Extreme moderation at Hardwarezone
March 31st, 2011 | 
Author: The forum on hardwarezone.com used to be a platform for younger generations to discuss on various topics pertaining to the current affairs that is happening in Singapore. Youngsters are able to post discussion on political affairs such as government policies, election issues & anything affecting their daily life. Until recently as the election gets closer, the moderators at HWZ have taken a personal bias against any threads in the forum which contains any opposition party activities. Deletion of threads that contain mild political contents such as walkabout dates for various opposition parties. While retaining any which are beneficial to the incumbents.
We should know in advanced that hardwarezone.com was purchased by SPH many years ago and we shouldn’t expect too much open discussion on political matters in these forums. However, doesn’t it contradict the fact that the incumbents calling for more participation from the youngsters to be involved in the current affairs. But on the other hand, getting their moderators to delete or locking threads that contain political contents.
For example, a recent saga about the new PAP candidate Ms Tin Pei Ling surfaced in the HWZ forums and the moderators took extra steps in ensuring that the information posted was deleted and covered up. The moderators were probably under some control from the ruling party to ensure that they have 100% control of the information surfaced in the HWZ forums. Any information not beneficial to the PAP will be deleted without a trace even when the threads do not breach the term of usage stipulated in the terms and condition.
1. Some threads surfaced in HWZ forum that contains pictures of the new PAP candidate Ms Tin Pei Ling.
2. One of the forum member received a PM from a guy name Vincent Teo requesting to remove a few pictures that contains his friend & Ms Tin Pei Ling. Claiming that his friend is working in some secret service job thus it will be inappropriate for his pictures to appear in the public forums. From my understanding, those pictures posted actually came from the public photo album of Ms Tin Pei Ling’s Facebook/Friendster accounts. Vincent Teo posted another thread shortly in the forum warning the moderators to remove the above mentioned pictures else he will escalate the issue to higher authorities. Meaning that Vincent Teo could be a well connected person with connections to various agencies.
3. The Moderators took his warning seriously and deleted all the related threads that contain pictures that Vincent Teo mentioned earlier. Another forum member reposted the pictures and it was quickly deleted by the moderators.
4. The HWZ moderators acted based on fear of being fixed by Vincent Teo with higher authority connections. Sent 3 x infraction warnings to the forum member who posted the pictures of Vincent Teo’s secret service friend taken with Ms Tin Pei Ling. It is indeed regretful that a forum with lots of participation from the younger folks resorting to such information control to silence people who questioned.
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HBK
Posted in 
Hardwarezone should be gazetted then?
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Quit HWZ and come to TR
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I am a frequent user of the forum. If you need more evidence of Extreme moderation at Hardwarezone. please do send me an email. i will provide you with a few screen shoots.
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Extreme moderation at Hardwarezone..???
That’s why I prefer Temasek Review…
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YA,let all true singaporeans congregate here at TR and render our moral support to our OPPO.
let’s spread the word around so that more singaporeans can be made more aware of what’s going on in our country ratehr than get conned by MSM.
THERE ARE PROS AND CONS here unlike MSM which only talk cock and sing along, all year long.
come here and share your thoughts and ideas and most of all,your ‘voices’ for SING SINGAPORE!
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TR readership is soon reaching 1,000,000 – and at this time is standing at 991,513.
The strong growth in readership can only be due to the open format that allow all views to be published – with the moderators stepping in to give gentle reminders to those who forget simple manners.
Congratulations to TR moderators for the patience and hardwork in making this a place for all true blue Singaporeans to express the concerns for the ongoing political shortcomings that are threatening our future.
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You mean that fat guy show on the other post w Ms Tin is secret service??
Wow must be a James Bond dieting on fast food, so huge how to be secret can see him from a mile away. So big target blind man shoot also hard to miss.
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And PAP MP Michael Palmer goes to an NUS forum and says, “Where’s the climate of fear? I don’t see any climate of fear.”
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I dont think this is extreme moderation, this is out right censorship and slight information blackout at best.
Appreciate the Hardwarezone forummer in sharing with us the current situation there.
