The West Shrine is finally sold, BBS who can really save

Wen/LAN XI

The West Temple Alley finally was sold by the Art Dragon, the end of the story because of the transaction price is not so sad, after all, for such an old BBS community can still be worth 85 million yuan, but also known as a positive energy.

Tianya, Mop, Kaidi, West Land ... More former rage of the Old BBS community, now all survive, even in the capital market, the sale of the language right has been lost, like Shimo.

According to the data of Cnnic, 2009 is the BBS community from Sheng to decline the node, its use rate for the first time fell (2008 30.7%, 2009 for 30.5%), those who make bricks on the road of the Lake Masters have left, no look back.

2010, Tencent acquired Sing, the country's largest BBS community building station system to become the giant's strategic toys;

2011, Tianya founder Xing Once again is also the last statement not to give up the listing, said has "cleared all obstacles";

In 2012, MOP net evacuated the company from Beijing, and in a sigh of regret, Cosco went to Nanning, Guangxi, and started a layoff plan;

2013, the ministry began to try to cancel the personal record, the escalation of supervision to make a large number of small and medium-sized BBS community in a non-existent;

In the 2014, Qin and Li, who had made their fortune in the BBS community, were publicly sentenced and sentenced to prison.

It seems that we can clearly see this unique curve of Chinese internet history, no one expected it to rise to such a high level, as long as the "micro-blog Change China" before the argument appeared, the BBS community undertook almost all the symbol of Web 2.0 mission, just post and two actions, constitutes a wonderful model that everyone can participate in, which can be regarded as the city square of Athens and the shadow of the Qin Yu School House.

However, the cloud is fleeting, as a Darwinian fundamentalist, the internet has never pitied those who deviate from the market of old-fashioned products, with the increase in the size of Internet users and the expansion of the network boundaries, BBS community gradually lost the attraction, people remember its achievements, while forgetting its existence.

"Back Lights and the moon on the overcast, has been ten years on the track ten Years of heart," we still first to chat as one of the protagonist of the West Shrine Alley story.

A let-down arrow, a horse thief to meet

BBS community is the standard of webmaster times, with today's "Army gathering in Beijing," the Internet business is different, when resources have not been concentrated, many future BBS community is so famous from all over the country, the end of the Earth from Hainan, mop production from Hunan, 19 floor of Zhejiang, and the West Shrine Alley, was born in Nanjing.

1998, Nanjing Power Transport School computer West teacher Liu Yan founder of the West Shrine Alley is very realistic color, he said, "I want to do the site, is that there are many hills folks together to Rob, Rob can occupy the mountain as King", so Liu Yan choose to use "Xiangma" as their own network name, This word is from Shandong dialect, means to rob business trip robbers, they found prey, they will release Shang, then the horse carrying arently bandits kill, plunder goods baggage.

The design of the West Shrine Hutong met the original thought of Liu Yan to some extent, it than Baidu Bar and watercress earlier support users to create interest groups, each registered user has the right to apply for a layout by their own management, and the layout of the name, color and other attributes set, in the West Shrine Alley culture, this is called decoration.

After the completion of the renovation, the new moderator will be able to entertain guests, such as a net called "cattle grazing" of the West Shrine Hutong users, in 1999 created a "reporter's house" layout, after "cattle grazing" and several other moderators of the meticulous operation, "the House of reporters" has become the Chinese media industry's most famous discussion edition, and the Netizen "cattle eat Grass", then in and out of the "Nanjing Morning Post", "Southern Weekend" and other media, and then went to the plum network as president.

In order to encourage users to continue to operate the layout, West Shrine Hutong also for these suites planning a set of algorithms, for statistics rankings and other data, this to a certain extent formed a virtuous circle, with a sense of responsibility of the moderator in order to hit the list and constantly pull into the new users, and those lack of enthusiasm of the layout is naturally sinking, away from the user's click

However, when the popularity of the West Shrine Hutong became more and more popular, it was enough to surpass the local banner of the Chinese network. This loose management structure also exposed its drawbacks, many of the Navy agencies began to sell "fry version" business, that is, through the technical way to improve the heat of certain sections, and then get a better ranking, and the content of these sections , it has more or less a more naked commercial component.

In Liu Yan's vision, the "Gatekeeper theory" from the US securities market is the core of maintaining the overall quality of the BBS community, in short, the moderator is a guarantee, this role needs to be respected and cherish feathers, with the moderator's card, poor information can not be eroded in. However, it is somewhat too far-fetched to expect that the social contract spirit that the United States has finally acquired with nearly hundred years of social experimentation is replicated and accelerated in a Chinese online community.

