New Mandala

13 responses so far ↓

• 1 Douglas // Jun 26, 2009 at 8:06 pm

  Web site is now blocked in Thailand.

• 2 Nicholas Farrelly // Jun 27, 2009 at 5:19 am

  Thanks Douglas,

  Could others confirm whether or not notthenation.com has fallen foul of the Thai authorities? Based on previous experience I know that this can be tough to pin down.

  Best wishes to all,

  Nich

• 3 Regular Reader // Jun 27, 2009 at 3:47 pm

  Hi Nick, (Saturday morning) I just tried it from Thailand via True and I got the “Internet Explorer cannot open this page” page.
  It does open ok via a proxy.
  As you correctly say, there could be a number of reasons.
  Before we all get carried away with the usual paranoia, I suggest some more research is required.
  This also happened a couple of months back with sites such as BP and others who use Blogspot – not just Thai political commentary blogs either.
  I rang True and they fixed it…that’s a true story!!
  Trouble with Not The Nation, is there does not appear to be a “Contact Us” link, so it’s hard to let them know.

• 4 fall // Jun 27, 2009 at 5:18 pm

  ํYou got to be shitting me, the MICT actually block a joke website?
  Can anyone confirm this?

• 5 Marco // Jun 27, 2009 at 5:29 pm

  There’s no warning from the IT ministry, but the site is definitely not operational.

  The message on the page says: connection interrupted – the connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

  shame

• 6 Michael // Jun 27, 2009 at 8:28 pm

  I had no trouble getting it via True @ shortly after midday. Just tried again. Also OK.

  The internet here is a bit erratic at times, which doesn’t help with the paranoia that is a natural outcome of what we know is going on with thousands of websites being blocked. I often get ‘error’ messages, even for sites like Google. I’ve had them for my email also – a very scary thing. I now just tell myself that it’s probably just a technical hitch, like the problem of regurgitating lavatories, that comes with living here, & that’s usually the case.

  Not so long ago, it was very clear that a website was blocked, because a page with a big eye & a euphemistic-but-curt little message would come up. But these days they seem to have engineered things so that ‘error’ messages come up, so we don’t know whether it’s a technical problem or a block. This seems to be in line with the current government’s policy of spreading confusion by, for example, publicly stating that they’re going to do something about LM law abuse & then perpetrating even worse abuses than before, & even setting up an organisation of amateur spies that looks set to rival Stasi.

• 7 Regular Reader // Jun 27, 2009 at 9:38 pm

  It’s now just on 5:30pm and I tried again using Firefox instead of Explorer, via True – same problem – except with Firefox you get that “connection interupted” panel.
  If others were able to open the site via True, it sounds like it’s a line problem with True.
  I should ring them and walk through the steps, but I feel as there has not been any comment from the site – in response to this topic on NM, who knows if they care?
  Or, are they more focused on just being satirical (which by the way they do an excellent job of)?
  Perhaps they need to make up their own related headline?
  e.g. “Not The Nation Blocked by True for Insulting AF Stars?????”
  After all, it seems those of us who use True are the people having problems??? And, AF is a True product.
  As that other great “humorist” about all things Thai was fond of saying : You Go Figure…

• 8 BKK lawyer // Jun 27, 2009 at 10:39 pm

  I tried to access it via NM’s link on Friday and again Saturday. Firefox says ‘page load error’ and ‘The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection.’ I get the same error when I try to access NTN’s home page. I am using True.

  I have no problem accessing anything else (except the usual blocked stuff).

  I think it’s blocked, either by MICT or True.

• 9 Douglas // Jun 28, 2009 at 11:51 am

  Just tried again Sunday morning (8am) Thai time using True high speed WiFi.

  Get connection interrupted via FF, IE and Chrome, but amazingly it works using Safari 4. I have no explanation!!!

  Their latest:

  Thaksin Phone-In Sways Academy Fantasia Voting
  http://www.notthenation.com/pages/news/getnews.php?id=803

  David Carradine Murdered By Secret Shaolin Masturbation Sect
  http://www.notthenation.com/pages/news/getnews.php?id=799

• 10 Regular Reader // Jun 29, 2009 at 11:42 pm

  Okay, settle down. All you paranoid posters.
  I was able to access Not The Nation at my office today (not TrueISP) and on my phone (AIS).
  When I came home, I checked again and still could not open the page.
  I rang True’s help line and a very helpful woman walked me through a couple of steps and gave me some proxy settings to enter.
  Now, all is fine.
  To me it shows how easy it to let your paranoias about “big brother” take over – which doesn’t help a lot in a land like this.

• 11 BKK lawyer // Jul 1, 2009 at 5:28 pm

  Regular Reader at #10:

  That helpful woman at True now has an arrest warrant against her for helping evade the Computer Crimes Act!

  (It’s not paranoia when they’re really after you.)

• 12 Regular Reader // Jul 1, 2009 at 6:38 pm

  Haha, very funny BKK Lawyer #10!
  I am sure this “proxy” she gave me, does not fall inot the same category as the one mentioned in the Computer Crimes Act.

  But, I guess as is so often the case with Thai Law, that can be a matter decided on a whim as opposed to…errr, I’ve got to go, someone in a brownshirt is at my door…

• 13 landofsnarls // Jul 5, 2009 at 6:02 am

  “Da Torpedo’s Speech Kills 12, Injures 344, Destroys Rice Harvest
  Improper words from red-shirted activist causing blindness in children and elderly; Army mobilized ” says Not the Nation in a disturbing article outlining the shocking devastation caused by this divisive and dangerous attack on the security of the Thai nation.

  This is surely the most brilliant article yet to appear on NTN, and is deserving of some sort of prize for satire. Get it while you can:
  http://www.notthenation.com/pages/news/getnews.php?id=804

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