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all the secretive people, including the one whose daughter had an extravagant wedding,
just like the Generals,
they show us that these people, no matter how highly educated, do not understand the concept of State and Party. there is some sort of self-imposed partial blindness, and also more importantly, the fact that their wealth and power rests heavily upon the hand that feeds them.
that is why something like hardwarezone is linked to SPH is linked to Zuraidah Ibrahim is linked to Yaacob Ibrahim is linked to Tony Tan is linked to People’s Action Party is linked to Minister of Defence is linked to non-partisan Defence Intelligence is linked to Our Secret Friends
yet in a regular normal country, someone down that line would say, Hey, I am a Civil Servant of Singapore, NON partisan no matter how you threaten my promotion or paycheque.
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Strange, if it is not supposed to be for public consumption. Why would Tin post them for public viewing? And that Teo guy should have crushed the roots at cause.
Threatening with secret service is ok with law? If a police man wants to do a body search or lock up someone, he has to show his identity and pass, no resident should just surrender without proof of identity. So that Teo did not prove anything but merely intimidation and all the balls shrank! Welcome to SG.
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RH: CAN HWZ FORUMERS WHO ARE ALSO TR FORUMERS PLEASE INFORM OTHER HWZ FORUMERS TO COME OVER TO TR BECAUSE TR IS FREER AND NOT GOVT-CONTROLLED? THIS COULD BE AN OPPORTUNITY TO ATTRACT MANY HWZ MEMBERS INTO TR. IT WILL HAPPEN SOONER OR LATER, BUT IF WE MAKE A PITCH TO THEM, THESE HWZ FORMERS WILL COME OVER EARLIER. HWZ FORMERS CAN KEEP THEIR FAVOURITE NICKS.
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Go open more forums lah!
Don’t let the PAP take over our precious forums through their lackey proxies like SPH.
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can anyone cross post everything deleted in hwz?
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The young people should abandon hardwarezone.com and switch to TR.
TR is the only platform that provides fair, free and fearless expression in the net.
The young Singaporean should be encouraged to voice their thoughts and made changes.
Don’t bother to let your voices be heard by the tyrant regime.
But join us for a regime change so that we together can have a better future.
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Shit ! Hardwarezone is another PAP running dog.
Ask Hardwarezone readers and contributors to come to TR. We can talk freely and expose PAP dirty linens without any censorships and restrictions.
PAP is very fearful of the adverse effect of the social political blogs on the GE results. PAP wants to monopolise the media for its own propaganda and smear Oppositions.
Don’t let PAP succeed ! Promote TR vigorously to fight PAP smear campaign on Oppositions. Voters have the rights to know the TRUTH before casting their votes. The TRUTH is in TR.
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From wiki:
HardwareZone was started as an online magazine in August 1998 by five engineering students from the National University of Singapore: Lee Choon Yau, Eugene Low, Poh Swee Hong, Ang Chi Hoe and Jereme Wong.[1] After a year, it had become a popular gathering place for Singapore’s computer-savvy to discuss hardware and software news.[2]
By 2000, the website was attracting two million page views a month. The founders made plans to turn the website into a full-fledged portal and launch an initial public offering (IPO) to raise capital. Had the IPO gone ahead, they would have been the first undergraduates in Singapore to launch one.[1] However, as of 2007, the company has not been listed on the Singapore Exchange yet.[3]
In 2006, HardwareZone was purchased by SPH for S$7.1 million. SPH acquired all the magazine titles published by HardwareZone, which included HardwareMAG (HWM), GameAxis (a computer games magazine), and PHOTOVIDEOi (a digital photography magazine).[4] [5]
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What was the entity that paid millions to buy over HWZ?
What was the background of such person or entity?
TR,
are you hinting you will be next millionaire?
Recently your articles so UnBiased wor.
The Ads on your site also nice news wor.
singapore very good wor.
No Change lor
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/Claiming that his friend is working in some secret service job thus it will be inappropriate for his pictures to appear in the public forums./
then the secret service should trace vincent for revealing such important secret and giving his friend even greater publicity.
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Is it true? media control.
Wow, it is ready scare people.
Wow, this is not the good sign for democratic system.
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True blue citizens, sons of singapore, sold HWZ to SPH.
How much more TRUE BLUE a singaporean do you need?
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Mainstream media is also forced to join the intelligence service in monitoring TR, because TR truly alerts them to government policy errors many months / years before the government admits to them.
They just have to sieve out the hate mail planted by agents provocateur to discredit TR. easy to do nowadays with PageDown button.
