TOC down but not out
Thursday, 25 December 2008, 2:22 pm | 1,812 views
Dear everyone
The Online Citizen (TOC) website was shut down yesterday and earlier today. This was due to some system overload issues with our host. We have temporarily rectified the problem and are looking into preventing this from happening again.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank everyone who expressed their concern to us through emails, smses and phone calls. We also thank you for your patience.
On a happier note, 11 TOC members and friends were at Old Airport Road on Christmas Eve afternoon to distribute some Christmas gifts to the residents of the rental flats there. We gave out 100 gift packs (foodstuff for adults and toys for children) bought with a $2,000 donation from our own members and friends.
It was indeed a humbling experience for everyone involved.
Finally, TOC would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.
Regards,
Andrew Loh
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Dearest Andrew Loh and Members at TOC,
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK AT THE ONLINE CITIZEN.
I AM A FAN AND READER OF YOUR WEBSITE.
FROM US TO YOU – HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS.
Jesus Christ is the Reason For the Season
The angel Gabriel went to Mary and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.”
You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save His people from their sins. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and they will call him “Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
“FOR NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD.”
Mary answered, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
[Text taken from Luke 1:28-33, Luke 1:28-37-38, Mathew 1:21-23, Isaiah 6:6-10]
Good deeds added to great job by TOC.
Hip! Hip! Huray!
Wishing TOC all the best in the coming years!
From: Yours Sincerely: patriot
Next time organise one for the bloggers here..
or let us donate. thanks.
Merry X’mas to Andrew and all at TOC.
I also want to congratulate you folks for all the hard work and dedication in maintaining TOC. TOC has given Singaporeans an avenue to express their opinions on matters of public interest freely and I must say that the quality of the comments and debate had been good in general. Applause to all contributors.
It was wonderfully thoughtful of you folks to distribute X’mas gift. I’m sure many of us would be more than happy to contribute either in effort or donation. Please let us know should you decide to organise another charity event.
why oni $20 for each people? if u realli care about the people how come not more? why i dun have?
Dear Andrew and all at TOC
A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too! Glad that TOC is up again. Thanks for the great work you and your team have done and are still doing. The distributing of gifts to the needy on Christmas Eve is a good move. Do let us know of any charity efforts in future so that more could be done for the less fortunate.
hussh!
you should not have used the word”suspend” bcos it sounds like suspend by the authority… just use “we are breakdown” or something like that next time.
my Xmas message to all
from my 3rd eyed vision
ole yes
it D Man himself…..
God spoke to me last night in my xmas eve dream as usual
He called Noel which is why my nick is noelofarc
Wakey wakey
I replied whats up doc?
Open my eyes
It D man
The chap in pure white
A long sleeve white armani made suit with maotzetung collar
I says
Why you have toto lobang inside for me?
He replied
Toto your head lark
I got a task for you
I want you to build an ark
You know the old testament story
As usual after building it
You needs to get a pair of those same animals/birds/bees as well
But you only have 12 days to finish the task
Starting tomorrow on xmas day
I would liked to grant you 40 days same as your predessor the orginal bearded noel
But even in heaven above we also have budget cuts
Which is why
There is a slogan that says
Even
God paid ca$h
By 2009 a snowstorm will be brewing
Far worst than tsunami sushi buffet
We wanted to give you peeps a sandstorm
But you know lark
Sands are expensive commodities
So we have to opts for snowstorm..
I interrupt and says
By the way
Can I address you as joe?
Afterall bigcannonking here called everybody joe
And the yankie called their fighters g.i.joe as well
Somemore you are the father of jesus right?
And the father of jesus is joseph a
Fellow carpenter as well….
So joe short for joseph ok with you?
What snowstorm brewing?
This is Singapore hor
Don’t bluff me
Where in Singapore have a freezer so big that you rained for 40 days/nites
You can only get flood hor…
In singapoor rained 7 days already flooded…
Joe said
You bloomin ninkamput
Am I not GOD?
What magic I cannot perform?
Do I looked like david copperfield to you?
I replied
Well david copperfield is more handsome than you hor…
The reason I am telling you this
Is because
You know
I know
The present situation is bad
Economic downturns
Unemployments
Factories shutdown
So many people crying
Sured flood what
You catch the drift
I replied
Ok ok catched your drift
Let see
You want me to build
An ark
In 12 days completeion
Right?
Joe say
Yeah that’s right
Smiling away
I said before you give me that smug look/smile
Let me assess the situation for you
Let me summarized
In a sentenced or two….
