Sunday, November 30, 2008 21:04

TOC turns two!

In Andrew Loh, Main Stories, Top Story • 555 views • 22 Comments

Hi everyone,

December 1 marks the second year of existence for The Online Citizen (TOC).

We would like to take this occasion to thank you, our readers, supporters and contributors.

This past one year saw TOC achieve several milestones because of your support. We crossed the two million mark this year. In fact, it was achieved this month and it took us less time to mark 1,000,000 this year as we only moved to this present site in April. We at TOC would like to say a big THANK YOU to you. (By the way, for our new readers and those who miss our old site, it is still available. Click here.)

This year also saw a record number – for TOC – of new members and contributors. They range from students to professionals to retirees. Every one of them shares the credit for what TOC is today.

Going forward into 2009, we have lined up several new projects and will introduce them in a month or two. To whet your appetite, TOC will have a talk show (on video) hosted by two very young students, and a new International team, which we have named TOC International. These are just two of the new initiatives we will feature on this site in the new year, amongst others.

So do look out for them.

TOC will always belong to you, our guests and readers. Without you, TOC will fold in an instant. So, please do continue to give your support to this very very young endeavour. With you behind the TOC team, we together will achieve new milestones and, more importantly, take socio-political discourse to a new level in Singapore, our beloved country.

To mark this occasion, TOC will be holding an event at Speakers’ Corner this Saturday, December 6. It starts at 5pm and ends at 7pm. The theme for the day is “Social Justice and Fairness” with a focus on the poor and the needy. The reason for this focus is this: the poor, needy and less-abled are the Singaporeans whom TOC will always speak out for – especially at this time when we begin the season of giving and sharing of Christmas. This Saturday’s event is also in conjunction with U60’s celebration of the 60th year of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

So, do join us on Saturday.

Again, on behalf of the editors, writers, photographers, videographers, citizen journalists and contributors of TOC, THANK YOU!

Regards,

Andrew Loh

Deputy Editor

———-

Related posts:

  1. TOC turns 3 – and memories of an elite uncaring face
  2. Good crowd turns up for TOC’s first public event
  3. Malaysiakini turns 10, so where’s Singaporekini?
  4. Lend TOC a helping hand
  5. Number of comments on TOC surpasses 100,000



22 Comments

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Jackson Tan
Nov 30, 2008 21:12

Lo! Have things changed! How nostalgic was it when I went back to the old site… But one thing still remains accurate on the old site: Mas Selamat is still missing.

Congratulations to TOC, and thanks for everyone behind the scenes who made this possible! I’ve marked down this Saturday’s event on my calendar.

Anyway, I personally have noticed that the page views for each single article has increased in the last few months. Well done!

inspir3d
Nov 30, 2008 21:23

congrats.

good job!

now, it’s time to get some of your TOC members into parliament =)

Parka
Nov 30, 2008 21:25

Congratulations.

I’ve only found out about this website recently and would like to say that it has some great content.

The stories published are always very provocative, challenging and intelligent. Most importantly, the stories with substantiated examples really strike a chord – judging from the number of comments – with citizens. Kudos to the writers.

Even the comments left by readers are thought-provoking.

Keep up the good work and carry on providing Singaporeans a wider perspective.

Faith
Nov 30, 2008 21:28

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Keep up the good works!

I personally feel that TOC has many credible members. Please consider joining APs so that our voices can be heard, loud and clear, in parliament.

Thank you.

God bless.

Selamat wong
Nov 30, 2008 22:08

Thank you TOC for all the articles and providing the people with a platform to comment on issues.

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Singapore Short Stories
Nov 30, 2008 22:12

I have only recently contributed to the website in the form of comments and I realised I have been missing much.

I hope in future, I would be able to contribute some articles in this award winning site too!

someday
Nov 30, 2008 23:41

well done.

keep up the good work.

now toc should look for donation to make it even bigger.

like those city something church of those loyang temple.

all the best

someday
Nov 30, 2008 23:42

like those city something church or those loyang temple

Zheng Xi
Dec 1, 2008 0:58

Singapore Short Stories,

You’re running a great site too, do drop us an email so we can meet up to talk about collaboration soon. It will be great to have you on board our team.

