways we had to thank GMS, Locke, Perspective and few others who gave us glimpse of WP and how the opposition worked. There were lots of discussion on strategy and tactics, whether useful or not it did not matter. People felt included in the destiny of the country. It helped politicise the electorate online and I sure Sam had to handle the surge in traffic. If you wanted the latest on the elections, there was no other forum except SBF. Mr Brown, Alex and Mr Miyagi ran the in depth analysis. They carried some of the stories that they found here including respected journalist Seah Chaing Nee who wrote for the Star and had his own blog.
Sam however used to get mad with one forummer who was very helpful but insisted on posting large posters taking up valuable bandwidth during elections. It was like massive domestic argument. He would also screw the daylights of those who copied a whole chunk of text.
In those day the detractors had to behave. Thread disruption was not intentional and the TCSS was done in the right threads and it was trivial, and fun. It broke the monotony on dull days.
There there also memorable events such as the entry of Loaded888.
One example of a restricted society then was that the Migration agencies were prohibited from advertising in the local press. They would conduct their business by word of mouth and surreptitiously in hotel rooms. SBF members than started sharing their experiences. Among the members were few and usual detractors. Either they did not qualify or had bad experiences. Some member you could not convince. They will only be convinced if the Prime Minister issues a Govt Gazette personally to them. It was that bad.
The big occasion was the run-up to the 2006 elections and in many ways we had to thank GMS, Locke, Perspective and few others who gave us glimpse of WP and how the opposition worked. There were lots of discussion on strategy and tactics, whether useful or not it did not matter. People felt included in the destiny of the country. It helped politicise the electorate online and I sure Sam had to handle the surge in traffic. If you wanted the latest on the elections, there was no other forum except SBF. Mr Brown, Alex and Mr Miyagi ran the in depth analysis. They carried some of the stories that they found here including respected journalist Seah Chaing Nee who wrote for the Star and had his own blog.
Sam however used to get mad with one forummer who was very helpful but insisted on posting large posters taking up valuable bandwidth during elections. It was like massive domestic argument. He would also screw the daylights of those who copied a whole chunk of text.
In those day the detractors had to behave. Thread disruption was not intentional and the TCSS was done in the right threads and it was trivial, and fun. It broke the monotony on dull days.
There there also memorable events such as the entry of Loaded888.