An ark..
Woods
Lots of woods
Where on earth am I goin to find woods?
Well deadwoods are a many
But they are not buildable or burnable
You expect me to waltz into mandai forest
Chopped down a few trees?
And you merely think our park rangers would grant me that permit
Beside being shot @ by mindef boobooking recruits with blanks firin
Next even if I can pyscoed the park rangers
Telling them its an Act of God
Promising them they will striked 4D/Totos if they cooperate
So joe don’t forget them hor
I will sms you their i/c particulars
When I finished chopping the trees
p.s. who is going to help me to chop the tree
you know 12 days project hor
ok ok I get it
go employed the 179 bangala abandoned workers
and please joe for God sake
pay them their $18/day wages hor…
Singapore $ if you don’t mind
Not rupees please
After deforestin/rapin mother’s nature
I hoped that you did discuss this with mother Theresa
Please send her my regards
I have to transport them to a building site….
Building site………..
Eer
Ugm……..
Will get back to you on that
After my people talk to sla people
Wah sound so professional
Machiam machiam
I simwonghoo type
When I transport all this log on lorry
Do you know
How many trips I must make?
How many erp poles I must pay
You know or don’t know?
Don’t act blur with me hor
Unless you can striked a lighning bolt @ the lta minister
If possible fried his ***
So that he can never s h i t for 40 days/nites
You talked to saint peter hor
He is your $0.10cents accountant
Please asked him to top up the erp ca$h card $1000 lark….
Ok
So far so good?
Got log
Got erp poles solved
Location to build?
Opened ground
So far
I nice piece of vacant land
In istana ground big enough
Free 24/7 canteen as well
Who you know in istana
Beside the roti prata eater?
Don’t bothered with him
He just a figurehead
Another deadwood
No power one
Even if you give him a jedi knight lightsabre
He also don’t know
Where is the ON switch
are you on par with the great 1
You know the same mental1 which turned to the dark side
Don’t looked @ me hor
I am not ob1kaninacaliaobie hor
Ok ok
I sound liked yoda
(actually I doubled as yoda mutlitaskin/jobs must worked 2 jobs to survive)
Afterall rumoured was that you played golf with him 6 days a week
Ok ok
I was the bloke that started the rumor
If not
How come the mental1 worked only 1 day/week?
Why ministry of manpower got such rules mey?
So tomorrow when you played golf with him
You better loss hor
Act a bit stupid
But don’t be complacent hor
Played with your eyes CLOSED please
You know or don’t know?
You think Singapore is cheap
So cheap
That it’s a bargain?
If I were in Philippines or even china
(and please don’t start with that insulting
Madeinchina products jokes)
I could have done much much less
Plus a lot of free materials/labours
All in the name of
GOD
In Singapore?
Don’t even dream of pulling your rank here
Afterall you did says
Even
GOD paid ca$h….
Not I says hor
You go to istana now
Have a nice cold beer
And a free turkey
Get back to me asap
Please
Have a nice
Merry Xmas
I know
I didn’t
Just finished 7 pages writin this
Worst than my kindergarden thesis…
TAMAT
And
AMEN!!!
A Merry Christmas to TOC and all!
I second the suggestion to inform us so that we could join your charity events. TOC can suggest some gift packs affordable to all, that we can bring along. Let TOC lead the way. Let us all show we really care unlike the MIWs!
What a coincidence, Singapore Flyer in suspense for 7 hours, Toc also in suspense. Bad Sign, A lot of things may be in suspense next year??
merry christmas to all.
Merry Christmas to all TheOnlineCitizen writers and readers.
wei wei
andrew/ah leong
don’t anyhow edit my thesis ley
got head
machiam machiam no tail
here below is the LINK
the
FULL unedited version
posted
right in the LION’s den
http://www.youngpap.org.sg/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=23645
if like that
don’t friend you all
better go prayed marble instead…
Thats great to see TOC still okay cos yesterday I found TOC down.
Happy New Year!
TOC site went down due to traffic volume?
So, that means anytime there is such high traffic, it will always go down?
How about New Year’s Eve?
How about Lunar New Year’s Eve?
juz curiouz
phew…thought you guys got shut down by u-know-who…
Keep up the good works…there are truly caring singaporeans SINGAPOREANS…may we not lose sight for the people…gonna be a tough year ahead…cheers to the rest of the crew in TOC.
