China: Netizens starving, no more rice talk! · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Since July 8, the Chinese rival of Twitter, Fanfou has been suspended. Up till now, Fanfou's founder Wang Xing has only clarified that the website's “maintenance” has nothing to do with Internet content provider (ICP) license. As the date of its suspension is soon after the Xinjiang riot and Fanfou.com has not yet made any public statement telling the users when its service would be restored, many believe that the website has been harmonized for political reason.
Fanfou（飯否）in Chinese means: Have you eaten (rice) yet? It is the most common greeting in Chinese-speaking world. The website is now one of the the most popular microblogging platform in China. Founded in 2008, the website's features are similar to Twitter. It also adopts the same API (Application programming interface) as Twitter. In addition, it is more powerful than Twitter as it is connected to local mobile phones and QQ online chatting devices.
Fanfou users were very frustrated. Cynthia asked:
誰告訴我究竟是怎麼了？前天晚上，忽然飯否全站不能發言，昨天就開始連頁面都打不開，所有工具的不行了，一直到今天都還沒好。…到底在搞什麼啊？唉~，發現了，我已經開始依賴飯否了，忽然沒有了飯否，那個難過啊，那個空虛啊。一大堆廢話沒處說，真的是好難受。
A chill summer day has been waiting for the website to restore its service, now the blogger wonders if the system maintenance will be lasted forever:
那個陪伴我們度過每一段時光的飯否。
現在想想。依然會覺得心痛。
突然之間就這樣消失不見。連句最後得再見。都沒有說。
八號的時候飯否上還顯示著：系統維護。十日恢復。
那時還竊喜。十號正好趕上我們考完試。它的系統也恢復了。多好啊。
沒想到這一維護。是永遠的消失。
Meredith Yan wants to have “rice” :
我可愛的飯否啊，你什麼時候回來啊？？唉~~
飯被和諧了好多天 說好十号晚上開的 昨天晚上大家都在刷飯否
我連曾哥的演唱都沒好好聽 但是終究沒盼開我的飯
還有很多飯桶都和我一樣在等着吧
想念我的話癆朋友们 連死人一樣被庄主注水的飯否扣扣機器人也不亮了
我  要  開  飯
Tumblelogs pointed out that many Chinese netizens are forced to upgrade their technology skill for getting over the Great Fire Wall:
總的來看，自從飯否變成廚餘之後，大宗用戶除流向嘀咕、嘰歪之外，Twitter 和 Plurk 也多出了不少簡體字內容，顯見「翻牆」已然成為新一代的中國國技 ^^