Peking University, Nov. 25, 2010: BDWM of Peking University (PKU) has always been a favorite place for PKUers to express feelings, exchange ideas, and exhibit personalities. On the 10th anniversary of BDWM, its recently redesigned home page again brings it into the center of attention on campus.
A Sudden Transformation
On Nov. 23, when PKUers opened the home page of BDWM, what greeted them was a transformation from head to foot, both of design and contents: the pieces of hot news on campus were expanded to thirteen ones, the series of "Hot Blog Articles" was removed, the "Hot Blog" part was moved under the "Top Ten Topics," etc.
The most noticeable transformation is the change of the calculation method to the "Top Ten Topics:" the sequence of new top ten topics is based on the sum of page view and replies to the same topic, instead of only counting the replies before; the method of excluding the existing statistics of the top ten topics everyday and restarting to calculate was abandoned, and the new way is to calculate from a certain moment and count the accumulated data in a period of time to decide which topic should go into the top ten.
In terms of this transformation, some students said that it didn't make any difference to their daily life. Ge Fengnv, a sophomore of Yuanpei College, once posted a birthday post which was dramatically supported into the top ten due to its eye-catching title. "The transformation does not affect me, and I even didn't notice it. Posting on BDWM is just to entertain myself, but not focus on being one of the top ten. And I'd like to have a look at whatever concerned by everyone," she told us.
Some other students gave their supports to this transformation. "We 'veterans' of course are in favor of this new method of calculation, which is a better way to prompt netizens for hot topics," a netizen whose ID is Edean said, "The former method is in some measure subjective and easy to be made use of as a tool. The new way will reduce the artificiality and reflect more of the PKUers' real voices."
It is inevitable that every reform has some flaws. A netizen called DDNASH said: "Here are some disadvantages of the new top ten. First, the living space of small boards is restricted. Because of their small page view, it is almost impossible for topics in such boards to get into the top ten. Second, it takes time for netizens to adjust to the new rule. Third, due to this new method of calculation, once an issue gets into the top ten, it is hard to be replaced, and thus the update of the new top ten becomes slower and lots of old posts will remain on it for a long time." What's more, the transformation of BDWM gives some trouble to the supervisors of some student-organized associations, especially the ones who publicize their activities through the top ten. The student in charge of Volunteers Association of PKU Hall had successfully called on the association members to support their post into top ten before. With respect to the change, Wang Xiaofeng, president of Volunteers Association of PKU Hall, said: "It does affect the activity of our association a bit. We have to change our way of publicity now, but fortunately we can still achieve our goal through applying for 'Hot Topics of Associations'."
The Barometer of Campus Life
So what is the reason for this transformation, which brings about new expectance as well as anxiety?
"It is not an impetuous transformation, but a well-planned one," Li Tingting, vice supervisor of BDWM, said, "It is based on a new project resulting from a jointly discussion concerning the present and the future development of campus BBS between the BDWM management team and other related departments from different universities in Shanghai, Nanjing, and so on. This transformation is just a start, and BDWM will ameliorate its visual effects and quality of topics to play its significant role in the construction of campus culture."
Li Tingting emphasized that the transformation was to provide better service to netizens and improve the BDWM's communicating function. "The new rule on top ten posts facilitates the continuity of hot topics, and offers convenience for netizens to scan the latest hot topics or review the recent ones." Just as what is said in "Report on the Development of BDWM," as a platform for delivering information and exchanging ideas, BDWM needs to seek more ways of information release and management to demonstrate its advantages of immediacy of message dissemination as well as convenience of information searching. In this way, the BDWM might become a real barometer of the campus life.
Translated by: Cao Yixing
Edited by: Su Juan
Source: PKU Youth
