[April Fools] 澳八根将全面中文化 (Announcement: OzBargain Is Changing to Chinese)

scotty on 01/04/2018 - 04:20

For those too sensitive to see it, yes it is an April Fools Day joke, something that we have been doing every year for the last couple of years. See our April Fools post in 2017 #1, 2017 #2, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. See response.

Original Post
澳大利亚在改变，澳八根也需要改变

澳大利亚 2016 年人口调查指出：

  • 有超过五十万中国出生的华人住在澳大利亚
  • 十分之一的悉尼人口是华裔血统
  • 十万个中国留学生在澳大利亚的大学读书

因为地理上靠近远东邻邦，许多海外学生留下了成为居民以及越来越多的移民，澳大利亚的亚洲话是避免不了的。你只要看看去年澳八根网聚的照片和直播就知道－你将不难发现在在澳八根上占强势的人群是哪些！

但这不仅仅只关乎在澳大利亚的华人人口。还有就是中国的购买能力。最近十年来中国扫空了澳大利亚的奶粉鱼油，买了我们的房子，买了我们的农地，买了我们的煤矿，甚至还买了我们的政府官员。很明显地他们对便宜货也是很有兴趣的。几个星期前我与一个澳八根客聊天，他现在在另一家折扣网站工作，市场是在澳大利亚的中国人。他的网站突然挤爆从中国的访客来买澳洲这的奢侈品（iPhone X, 名牌包等等）假想澳八根也可借此打开有十四亿潜力的市场？喀亲！

所以为了更好地照顾不断改变的澳八根客以及让这网站打开更大的市场，澳八根决定改变它的方向。我们的主题色调将采用中国伟大的红色，而语言也将慢慢地转变为中文。在论坛里每当有人问应该学哪种语言，被推荐的绝对是中文。电视剧萤火虫与冲出宁静号早在十五年前就已经知道未来的人一方面用英文沟通，另一方面用中文粗话彼此诅咒，而我们都知道哪种表达方式更重要！

已完成的改变

  • 网站名从 OzBargain 改成澳八根，并以红色为主题色
  • 最上头选单改为中文
  • 公告都将用中文，但有介于一些土澳语言能力有限，将附上一小段英文概要
  • 主页上小米专用链接。这是澳八根最爱的一个中国品牌，但可惜的是他们还是没有赞助我们复活节的寻宝项目

其他改变计划

  • 要是访客从中国来，自动把价钱转换到人民币
  • Udemy 将提供学习普通话课程的优惠码
  • 房地产优惠讯息，特别是精英中学附近的
  • 链接到代购网站帮助你把所购买的运回中国

最后，谁然我们尚未与党的数据仓库订好协议，但敏感话题还是不要提，比如说西藏与台湾的独立等等。它们会在不通知情况下被和谐掉。

最最后。这边谁有马云叔叔的联络方式？想问问他有没有兴趣收购一个澳大利亚折扣分享网站…

Australia is changing, and so should OzBargain

According to 2016 census and various stats that I cannot be bothered linking to, there are now

  • More than 1/2 million China-born Chinese living in Australia.
  • More than 10% of Sydneysiders claim to have Chinese ancestry.
  • More than 100,000 Chinese overseas students studying in universities around Australia.

China & Australia Flags

With geographic proximity to our East-Asian neighbours, overseas students becoming permanent residents after graduation and increasing influx of immigration — Australia becoming more Asianised is inevitable. Taking a look at photos and livestream from previous year's OzBargain meetups, and it is not hard to figure out OzBargain's dominating demographic.

However it's more than just the Chinese population in Australia. It is also about China's purchasing power. Over the last decade China has cleared out our milk powder & fish oil, bought out our flats & houses, our farmlands, our coal mines and even our politicians — and they are obviously also looking for bargains. A few weeks ago I had a chat with an OzBargainer who now works at a competitor deal site targeting Chinese in Australia. Instead of local traffic, his site is flooded with visitors from China shopping for luxury products in Australia (iPhone X, designer bags, etc). Imagine opening up OzBargain to 1.4 billion potential shoppers?! Ka-ching!!

2018 OzBargain Meetup in Chatswood

So, to serve the ever-changing OzBargain demographic better AND to open this site to a huge potential market, OzBargain has also decided to change its course. OzBargain will now embrace the glorious Chinese-red (our new theme colour) and gradually change the language to Chinese. After all whenever "what language should I learn" got asked in the forums, the answer has always been Mandarin. Firefly/Serenity got it right 15 years ago — in the future most people will speak English and swear in Mandarin, and we all know which form of expression is more important.