As long as TOC continues to serve a purpose,
i am sure it has a future.
just a 2cent reminder :
1. backup backup backup – in case suddenly the site goes down again and lose all your nicely written articles that your writers must have spent some time writing.
2. mirror to an alternate site for redundancy and serve as contingency plan.
like this, even if its shutdown, the mirror site will kick in automatically. the trick is to keep the mirror url a secret.
Thanks for a year of informative and enlightening articles for the people.
However, for 2009, you have all the work cut out for you. Many many singaporeans are still apathetic and stuck in a self-defeating mentality.
Many are degree holders too.
You role is ever more important.
May the Momentum be with you.
PEACE and Merry X’mas!
Is Moshedyan the same one from YPAP? yeerrrr….
Oh thanks Andrew I tot the site was being sabotaged earlier. Merry Christmas to you and all at TOC. Cheers!
Everyone, please help out by occasionally looking at and clicking on the ads. With more money TOC can increase their server’s bandwidth to accommodate more visitors.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the X’mas wishes and kind words of support. Everyone at TOC appreciates them …
As for informing everyone about the charity event, we did think about it but as it was relative short notice, we decided to do it ourselves. But yes, we will look into involving everyone here for such future events. I think that would be something really wonderful to do.
I’d like to give special mention to Gilbert Goh. He was the one who came up with the suggestion and led the team on Wednesday at Old Airport Road… Thanks, Gilbert..
moshedyan , please keep your comments shorter, k? And I do’t think anyone moderated your comments..
MeRrY ChRiStmAs to everyone!
Andrew
merry xmas TOC
May the good Lord shine a light on you
May every song you sing be your favorite tune
Andrew sorry I couldn’t meet you on wed… had a last min work crisis that needed some resolving. Quite a pity as I was looking forward to meet you guys. Do keep us posted on the the next event.
bless yous
I tot Gilbert is always overseas?
Zefly, no problem. We’ll always have opportunity to meet up..
Johnny kid, thanks for helping to encourage our readers to click on the adsense but you know, Google doesn’t allow that – encouraging people to click on the ads. They will ban us from using the ads if we do this! Haha..
Yap, you’re right. We do back-up TOC (I think) but we’ll make sure. Thanks for the advice!
Logic, erm.. we hope that we will be able to accomodate a higher volume of visitors eventually – if TOC reaches that many people. Thus, we’re looking into having a new server. By the way, Malaysiakini went down during the elections in March this year due to volume as well – or too many visitors. (I think they had something like 3 million every day during the elections.)
And to everyone who would want to take part in future charity events, would any of you like to organise one for Chinese New year? It’s next month, Jan 2009. It would be really cool if one of our readers would lead such an effort.
Regards,
Andrew Loh
Belarus,
Gilbert got back a few days ago..
Andrew
If you guys are tired of living in Singapore, you can always migrate to another country. Enough of the complaining already. I love Singapore.
Hi Andrew and TOC team,
A very Blessed and Merry Christmas to all!.
The shutdown gave me a huge fright. I thought I was being monitored and found out by my company and I was expecting a knock on my door to be called up for further questioning on why I was spending so much time writing on TOC instead of doing my work. Phew! What a sigh of relief.
Anyway, good work again on the charitable initiative and a big thanks to Gilbert also for taking upon himself a bigger and bigger role and working alongside TOC. God bless you abundantly Gilbert and I sincerly hope to follow in your footsteps soon enough.
Agree with #3) Isa: next time, keep the cat out of the bag so that TOC readers can chip in with their fair share.
Merry Christmas to all readers and friends here in TOC!
Happy Holidays to all commoners & Merry 2009 as well as upcoming years…
aiyoyo
28) Enough of Griping on December 26th, 2008 7.12 am
We love Singapore too. That is why we want to make it a better place instead of migrate out.
I had a coffee session with some of my old old friends lately.
we had not seen each other for many many years.
all of us have grown older, much older.
while chit chatting, we stumbled on the issues that concern the people.
At the end of the session, I realised they are totally apathetic to national issues.
these are not uneducated people but smart brains working in good companies.
I realised that I was the odd one out. I described my concerns about issues like TC investments and the need for clearer information among other things.
They seem apathetic. So, I asked them why like that when these concerns all of us. His reply was some are more sensitive than others on such issues.