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Freedom of speech is certainly not a concept this country is ready to embrace yet. In the United States and many of the western societies, the right of the individual to speak whether is true or untrue is always respected. Of course in these societies, people usually do not quite believe what they read in the newspapers or on the internet. These societies believe that no control is the best form of control because no wise man on earth can be sure what is right or wrong. The ounce is for the individual who given access to free flow of information make his/her own judgement. They believe that without free flow of information, an individual would not be able to make proper decision. Question is whether should people be protected from information? This country is beginning to accept that restricting informing is becoming more and more difficult in the internet age. However, it will take time for this country to evolute into a stronger society where people are more educated and able to differentiate between news and noise. Until then, we may need to be a little more patient as we become a more mature first world country.
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Any website that is linked to PAP in one way or other please let us know.
Hope TR will never be bought over by PAP.
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TR is one of the last bastions of free speech left for Singapore. Admins, pls make sure the site is up running 24×7 during the GE period.
Singaporeans will be grateful to you.
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Let’s see how many legitimate voice of the people become “cassetted”.
They can’t shut us up. Nobody can fully control the internet.
To the MOD: How does cooling off day affect TR?
Mod: It’s business as usual
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LOL! Now Ng Eng Hen is telling everyone the Internet is not credible…
Dr Ng Eng Hen, PAP organising secretary (special duties), was asked what the party’s policy was on dealing with the Internet smears and falsehoods that have hit a few of its new candidates.
‘That’s unfortunately inherent in the online media when you have faceless, nameless people. And we’ve taken a very harsh response only in terms of those that affect racial aspects because that’s a national need… The (younger) generation on their own must decide to put in certain rules. So, for example, some people are trying to set up sites where there are rules in terms of your decorum and I will welcome those.
‘But this is very light-touch regulation… We’ll let it evolve. People don’t know the accuracy of these accusations. They will just leave it because it is not credible.’
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Internet allows people to air different view. This is the wonderful part.
Like certain countries, free flow of information are available in Internet.
In USA, they are very opened-minded, they can take it so easy, this is one of the beauiful part.
Which countries have controlled or banned or…….I do not know.
But Singapore is now opening up now. How fast,,,? I do not know.
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POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK TR.
YOU CUNT. MOTHERFUCKING CUNT.
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“MONEY TALKS BULLSHIT WALKS”
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/That’s unfortunately inherent in the online media when you have faceless, nameless people./
i would rather have faceless & nameless people making unorthodox comments which may put my mind into enquiry so that i can have a reality check by revisiting past assumptions against observation / experience rather than listening to men who wear coat & tie (white colour) spewing nonsense just to peddle their ware.
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Since when was reproducing photos available in public domain illegal?
Ethics may be contested if it shows the person in a negative light. Legality wise is another issue.
People in classified services cannot be shown? What crack is he smoking? So people working in ISD/SOF/SWG/DART/SPEAR/SOC/ETC… can never take photographs?
By posting that the person shown in the photo is in a secret service, the informant has posed an even greater hazard, legal or otherwise.
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For all we know, that “Vincent Teo” could be “Tin herself or her husband”
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“LOL! Now Ng Eng Hen is telling everyone the Internet is not credible”
He is telling everyone that individuals and sites like yours and TR do not uphold credibility. You and TR are not credible. You and TR is not equal to Internet. Can you read?
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TR and 3in1 practise fabrication.
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Breaking news: Some HWZ fellow posted this link into the forums of hardwarezone.. It managed to gathers around 8 pages of replies from the forum members before being deleted without a trace.. Really extreme moderation in work here..
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Whoever surf HWZ must jolly well know that it is history that Shit Times bought over them many many moons ago. And I remembered very VIVIDLY pictures of 2-3 young men smilingly, reported that they pocketed unknown $$$millions.
My sincere advice to those who are still in the dark – never never surf into HWZ. There are plenty of spies, malware, info collection kits planted around – besides of course the pro PAP ‘mods’.
HWZ will die SOONER or LATER, following the DEATH of Project Eyeball and RED Nano.
Tony Tan already admitted that Shit Times DO NOT have the expertise to do good business in digital and cyber area.