Firefly Cursing in Chinese

What's Changing

  • Our name will be changed to ào bā gēn and theme colour to red.
  • Top navigation menu will all be changed to Chinese.
  • Announcement will be done in Chinese, and for those who are linguistic challenged, a brief English translation will also be included.
  • Dedicated Xiaomi link on the home page. That's the Chinese brand we all love. Unfortunately they still won't sponsor our Easter treasure hunt.

Planned Improvements

To realign with our future goal, these changes are planned for the rest of the year:

  • Automatically show prices in ¥ Renminbi if you are visiting from China. We just need a bit adjustment to our implementation last year.
  • Exclusive coupon code for free Mandarin lessons at Udemy.
  • Real Estate Bargains section, especially houses around Selective high schools.
  • Quick links to mail forwarding service to send Australian products back to China.

Finally, while we have not yet finalised a deal with CCP on their "data warehousing" project, it would be impolite to mention taboo subjects such as Tibet or Taiwan independence. These will be removed without notification.

PS: Anyone has Uncle Ma Yun's contact detail handy? I would like to ask him whether he is interested in acquiring a little Australian deal sharing website…

Site Discussion April Fool's Day

Comments

  • codinghelloworld on 01/04/2018 - 12:00

    I find it no fun. Are you trying to convince people that because there are a lot of Chinese living in Aus, so in the future people should be familiar with this language?

    • Herbse on 01/04/2018 - 15:23

      Yes. Smart parents are starting their kids on it now.

  • kelza83 on 01/04/2018 - 12:03

    April fools!

  • Neishui on 01/04/2018 - 12:06
    -1

    有点儿意思啊杨先生。真被中国人收购了咋办啊，不打脸吗？

    不过澳洲中文论坛讨论你的帖子更有意思。

  • Jaos on 01/04/2018 - 12:07

    Bummer, now I gotta learn Chinese to continue to get them damn sweet deals. Anyone know some good bargains on Chinese learning material?

  • Brainwhacker on 01/04/2018 - 12:07

    Ni hao ma

    • Yummy on 01/04/2018 - 12:41

      Pu hao

  • wswgin on 01/04/2018 - 12:09
    +10

    Whose idea was this? One of the dumbest thing I've seen this year

    This site was supposed to be simple about bargains, now raised so much unneeded tension

    • htc on 01/04/2018 - 12:15

      Worst than some naive ama post last year

    • railspider on 01/04/2018 - 15:20
      +2

      All this prank has taught me is a lot of Ozbargainers dont have a sense of humour

    • Herbse on 01/04/2018 - 15:23

      Not as bad as caged egg deals.

    • ronnknee on 01/04/2018 - 15:43
      +2

      Triggered?

  • htc on 01/04/2018 - 12:14
    +2

    This is getting ridiculous, so many deals on China, Taiwan were upvoted. That is what happen when you start to put political ideology in website or many things, you only get a political outcome! I start to think about the "Good old days" ozbargain site only used to promote bargain and shoppers can save money. Although I must say after all the years at ozbargain, I have bought enough stuff, so may be….

    • hasher22 on 01/04/2018 - 12:16
      +1

      Don't know if you're serious or just don't get that it's 1/4/18

      • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 13:16
        +3

        Hard to say. It's only because it's China that people are offended. Go make a forum post just like this about Australia and no one will be offended. Go make a forum post proclaiming Trump/Malcolm is the worst and those same people will join in.

        Another example of double standards in the community are local vs Chinese deals. Want a Xiaomi power bank? The local stock deal will get neg'd for being more expensive than the website in China selling it for less. So much for supporting the local economy amiright?

        • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 17:30

          No mate, I'm not Chinese and it was fully offensive.

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 17:30

          @The Land of Smeg: Never said you were Chinese.

        • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 17:32
          -1

          @Clear: The point is that Chinese people are not being special snowflakes. If you make offensive content targeting a certain demographic, some of them are going to get offended. Simple as.

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 17:34

          @The Land of Smeg: With some demographics more likely to upset others. As I said in my comment. Go make a trump bashing thread and I guarantee people will be less upset.

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 17:38

          @The Land of Smeg: I am genuinely curious which parts you found offensive though.

        • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 17:42
          -1

          @Clear: equating all Asians and Australians with Chinese ethnicity to being puppets of the People's Republic of China, then suggesting that these people would want OzBargain to be aligned to the PRC, making a few jokes against Chinese people directly, and setting up an environment for non-stop racist jokes against Chinese/Asian people (and plain out non-joke racist posts against Chinese people and Asians) for the whole day under the shield of "It's just a joke!!".

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 17:49

          @The Land of Smeg: I see no mention of them being puppets? Is that your way of interpreting it? Jokes about buying up everything and the politicians is true to some extent. There has been cases of those happening. Baby forumla being bought up in bulk resulting in a limit on how much each customer can buy, rules on buying/investing in land and property in Australia and the sacking of a senator doing dodgy with Chinese businessmen. There is nothing offensive about that.

          I agree with the setup of racist jokes by others. We all know scotty had no intention of creating that kind of environment. If he went and made an April Fools gag about NZ merging with Australia there would have been sheep jokes and other generalisations about New Zealand which would be considered racist.

        • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 18:16

          @Clear: You are falling into the same trap of equating PRC interests (buying everything up including politicians) with everyday Australians who are asian or have Chinese background who are not connected with PRC.

          To use an analogy, this is like calling ALL Australians cheaters in all levels of sport because the Australian Cricket Team was caught cheating. Even athletes who have come from Russia to Australia escape doping culture would be branded cheaters in this simple minded view.

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 19:52

          @The Land of Smeg: I don't see the connection how this post connects everyone of Chinese background to the PRC? It's pure satire of what's been going on in the media by the scaremongers like ACA.

        • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 20:55

          @Clear: not everyone sees it as satire

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 20:57

          @The Land of Smeg: Which is hard to grasp because that's exactly what scotty said it was. Has scotty ever gone and made that post on any other day besides April Fools? No. That's because that's exactly what it is. Satire.

        • [Deactivated] on 02/04/2018 - 00:14

          @Clear: I'm sure scotty's intentions were pure - a harmless april fools joke, but unfortunately that's just not the reality of actually happened. I'm sure it was meant to be satire, but he is misinformed or naive to think that Chinese or Asian ethnicity equates to the People's Republic of China, as are many others in the audience, so this false connection has continued to be spread even though it was only meant to be funny.

          It's not even my ethnicity, but if I was Asian I would be really pissed off about the ignorance which has been perpetuated yesterday. Easily one of OzBargain's darkest days.

        • Clear on 02/04/2018 - 05:45
          +1

          @The Land of Smeg: People are twisting what Scotty said and are making a big deal out of their own twisted words.

          If we can't make a joke about anything anymore then the world is truly stuffed. No matter what people will be offended and mean we need to learn how to get over that fact again. This crap has gone overboard like the feminist movement moving away from the true meaning of the word.

          Let's just end it here? Thank you for taking the time to explain why you are offended. Say what you want but I do respect your opinion.

        • [Deactivated] on 02/04/2018 - 08:49

          I guess that you are the kind of person who doesn't get offended by anything, but at the same time I'm also guessing that you are not part of any class who constantly gets harassed.

        • Clear on 02/04/2018 - 09:48

          @The Land of Smeg: Quite the opposite actually. I'm in a minority that gets bashed on by everyone.

          As with all groups it has its fair share of stereotypes, so if I saw a post about it on April Fools I'd recognise it as satire. It doesn't matter if I find it funny or not. But if the post was made on a different day in a completely different tone then I would probably be offended.

          For me it all comes down to the tone used and when it's said. I'm not offended by this post because it was not meant to offend and clearly intended as an April Fools joke. Go make a rage post about the Chinese tomorrow and it'll be a different story.

        • payton on 02/04/2018 - 13:57
          -1

          @The Land of Smeg:

          you are not part of any class who constantly gets harassed.

          Are you part of that group? Or are you simply being offended on behalf of others.

  • Salmando on 01/04/2018 - 12:14
    +1

    Can we get wechat pay going please?

  • ngsx on 01/04/2018 - 12:17

    good one lol

  • skycood on 01/04/2018 - 12:27

    1 Apr

  • wkd on 01/04/2018 - 12:28
    +2

    Tai Hao Le

    -Trevor James 2018

  • Creamsoda on 01/04/2018 - 12:28
    +3

    oh wow ozbargain has opened a can of worms with this politically charged April 1st joke. All the bargains now has become politicalized.

  • leetec on 01/04/2018 - 12:31

    that's a bad move, should provide language selection not mixing it.

