Well, with YouTube blocked in China, and all the search engines all getting redirected to Baidu, what’s a boy to do but play with himself… erm… his Web sites.
I adore the Hao Hao Report. She’s my little baby, but her looks have always irked me. Due to a rather crappy separation between source code and styling, whipping up a custom template has always been a bit of a headache I wasn’t willing to endure. Until now.
With the Pligg software (the open-source software I run Hao Hao on) becoming more and more popular, even in this small niche, I figured it was about time I stepped up, sat down and gave it a look I could call my own.
Functionally not a lot has changed, still the same simple system of submitting stuff (ok, I was going to type links instead of stuff, but that was just an alliteration I couldn’t break). Same no-brainer voting. And of course, all the cool little extras that have been there for a while – comments, revenue sharing, private messaging, etc.
However, I think the new look gives the site a bit more fluidity. Better separation between content and navigation, clearer functions, better colour scheme, neato lantern buttons ;-)…
If you don’t know what the hell the Hao Hao Report is, here’s the “I really gotta pee” explanation: It’s a social-bookmarking site for English-language Chinese news and blog posts. You’re out cruising the net, find a hilarious – cool – interesting – shocking – imaginative – breaking collection of words and want to share it with the other folks that like reading stuff about China.
You go to Hao Hao Report, submit the link and you’re done. Then, if people like the link they vote for it, if they don’t like the link they bury it. If it gets 5 votes, it hits the main page and you enter a special (and secret) society of super coolness.
Quick facts:
- Total Current Members: 482
- Total Submitted Links: 1,520
- # of Links Published: 681
- # of Votes Cast: 6,470
- # of Comments: 340
So, if you’ve not been already, I encourage you to check it out and if you run across some sweet stories, posts, videos, or what have you, don’t be shy – share them with the Hao Hao community.
Also, if you are a blogger, check out some of the tools we have for adding Hao Hao This buttons and such to your Web site.
Finally, a big thanks to all of you that have helped, and continue to help, make the Hao Hao Report a cool little spot on this infinitely expanding Intermanet.
Very nice Ryan.
Good work.
The lanterns are really cool.
I dig it. Or Hao it, as it were.
Haaaahaha… ‘“I really gotta pee†explanation’. That’s so good, I’m going to use it and say I made it up.