But I believe its not so much about being sensitive or less sensitive. I think its about questions that beg to be asked.
we ended the session after a long chat. Then while walking home, I felt that there really exist a serious problem of apathy. I could only suspect that somehow, maybe due to some vested interest, they will gladly ignore the questions that beg to be asked. I found out some of them work in ‘certain kinds of companies’.
cannot say too much liao……. when talking in kopi shops, watch out for phones placed on tables.
sorry forgot my main point :
TOC should not shutdown. There is a deep seated problem called apathy that needs to be eradicated asap.
whew….had a scare when can’t access…..and immediately suspect ISA and feared for your safety.
best wishes for 2009
Hi Apathy Buster,
These people will tell you there is nothing wrong for them to feel apathetic;……and it will be followed by a long list of govt reasonings given over the years (which I do no want to repeat so as not to continue the brain-washing) to support their stand.
Even after telling them that we do not have to be ‘like this‘, they would defend their position by giving the ultimate insult by asking, “who else could do a better job than LKY”?
Try explaining to them that there are people out there who can do a good enough job, or, we can have a better system that incorporates the wisdom of the people instead of one elite batch of self-serving individuals; and they will tell you that you are crazy, pointing to CSJ & JBJ as examples. “Why ‘destroy’ your own comfortable life for the benefit of others”, they would challenge you. So you see, it all boils down, generally, to the comfort zone one is in.
In Singapore, one is considered comfortable:
- if he has a job with a steady income, never mind if he has to put in an extra hour here and there, it comes with being comfortably employed.
- if he has a home (HDB flat is good enough) with monthly mortgage repayments taken care of by being gainfully employed.
- if he has a set routine of waking up, breakfast on table, having air-con public transport to get to work, a nice lunch, another air-con ride home, warm water for a nice long bath, home cooked dinner, a loving wife or husband to chit chat with and obedient children that are self-reliant and independent.
- if he can go on a yearly vacation, never mind if it is only Malaysia.
Try penetrating into this comfort zone to tell them that the noise coming from next door, are neighbours who are hungry, jobless and struggling to pay off their debts, and the response you will get is, it’s of their own doing.
Try telling them that foreign workers are being ill-treated and they’ll tell you they deserved it.
Try telling them that the govt have been telling us lies and making empty promises, and they’ll tell you it not their business. It’s for losers to believe the way they do.
Point is, nothing can break their comfort zone, until and unless, it affects them. How many in the 10,000 who lost their investments belonged to this group of comfortable people? How many reacted when their comfort zone is disturbed?
Sad but true, this group of ‘comfort’ people will do Singapore the most harm by continuing to lend their support to a regime that is sure to lead the country to doom if it does not see the need to seriously review itself and take into account the people’s interests more than the national interests of pursuing a foreign agenda that lust over the global goldmine.
Apathy is here to stay, but we can slowly but surely reduce the number that feel this way. The time is right in this moment of global recession, to make enough noise for these ‘comfort’ people to hear and realize the danger of their apathetic disposition.
….missed out from post #35)
Good start, Apathy Buster. You may think your encounter with your old friends was fruitless but rest assured that the Singapore (Asian) mentality is one that does not follow upstream more than downstream. The important thing is to plant the seeds of discernment among them. Small steps are more effective than to stand on a stage and shout your message into a loudhailer.
I hope you have not decided to give up trying because we all need to do our little part to change apathy, no matter how futile it may seem to us. We must strive on, harder, in fact, to break this hardened shell.
[i]24) theonlinecitizen on December 25th, 2008 11.08 pm Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the X’mas wishes and kind words of support. Everyone at TOC appreciates them …
moshedyan , please keep your comments shorter, k? And I do’t think anyone moderated your comments.. [/i]
i have to break up into 6 parts
you think i write short story har?
friends roman and countypeople
when
God talk to me in my dream
do you think
i can tell him?
got fart
hurry fart
if not
get the fart
out of my nose?
like that
how to dream of 4Ds/toto
~chey~
Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Keep the great stories coming next year! And make TOC a brand name for every Singaporean!
Could it be from ISD? DoS attack?
To the non IT savvy, DoS attack is
by blasting a lot of network signals to a website , increasing the hits and overloading the site causing it problem.
like infinite connections being made with the site.
this is a very old technique but still in use everywhere.
but i believe there are ways or technology to block such attacks.
