MIT BBS () is a Chinese-language

bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such ...

website. The name "Weiming" may also refer to the Weiming Lake at

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...

campus.

History

The forum was founded in 1997 by Chinese students studying at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

under bbs.mit.edu. In 2002, the Chinese government blocked access to the entire mit.edu domain. Some have speculated that the main reason was to prevent domestic users from accessing the uncensored political discussions on this forum. In 2004, to circumvent the block in place in China, a self-censored branch mitbbs.cn was opened to facilitate access by users in China. Currently there were about 300 topic groups. The website claimed that it had hundreds of thousands of registered users, most of whom were Overseas Chinese, and 51% of their internet traffic was generated from within the US. In July 2022, MIT BBS ceased operations. Other similar websites such as newmitbbs.com, wmkj.org, weiming.info, freeblueplanet.com, and mitbbsclub.com emerged.

Administration

After moving out of mit.edu, it was then managed by a company located in Beijing, China. Under the current administrator ''walklooktalk'', in the last several years it saw accelerated commercialization, with more prominent space reserved for advertisers, as well as the creation of a spin-off website devoted to

personal advertisement A personal advertisement, sometimes called a contact ad, is a form of classified advertising in which a person seeks to find another person for friendship, romance, marriage, or sexual activity. In British English, it is commonly known as an adve ...

References

{{Reflist, 2, colwidth=30em Chinese Internet forums