"The longer the Internet, the more real", this is the Liu Yan in the West Shrine Alley has been used by the signature file, he has repeatedly asked the management team to promote a concept, so later the West Temple Alley began to adhere to promote the name-name, and encourage users of social relations from the line to the offline transfer

West Ancestral Alley once the "West Shrine" this brand authorized to an industrial investment company, in Nanjing Nanhu District developed a commercial real estate, directly named "West Shrine Block", and try to access the community's user resources. To this end, the West Shrine Alley launched the line under the General scorecard, through this card in the "West Shrine block" entity shop after consumption can be exchanged "West Shell", the "West Bay" is the West Shrine Hutong virtual currency, can be used in the BBS community to buy some value-added services, while the neighborhood merchants can also create a special version of the West Shrine Alley, To promote and attract customers.

Focus on real-world relationships, and lead online traffic to the offline merchant (O2O) ... Whether by accident or afar, the West Shrine Hutong has stepped on the lifeblood of the BBS Community transformation, just, too ahead of time, so that the West Shrine alley-oriented users and markets have not yet ready to meet this transformation.

This is probably the biggest tragedy of the West Shrine Hutong.

Know the joy of fish, how to know the pain of fish

How to realize commercial realization without overdraft user experience, this is the formidable test that China's first generation BBS community has faced.

When the West Temple Alley was acquired by the Art Dragon, Liu Yan from the founder into a senior executive, one into two, finally failed to turn back. 2011, Liu Yan again from the eve of the West Shrine Alley, he is known to call the West Shrine Alley "user experience is getting worse", and limited resources, the profit model is very single.

With the same feeling, there are only a few remaining active users of the West Shrine Hutong. An old user who has been in the West Shrine Alley for more than 10 years said, "Art Dragon took over, the site's access speed although a lot of good, but the operating team began to sell directly to the layout and posts, more and more ads, more and more crowded, the last many suites to stay the user, are those to brush ads, and even a lot of automatic top posts robot.

This is described in the industry as a schrodinger-style contradiction, the business value of the BBS community, whether or not it is found, it will be destroyed by the corresponding results: not be found, will permanently lose development opportunities, and be found, and can not eliminate abuse.

Tianya is another similar sample, Xing had a brief cooperation with Google in the process of initiation to learn the idea of Google AdSense, he let the team in the end of the layout of the large layout of the Tianya cut out a parallel area, put the content-related advertising links. Only, Tianya can obtain the number of advertisers far less than Google, which relies on mass advertisers to contribute to the average small marketing expenditure planning, and does not apply to the horizon, nor in line with national conditions.

In contrast, the closer the link to content-even the fake-is the more able to achieve significant KPI returns at that Robin marketing stage. Around 2008, more than half of the big pages of the moderators are the local so-called social marketing company infiltration, a lot of ordinary moderators in the face of changes in work, often also receive marketing company handed over the olive branch.

Three days a network Reds rhythm, not only for the Tianya to earn enough eyeballs, also hurt the user's trust in the community, Tianya station and these marketing companies have produced a subtle interdependence of the relationship between brush Click Brush too much, the station side or will make a warning deal, but for those who "know the sense of propriety, clever and tactful" of the Master, The attitude of Tianya is more indulgent and enjoyable to enjoy the recognition of community value.

2009, I in the Tianya it vision as a moderator, once on business in Guangzhou was at that time an executive about Rice, the other side surprisingly talkative, enumerate how many marketing industry gold case, are fermented in Tianya territory. So far, I remember the pride he had given by alcohol, teach me to know the perfect ecology of Tianya, "We do not worry about making money to the marketing company to earn, the more they work, the more for the end of the earth to do a wide publicity, we just put the user control well, another five years, they will work for us!" ”

Unfortunately, China's Internet does not have an extra five years to give Tianya to achieve his grand ideal, and the fact that the end of the earth does not have the ability to control users, but the user has the right to vote with the foot, in the new option, and then walk, do not linger.

After the decline of the Tianya, those affiliated with the marketing companies are also away, with nomadic genes they will naturally migrate to new marketing positions, such as on Sina Weibo, they almost repeat the love and hate lingering with Tianya, but this is not related to the subject of this article.

There is a person who has broken the BBS community, is Zhou. 2007, Zhou Praise BBS community value will exceed the portal and search, he led the Qihoo of the community content of the aggregation, and come up with a set of advertising system, and sing to create cooperation, claiming to cover 360,000 Chinese BBS community.

Now, Zhou so summed up his miscalculation: "BBS Community content is not a strong demand, the user may be able to browse for three hours, but he also can not see for three weeks, so the BBS community this product to users is not perfunctory", later happened story, we all know.