Hi Parka,
You have a lot of confidence in us. Haha… for TOC to be come a brand name for every Singaporean, it’ll have to be the work of everyone who visits us – they can help spread the word…
Regards,
Andrew Loh
TOC is still not well known. At least I do not think the Majority is aware of TOC.
maybe many are aware but certainly not yet the majority.
this is despite the numerous opportunities it has appeared on TV programs, international and local, on newspapers and on radios and of course the internet and hong lim park.
i say so based on personal experience. I interacted with some friends and many are not aware of TOC. not sure if they bluffing.
i guess people are really working-sleeping-working-sleeping without time for any other things like discuss about the news, go online and read blogs and post in forums.
there is still a long way to go.
[i]Hong Bu Rang on December 26th, 2008 10.36 pm TOC is still not well known. At least I do not think the Majority is aware of TOC.
maybe many are aware but certainly not yet the majority.[/i]
i heard of it online
but i never bothered nor support
till 1 day mr brown d man directed me here
i am an ardent supporter of mr brown
why?
just because he eat pork liver?
noped he a family man
a working man
and a truthful singaporean
just liked the 66% of us
he have scarified his career
just to input what is right
what is wrong
TOC have also been doing it
with a bigger supporters readerships
than mr brown
now the youngpap/young ntuc forum is liked a dead town…
sgforum?
eversinced they banned me just because
i don’t comply
(mind you 1 night alone i hit more than a 1000 insults verbal firefights)
yet they banned me
simply because
i
outwitted/outsmart/outflanked
including the moderators
who only wants obedients dogs under HER wings
and as i told young ntuc before
bannin me is as easy as abc
but to get me to contribute ley….
not so easy
even if you enticed me with cebu topless dancin chiobus
(in which it do exist..trust me on that i been postin my experience/pictures with them)…
opps..
sorry wrong figures
not the 66% of us
the 33% of us
my humblest esteem apologies
I hope TOC can evolve into both
Online and Offline news and become a challenger to MSM.
We need an Alternative to Today and NewPaper.
Why?
who is asking me the Why? u no no meh?
kampung news network knn!
Andrew
At first I gong gong thought I kena barred from here .Luckily I can still see u all .Heng Ah……
I am touch by your team’s effort on the resident especially during these times.
I take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year ahead.
Together we make Singapore a good one.Cheers.
agongkia,
Thank you. The credit goes to everyone who support us and the TOC team. We hope more people will speak out in 2009 and help shed the shackles of fear which have plagued Singapore society for the longest time.
To me, this is the saddest thing about our nation. But I am glad to see so many speaking up and being involved in 2008.
Lets do more in 2009 – within the law, of course!
Andrew Loh
cheng tua lip (#45),
I think TOC becoming a challenge to the msm is a over-statement. Honestly, I do not see this happening. It requires much more resources and time and effort and funding for TOC to be anywhere near a news outlet.
At the end of the day, we’re just a bunch of bloggers. I know some people disagrees with me but that’s the truth. We are just bloggers speakig up on things we care about.
For us – or anyone – to pose a challenge to the MSM (which, by the way, is not our intention) – will take much more.
But having said that, I am happy to see that TOC means something to our readers. This will keep us going for a little while longer..
Andrew Loh
Keep up the good work TOC.You have alot of support.Seasons Greetings.
andrew you are right. we pose little challenge to the MSM.
to be biggest group out(old folks and older people) there, these people belong to the PAP’s power base, and they don’t even know about TOC. Even if they know, its really hard to change their opinions about PAP.
the target audience of TOC must be on the youths and TOC must work harder in these. many people still don’t know and they don’t care. sadly.
Hi All
Sorry for MIA these few days as I do not have ready access to internet and only log in whenever possible.
I was also distracted by my bro in law wedding over the weekend.
The gift give away was a good start for many who were new to this initiative. It was my thirdt attempt at giving gifts to the poor and out during Christmas eve. Frankly not many people are warm to such an idea sadly.
I hope that the CNY 2009 gift away will be a special one for many in TOC. I hope also that someone will take the lead here to do something for the poor and underpriviledged.
I did it once with my family and another time alone – all during Christmas eve few years back. I subscribed to the ideal that Christmas should involve giving unconditionally. In Singapore whereby everything comes at a cost, when one received a gift FOC their faces sparkle and this is enough to make my day.
However, it was tough getting people involved especially when many are out on holiday or shopping for gifts. Nevertheless, some chipped in money instead.
When I opened up to TOC I was surprised that so many are kind enough to help out as I may be the only one or two persons that could make it on that day. Thanks TOC! I believe that besides talking openly about politics, we should sometiems walk the talk ourselves.
Nothing beat the experience of seeing happy faces on that day when they received nicely wrapped presents by the team members It was certainly a day that is worth all the efforts made.