Someday,

We’re very proud of our fully volunteer model, it’s made every single article we receive from our team all the more meaningful knowing its been contributed by Singaporeans who believe in active citizenry enough to be part of the national discourse without renumeration.

Gilbert Goh
Dec 1, 2008 8:58

Hi Andrew and All At TOC

Thanks for giving us this site to exchange our views and comments however bias it is. I only got to know about TOC from the newspaper feature article two months back.

I always thought TOC is just a site for netizens to fire away but it’s well written articles are a breath of fresh air here and attracted my attention. I have also contributed some articles to TOC.

In fact, TOC site has overtaken my priority over ST online in terms of coverage and balance. In many countries, some people read online newspaper and there is no hard copy. Maybe, who knows, given some time, TOC may evolve into a respectable international newspaper site with proper journalistic reportig.

I am also warm to the feeling that TOC is adopting a socio-political stance giving emphasis on the poor and needy. This underpriviledged group needs all the assistance it can get as many fall through the net here.

I still find many sleepless people napping at the Airport T1/2/3 and underneath the Benjamin Bridge at night. This is sad as being a First world country we are rather backward in how we care for our aged and poor.

As TOC progresses, let us hope that there will be more political figures that will show their faces in the near future. Besides TKL, people like Andrew, Gerald and others here are all good people that SIngapore needs to bring us forward.

Congrats TOC for it’s second anniversay! You all have done well!

Abdul Salim
Dec 1, 2008 9:48

Congrats to TOC on your 2nd Anniversary.

I believe that its a milestone achievement for you guys who has been working hard behind the success story of TOC.

Keep up the good work you guys been doing in enlightening and leading Singaporeans to the TRUTH, from which they will never know from the state media.

Congrats once again!!!

eiro:wants answers
Dec 1, 2008 9:50

Congrats toc!

Only two brief points. A few days ago, a chanced on debate with one character called Singaporedaddy in this thread.

Do you happen to have any info on this person by any chance? Does he have a website that I can go too?

Anyway, allow me to get straight to the point. As I was following this debate. I noticed that in one of his replies with eiro, his post was put under “moderation mode” – I believe it is this one for nearly 3 hours from the time of posting. I have a mirror copy, if you want. Its this one number 82 comment by singaporedaddy on November 28th, 2008 7.00 pm, here

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/11/100000-signatures-so-more-people-will-step-forward/#comments

I subsequently noticed the following day, when he was having a debate with Ho cheow seng in the same thread.

Again his comments was placed under moderation again. This time, I believe, if you scroll through it, you can even see the “moderation” tag. Its here: comment No. 119 by singaporedaddy on November 29th, 2008 7.36 pm .

The question, I would like to pose to toc is twofold.

a) can you please explain why on two occasions. Singaporedaddy comments was placed on moderation mode. I have read those comments, nothing improper about them. The reason why I feel strongly abt this is I dont understand why is the man being discriminated and why is his one hands tied behind his back. It doesnt see a fair way for him to even have a fair fight.

[---deleted---]

I hope to get an answer either from Andrew or Choo. Many thanks and once again best wishes toc.

Comments edited by moderator.
Dear eiro, the second part of your comments are edited (deleted) as it has nothing to do with the announcement above. Also, please take your personal grievance against fellow commenters elsewhere. TOC is not the place for it.

theonlinecitizen
Dec 1, 2008 10:02

Eiro,

The article, for which you provided a link, has 139 comments so far. I am not sure which of Singaporedaddy’s comments you are referring to.

As for why his comments were under moderation, it was not on purpose. Other commenters too have had their comments put under moderation automatically. There are several reasons for this:

1. If there are more than one url link in the comments, the post will be under moderation. This is to prevent spamming on TOC. We receive many spam everyday due to the high traffic of our site – and most of them are from porn websites. TOC’s anti-spam mechanism catches such comments automatically.