  • VanderDB9 on 01/04/2018 - 12:35
    -2

    Not really funny? But happy april fools

    • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 12:47

      Punking virtue signallers is always funny. It's a long weekend and they're in a tizz.

      • payton on 02/04/2018 - 14:05

        +1. They're so over dramatic and serious when they try to guilt trip others

  • chaz0 on 01/04/2018 - 12:39

    Is this a joke? Its no the same Oz bargain feeling when viewing
    Hope this reverts back

    • Yummy on 01/04/2018 - 12:41

      No. We are invaded by the Taiwanese.

  • Romancekiller on 01/04/2018 - 12:44

    Is it just me, or do you guys still know your way around the site even in chinese!

  • captbollocks on 01/04/2018 - 12:53

    All hail our new overlords!

  • ilovefullprice on 01/04/2018 - 12:54
    +2

    If people start suing each other and going through courts over the political/racists comments/threats, ozbargain might be seen as a facilitator to this and gets shut down! Not a good thing for bargainers…

    • payton on 02/04/2018 - 14:03

      good luck with that

  • Thirathep69 on 01/04/2018 - 12:55

    Good april fools

  • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 12:56

    april fools day..

  • MrCotter2013 on 01/04/2018 - 13:00

    The translation is dope! LOL

  • mike001 on 01/04/2018 - 13:04

    Interesting slant on things

    • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 13:11

      Borderline_______

  • bogan on 01/04/2018 - 13:05
    +2

    "Real Estate Bargain Section, especially houses around Selective Schools"
    LMAO

  • chumlee on 01/04/2018 - 13:09

    It's past midday. Do we still need to carry on with this BS?

    • ilovefullprice on 01/04/2018 - 13:17
      -1

      Yeah I think it’s time the mods/admin take this down.

      Imagine if white school kids looking at ozbargain for a bargain, and after seeing all this and going back to school after the holidays, would ostracise and bully other asian kids at school. Kids doesn’t know how to make adult judgements yet and this would be planting a bad seed in them

      • Scrooge McDuck on 01/04/2018 - 13:34
        +3

        Indeed, can't trust people to think for themselves. We need censorship!!

        • Herbse on 01/04/2018 - 15:26

          Why have laws or government. Everyone just self regulate.

    • forumninja on 01/04/2018 - 13:52

      Not past midday in WA

  • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 13:12

    I knew it was April fools prank as soon as I read this post, but personally I don't feel it's funny.
    I'm sure your picture is accurate, most of ozbargainers are from overseas, as almost all my local Aussie friends care very little about finding bargains.
    I'm thankful to my cultural value that I was brought up with, and that's why I can have so much savings that I never need to claim a single dollar from Centrelink during my unemployment.
    Anyway, I know it's a joke but I'm sick of reading those Chinese invasion rubbish. I'd like myself to become one less Chinese who is invading ozbargain, I'll have my account deactivated. 删号留念 Goodbye :)

  • jaimex2 on 01/04/2018 - 13:16
    +3

    Obviously we will have to remove all voting and the comments will now be heavily censored.

  • getit on 01/04/2018 - 13:17
    +1

    我是马云，我来收购了

  • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 13:20

    HO YAY! HAHAHA! wonder how many of us on ozbargain are chinese? i will always be queen of goo hon though…

  • GunnerMcDagget on 01/04/2018 - 13:20

    The irony is that Ozbargain is probably censored in China.

    • mini2 on 01/04/2018 - 14:52

      Funny enough, no. Also, if you roam your phone from here (yeah maybe I should just hand in my OzB membership right here, couldn't be arsed getting a local SIM) even good old FB works a treat.

  • dingdong3000 on 01/04/2018 - 13:23
    +2

    Ozbargain is condoning aussie racism here.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 13:30
      +2

      username checks out

  • Joey4 on 01/04/2018 - 13:28

    In other news… Ozbargin's Google rank takes a massive hit after Google crawls all the Chinese

  • Findo on 01/04/2018 - 13:33
    +1

    Where does OzB stand on the Tiananmen Square massacre? This may seem funny for now, but the rise of China is nothing to sneer at. Our Aussie way of life can be eroded very quickly if China gains a stronger foothold on Australia.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 13:45
      +1

      they were asking for it
      also
      It didn't happen

      All hail Xi

    • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 13:49

      Let's not embrace being an Australian website either. Considering what was done to the aboriginals. One example being the Black War in Tassie and the resulting loss of an entire people less than 50 years later.

