Professional Technology Temple
Encyclopedia
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
based in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. It was founded by students from the Department of Information Engineering of National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University is a national co-educational university located in Taipei, Republic of China . In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Táidà" . Its main campus is set upon 1,086,167 square meters in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taiwan,...
, and is currently administrated by the Electronic BBS Research Society.
PTT is arguably the largest BBS in the world with more than 1.5 million registered users. During peak hours, there are over 150,000 users online. It has over 200,000 boards with a multitude of topics, and more than 40,000 articles and 1 million comments are posted every day.
Background
Using the TELNETTELNET
Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...
protocol, PTT provides a quick, instantaneous, free of charge, and open online forum community. Currently, Ptt has two branch sites, Ptt2 and Ptt3 . Of the three sites, the main site Ptt is largest in scale and capacity, currently handling up to 150,215 visitors online at a time (September 9, 2008) , making it the largest Chinese language-based BBS
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
in the world.
The main site was founded on September 9, 1995 by Yi-Chin Tu ( Dù Yìjǐn), then a sophomore in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University is a national co-educational university located in Taipei, Republic of China . In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Táidà" . Its main campus is set upon 1,086,167 square meters in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taiwan,...
. Ptt2 was founded in 2000, with the aim of providing a similar system centered around groups and individuals. Ptt3, powered by MediaWiki
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
, was founded in 2004 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, USA for Taiwanese students studying abroad. Ptt also provides wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
and blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
services for registered users. The PTTwiki service was activated on February 5, 2004 and powered by Tavi
Tavi
Tavi was the slave of Gamaliel II. Although not fully Jewish himself, he was known for his acquaintance and adherence to Talmudic law and for his piety....
wiki system. It is the main wiki service for individuals in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
Since 2000, Ptt has become the largest online forum in Taiwan due to its increasing number of users. Topics of various issues are enthusiastically discussed on Ptt, even to a profound extent generating social impacts in reality. The newspaper and television media started to report on Ptt, with journalists assigned to monitor Ptt for the latest updates.
Ptt is an open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
project. The source code is released under GPL 2.0.
Organization
Ptt is registered as a student organization at the National Taiwan UniversityNational Taiwan University
National Taiwan University is a national co-educational university located in Taipei, Republic of China . In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Táidà" . Its main campus is set upon 1,086,167 square meters in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taiwan,...
. The BBS Technology Research Club was founded in 1999 by several BBS sites at NTU, with Yi-Chin Tu as its leader. In 1999 and 2000, the club held public events on campus for BBS users.
Although Ptt is a club and the most famous BBS site in Taiwan, it is not the official BBS site for NTU. The machines and other hardware used to set up Ptt was obtained by the administrators without the help of the university, and hence it operates with a high level of freedom. However, it still operates on the NTU network, and hence must abide to its rules and regulations.
System
Ptt runs under LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, while Ptt2 runs under FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
4.11.
The BBS system used by Ptt, Ptt2, Ptt3 is called Open Ptt, and is under the GPL.
Development
The code for PTT was original forked from MapleBBS 2.36 that operated the Sun of Beach BBS. Many programmers and system administrators contributed to the PTT project, with the goals of making PTT efficient in terms for memory usage and disk access and allowing as many users on the system at a single time as possible. The code is licensed under GPL 2.0.Open PTT
Open PTT is a BBS implementation known for its ease of installation, which is why many BBSes directly run Open PTT as their system. It can be set up with little manual configuration, and it is well documented.Current PTT
Another fork of the PTT code is known as Current PTT, which is documented at the PttCurrent board. This is the version of the code that runs PTT and PTT2, with many additional features. It currently supports the FreeBSD and Linux platforms.Commenting: commendation and criticism
PTT implements an article commendation and criticism scheme as its article rating and commenting system, in place since 25 May 2002. PTT was the first Chinese-language BBS to implement such a system. Under this system, users can evaluate an article by giving it a tuei , adding a point, or a hsü , subtracting a point. Individual boards can turn off this feature or set a minimum amount of waiting time between comments.Sticky posts
Sticky posts reside at the bottom of the forum, right after the most recent posts.Guardian Angels
The Guardian Angels is a group of experienced PTT users who act as mentors and help answer questions that new users might have. The guardian angels remain anonymous. This system has been in place since May 2004. The 29th of every month is Guardian Angel Day, during which users express their gratitude towards their guardian angels.PTT culture and lingo
(fifth floor) — the fifth comment of a post, which is often regarded as words of wisdom; also (fifth floor, please rate this post) (villager) — Refers to PTT users. Comes from the line in the Stephen ChowStephen Chow
Stephen Chow Sing-Chi is a Hong Kong actor, comedian, screenwriter, film director and producer.- Professional career :Stephen Chow began as a temporary actor for TVB. He entered TVB in early 1980s, and was trained there, although he had few opportunities to appear in films. Chow graduated from...
movie Hail the Judge
Hail the Judge
Hail the Judge is a 1994 Hong Kong comedy film directed by Wong Jing, starring Stephen Chow, Cheung Man, and Ng Man Tat.-Plot:Bao Zheng’s corrupt descendant, who’s hated by the public for his money-digging ways. He has a change of heart when he sees rape victim Cheung Man get framed by other...
. This term can also be pejorative, suggesting that users blindly follow other users. (rookie police officer) — refers to new users (like the term "newbie").
- (kk) — A chuckle, normally , but changed to when the use of bopomofoBopomofoZhuyin fuhao , often abbreviated as zhuyin and colloquially called bopomofo, was introduced in the 1910s as the first official phonetic system for transcribing Chinese, especially Mandarin....
is prohibited. - (to hit home) and — A pun on , meaning "to hit home", referring to efforts of the Chen Shui-bianChen Shui-bianChen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
government to replaceDesinicizationDesinicization is a term that describes the act of the elimination of Chinese influence, which is the opposite of "sinicization".-Historical:...
the character (China) with (Taiwan). - Pictures — PTT users often ask for pictures. (wtf, where's the picture?), (pics or it didn't happen) (the original poster is a pretty girl) (our children's education cannot wait) (Tinky Winky is talented) (brain-damaged) (Step aside, let the pro do the job)
Some of the popular lingo used by PTT users are vulgar, which has caused public concern, while others believe that as long as this behavior is contained online and does not affect the users real-life behavior that this is nothing to be concerned about.
Aligned comments and comment art
Aligned comments is a cultural phenomenon in which users align their comments for special effect. Comment art is a phenomenon inspired by the 2chAA community, in which lines of comments collectively form a picture. Since comment art is sometimes perceived as waste of system resources, some of the forums prohibit its use.PTT blood drive
In 2004, PTT activities coordinator Huan-Yu Chen teamed up with an on-campus organization NTU Blood-Donating Bus to hold a blood drive to solicit blood donations in exchange for PTT money, which led to the creation of the Donate-Blood forum.PTT Boards
The forums are subdivided into boards and named by a string of alphanumeric characters. These boards can be searched as well as ordered by popularity. They can also be added to a user's list of favorite boards.External links
- Ptt WebBBS
- Ptt: [telnet://ptt.cc ptt.cc] (telnet site)
- Ptt2: [telnet://ptt2.cc ptt2.cc] (telnet side; group and personal boards)
- Ptt3: [telnet://ptt3.cc ptt3.cc] (telnet site; for students studying abroad)
- Ptt Wiki
- Ptt Blog
- Ptt Source (source code)
- Ptt Video