It is said that the emergence of a sense of distance is the main cause of the breakup of Lovers, one becomes mature, rich or elegant, found that the other side is still naïve, mediocre and clumsy, this dislocation brings loss, sooner or later will let one side open. And "You are very good, but no longer suitable for me", this line, but also quite suitable for those who fled the BBS community to enter a variety of new Internet platform users, after all, the BBS Community shape and culture is rock solid, indeed can not be used in a wide range of applications to meet modern users.

To be or not to be, this is a question worth considering.

A leaf fall and know the world autumn, in sing Create think "discuz!" Marketing director of the project Zhang Small lake appears that most of China's BBS community founder identity are personal webmaster, lack of mature operation team support, leading to a small number of local BBS community based on local and other reasons for the remaining, most of the webmaster was eliminated, and China intends to improve the UGC product entry threshold, The winter is coming quietly.

"NetEase Technology in 2010 China Internet Webmaster Conference site put a prison series style of the set, so that the webmaster holding the name of the board to take photos, is a humorous but silent protest to the webmaster protest too harsh living environment", Zhang Small Lake said, Every year, he visits all over the country to those who still insist on running the BBS community, but the list, the shorter the later.

In response to the original intention of the mobile wave, sing also developed several products for the handset terminal, from "discuz!" Mobile version, to the handheld Forum (independent app), and then to the micro-community of the letter, but "no longer brave."

"Even if you do a good job of the local forum, may be cash flow can also, but a beautiful regiment of the local station, gently to do 10 times times the income", Zhang Small lake found that the means to solve the crisis and sing to come up with what kind of products do not have much relationship, but the direction of change, So farming a BBS community compared to become a cumbersome and cost-effective cause.

However, the ebb and flow, the square to recognize the reverse scales.

The traditional form of the BBS community, still in two areas, a vertical forum focused on market segments, the second is to act as a commercial brand of the backyard. The former, with Tiger flutter, auto, blood and iron and so on behalf of the near Monopoly, because the demand for sharp precision users, making them relatively easy to obtain income, the latter, the millet, the charm of the new Internet enterprises, such as the flag, they use worship behavior to break the consumer and brand between the trust relationship, In turn, the BBS community becomes the important platform for users to reuse.

Chenghang, founder of the Tiger-bashing, said the community, which has gradually been taken over by Facebook and Sina Weibo, is in addition to the definition of the community as "a term that companies wishy-washy when they have not yet figured out user needs and business models."

Chenghang praised the micro-letter, that Tencent is the pride of China's internet industry, but he is also wary of the Matthew effect, "the current and the previous generation of the Internet is the biggest difference is a variety of low-level platform is owned by advertising companies, advertising profits quickly to Apple, Google, Facebool and Tencent and other enterprises gather, We must face up to the problem of the innovation of the profit model ", so the tiger flutter transformation is very rapid, to BBS community as the center, the Electric Business Shopping guide, offline running, online video and other business direction, have greatly played the effect of repeatedly refining the user value.

Auto's founder, Li, said that more than half of his friends were in the BBS community, and in Auto's heyday, he would visit the forum of rival love card cars every day and answer users ' questions as a BMW M-series owner.

Around 2012, BBS community set off the "SNS" trend, Li wants to stick to Auto's forum to maintain the original weak relationship color, he said, "car, luxury and other related consumer users are willing to share, but also want to have privacy", so until today, Auto Forum to visit the flow rate of more than 55% , viscous is very high.

In other words, the residual value of the BBS community is looming: under a clear classification theme, this product is still the easiest way for users to solve a problem or demand, and is crude and pragmatic. It's just that it always seems to give a person a feeling of surviving.

The greatness of life, the glory of death.

Some people see the BBS community as a brick-and-mortar of the river, is a lake, there are heroes, China's first to dial netizens, BBS community is their mutual affection of social venues. The earliest BBS Community system, known as the "Hui-fidonet"-The English original name for the Internet, based on the popular communication protocol during dial-up access-between 1993 and 1998, China has hung up hundreds of BBS communities, MA, Seek Baijun, Wang Juntao are Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Fuzhou, such as station Webmaster, Lei at that time all the personal vacations into the Baijun forum, most of the day sent more than 400 posts, and almost the same period, the young Ark--yes, is what you know the Ark son-- Also in the United States a student BBS community in collaboration with people wrote the Chinese first generation mud network game "knight" code.

To this day, it is difficult to forget the BBS community, which has passed through with the whole youth of China's Internet, and the old things and culture. It is not a failure in the business jungle, in fact, in this history, no one or thing can speak and fail.

I think of the old Cuban fisherman named Santiago, who dragged the fishbone back to the port, everything in him is old, except those eyes, they are as blue as the sea, and they are cheerful and unwilling to give up, "but man is not born to fail," he said to the boy, "one can be destroyed, but not defeated."

The author of this paper is the founder of the net, the competition net, only concerned about the venture market, micro-trust public account: Hizhulu