2. If there are personal attacks against fellow commenters, we will put the comments under moderation until we have edited them.

3. Sometimes it takes longer to release the comments which are under the moderation queue simply because we are busy and haven’t had time to sieve through the slew of comments on TOC daily. We release them as soon as we have gone through them.

Regards,
Andrew Loh

Zefly (aka Joshua Chiang)
Dec 1, 2008 10:22

ok i will be there. Hopefully can get to meet those people whom I only know by nicks so far. Who will be the guest speaker?

Mohamad Hamim
Dec 1, 2008 11:25

Congrat…….
2nd Anniversary,
Long live The On Line Citizen…….

singaporedaddy
Dec 1, 2008 12:58

Good Afternoon Erio,

Let me just begin by saying, I thoroughly enjoyed our discussion. I will dive in to the points, let’s all try to remain calm and not jump to any conclusions or begin running wild with conspiracy theories galore. I really don’t see that as a constructive way to make progress; really I don’t.

Having said that, I do understand fully your concerns Eiro and even sympathize considerably with many readers. No one likes to watch a football match, where the referee is whistle happy or if suddenly the satellite connection just goes on the blink for no apparent reason; there is no flow to the game; the rhythm goes and at the end of the day, it’s just makes for a truly lousy internet experience. I see your point, it just a turn off and its no good. As I said, I understand.

However, let’s all give TOC the benefit of the doubt; there is after all a prodigious quantity of comments coming in and I am sure at times, it can be overwhelming; as posters and readers, my feel is sometimes we may not really appreciate the amount of time, effort and dedication it takes to run a site such as TOC.

For me personally, it’s a non issue – I’ve just set my blackberry on auto mode and it will resend till it gets through. I never ever sweat the small stuff, but for others who may wish to put their point urgently across only to suddenly find out rudely; for whatever reason; they cannot; it can indeed be a very exasperating and frustrating experience, so I understand.

Moving forward, it may be a good idea for TOC to look seriously into this issue. It would be very difficult to build readership trust and loyalty otherwise. Meanwhile it may be a good idea for all of us to think of an interim solution to plug this problem.

Thanks all and happy anniversary.

Do have a productive week ahead.

SD (Internet Liaison officer of the brotherhood)

Oscar Choy
Dec 1, 2008 18:30

Many happy returns to all TOC “bongo’, “wanaba” and “hanjo pucho” people. You are still greenhorns in local politics. No malice – because you are a baby learning to walk and “makan”. You have many long time to go to learn the ropes as there will be rough patches along the way. Keep talking, keep writing and keep being wonderful. We need this TOC to gnash at others, kick at others and, “main’ each other “bundaks”. This TOC is really good for retirees and people who had nothing better to do.. to sound each other out.

ordinaryman
Dec 1, 2008 20:56

god with you….

logicalman
Dec 1, 2008 21:18

Congrats, TOC, and thanks for the excellent efforts so far, despite the team not doing this full-time. You have turned out fine as an excellent source of news, editorials and commentaries. Well done and keep up the good work.

jefj0901
Dec 2, 2008 1:09

Congratulations to TOC and all loyal supporters. Keep up the great work.

TAURUSBOY
Dec 4, 2008 22:08

wonderful work and you are better than all news media in Spore. You deserve an award so please keep up with the good work.Being Fair, Clear and engaging the netizen is important besides keeping within the long arms of the law. It is hard work but beautiful and many in Spore are grateful to you.

market2garden
Jan 1, 2009 10:16

I hope TOC will stick to Day 1 Spirit. And reflect at certain intervals (quarterly example) so as not to derail from the reasoning and jump to emotional disturbance and avoid groupthink. As TOC grown larger, the organization structure becomes complex, but nevettheless TOC has to preserve its general direction.

Happy New Year.

Related Comments (My Space):
http://market2garden.blogspot.com/2008/12/comments-on-online-citizen-singapores.html

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