Red Nano was set up with a certain Norwegian company. Prior to this marriage, PM Lee went to Silicon Valley I believe to court Jerry Yang and Sergei Brin/Larry Page of Google – and I believe SILICON valley giants TOLD PM Lee to FO. Not too much to assume – these people could have found that PAP control toooo much which obviously these geeks do not want…
HWZ will die sooner or later. Cyber space and the virtual world ALIEN to PAP except physical control of Singapore, Yes PAP is fucking good.
Let me also warn here perhaps my humble opinion – WHY do SHIT times convert ALL newspapers deliveries from vendor subscription to direct subscription ?? Hey not cheap you know, alot of FREE GIFTS giving away. What happened to the much professed beneficial corp game of OUTSOURCING ?? WHY WHY WHY?? Read behind the lines folks…
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TR readership is soon reaching 1,000,000 – and at this time is standing at 991,513.
=====
haha, don’t believe everything on the net, its, “rhetoric” says finance minister in up coming debate, non edited too, i sure hope all the contestants will remember what they said and he said….and all said……
non edited and rhetoric too.
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If we still dun chip in and help TR or opposition, then TR may also be gone soon.
Dun be complacent. This could be the last election for opposition by virtue of the new citizen population explosion.
Debunk me if you can. I dun anyone can. Try.
I have been talking to strangers in public places about issues. 3 a day. sometimes 1 a day. So far, quite many already.
I tell all of these to do the same. If 10 000 do this, assuming the effort it takes to talk to 1 is 10 to 30 minutes, all 10 000 can spread to 10 000 and all these can spread to 10 000 all taking only upto 30 minutes each. Guess in 24 hours how many will be reached PERSONALLY?
This is more effective than Hong Lim park. Period.
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Ask that Vincent to come and threatened us here!
See what will happened to him!!!! Lol!
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If you didn’t tell the whole world, How will people know he is from secret service. If his photo is on facebook, then I think the one who post the photo is jeopardising his career in the first place. Go sue him/her instead.
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Is hardwarezone a mini GLC in disguise? How much fund from government so they receive to keep this website afloat? SPH must have eventually buy over this website and rotten in no time.
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While Mrs Tin is a public figure now, the other guys are not. To be fair I think they have their rights, to have pics that have them inside taken down. However those with Mrs Tin only shouldnt have any problem.
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If ever HWZ is required to be registered as a political association, the it joins the ranks of TOC to become a toothless tiger.
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Those of you who are members of HWZ, please post some harmless looking comments and discreetly plant links to TR in your postings. Of course they (HWZ moderators) will keep a look-out on this but keep doing it. They will bound to be slips. This way, we can drive more young forummers here and push up the numbers.
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HWZ will never be registered as political association…why need to when it’s already owned by SPH
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Any forum when censored or controlled too heavily by the authorities will eventually lose it shine.
There are many better site in relation to IT knowledge in the world as compared to HWZ. So, HWZ must seize the market by appealing as a more localised site. But once there is heavy control of the authorities, they will decline and slowly go extinct.
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For those who haven’t notice…HWZ…It’s nothing but an empty shell without soul since the early days when it was sold to SPH.
SPH to buy-out HWZ…nothing but a hidden agenda to control the online channels and since HWZ was the number one forum that Singaporeans visit for many years prior to the buy-out, naturally, it became the ‘target’.
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What’s the point of posting screenshots of delete threads? Post the picture of the mysterious guy here lah and see whether TR gets a cease-and-desist email from whoever. A photo link would be enough too.
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Post the photo of the guy here lah. Post useless screenshots of deleted thread also no use.
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Aiyoh, this is just censorship lah, not moderation.
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So sad. Perhaps HWZ had also been invited to have a cup of coffee by you know who.
If HWZ continues to be afraid, over moderate and over censor, then it will become a grave yard soon
with no one visiting it.
The downfall of HWZ maybe imminent.
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If the photo was obtained from her public Facebook account, the mods of HWZ should ask Vincent to FARK OFF !!!
If it is easily available, on what grounds does he have. WTF !
How on earth can the HWZ mods chicken out and became scary cat !
THUMBS DOWN TO THE HWZ MODS ! ! !
CHICKEN ! SISSY ! WEAKLINGS ! SPINELESS !
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Those kids should have abandoned hwz and move to other forums that doesn’t restrict freedom of speech. Let SPH spend that millions on an empty shell.
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