      • Findo on 01/04/2018 - 13:54
        -1

        At least our government doesn’t actively cover up the past. Our government still lets us google what we want to find out

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 13:56

          Many Chinese with internet access (and VPNs) no the truth as well, but we all know what happens when they speak out. Thankfully everytime our past governments have tried to censor the internet they've been somewhat unsuccessful.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 01/04/2018 - 14:43

          @Clear:

          O'rry?

          http://thepiratebay.org/

        • RimofLeo on 01/04/2018 - 14:45

          congratulations you were not brainwashed

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 15:14

          @Scrooge McDuck: Keyword is somewhat haha. They succeeded with some torrent websites, but not a proper censor itself like Conroy wanted years ago.

      • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 13:56

        Lets compare English colonialism of 200 years ago to modern China.
        You're right, not that different.

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 13:57
          +1

          They're still a lot of things wrong with their treatment. Regardless people need to calm down over scotty's April Fools post. Would you be so offended if it was about Australia or Trump?

        • ilovefullprice on 01/04/2018 - 14:08

          @Clear: This years April fools joke is not clearly thought through. People come to ozbargain looking for a bargain, and now it’s full of racists/political/threatening comments and posts…there’s even one about bullets

        • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 14:18

          @Clear: you're offended
          I'm being defensive

          All the so called taking offence is just coming from people finding it hard to fit in to a new country.
          It's going to be difficult, I would expect the same moving to China, but that would be my choice.
          If youse keep whinging we're gonna think you're as bad a sports as the poms

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 14:27

          @Sleepyweasel: I'm offended that you're offended about the joke. I have no problem with it and I rep for two Chinese companies here on OzBargain as well as previously working in Hong Kong. However, I'm not Chinese like scotty is, so some would say I have less of a right to joke about it than he does.

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 14:29

          @leockl: I'm referring to scotty's post. Not the behaviour of other members.

        • ilovefullprice on 01/04/2018 - 14:31

          @Clear: I was referring to this years April fools joke. I am sure scotty could have come up with a better joke for this year rather than the one being used

        • Clear on 01/04/2018 - 14:40

          @leockl: I suggested Giphy integration again.

        • ilovefullprice on 01/04/2018 - 15:03

          @Clear: Oh well, it’s been taken down now, hope ozb could take something from this for future April fool jokes

    • scotty on 02/04/2018 - 21:20
      +2

      OzB itself does not care about Tiananmen Square. Why would it? It's just a 11yo website.

      I however still remembered seeing the whole coverage on TV back in 1989 — I was in year 7 back then. It was a shocking news and my school ran a fundraising. Still remembered many of my classmates put in our pocket money to be sent to the Red Cross so they can provide aids. However what happened afterwards was that Red Cross failed to send the fund over due to political issues, and we have no idea where the money went. Yeah Tiananmen Square still scarred me — got scammed by the charity.

  • quog on 01/04/2018 - 13:41

    Only ad I've been getting on OZB is from HSBC.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/04/2018 - 14:14

      HSBC, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is of course, British.

  • kyori on 01/04/2018 - 13:42

    Apirl FOOLS LOLZS

  • zacsg1 on 01/04/2018 - 13:45
    -2

    他妈的你妈妈

  • redcreek200 on 01/04/2018 - 13:47
    +4

    Half an hour maybe a "joke" poorly thought out. All day, then site owner misusing "April Fool's Day" for a shitty political statement.

    • May4th on 01/04/2018 - 14:31

      worse i think it's well thought out. blatant cheap advertising to increase the site's profile

    • roland on 01/04/2018 - 14:51

      Shameful !!! "Over the last decade China has cleared out our milk powder & fish oil, bought out our flats & houses, our farmlands, our coal mines and even our politicians — and they are obviously also looking for bargains"

  • Slo20 on 01/04/2018 - 13:51

    Doesn’t april fools end at midday?

    • ilovefullprice on 01/04/2018 - 13:58

      Apparently not yet in WA

    • windwai on 01/04/2018 - 14:39

      lol I didn’t even know April fool ends at midday.

  • dts88 on 01/04/2018 - 14:03

    开什么玩笑？

  • THICKnSLOW on 01/04/2018 - 14:06

    I like yumcha so yumcha everyday

  • lhou021 on 01/04/2018 - 14:10

    good try

    I thought my chrome browser was randomly translating English to Chinese

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