Maybe I'm the only one here who lives in China and doesn't use a proxy or a VPN, but it kind've gives me a headache how often posts come up with links to user content on sites that are blocked in China. YouTube videos, blogger posts, tweets, photos on Facebook or Google+ or imageshack.us...

Could we maybe get together a list of China-friendly sites where users might consider posting content that they're planning on showing off, sharing, or plugging on the forums here? Maybe that's too much to ask, but it would certainly be nice to be able to access some of the content being shared here from time to time...

What services do you have in mind in particular? The three of us aren't in China ourselves so we don't notice when these sorts of things happen, and we don't know what services would be good alternatives offhand.

While we might be able to change our habits when making newsletters and blog posts to try and favor sites that are available everywhere, we can't really control the forum content or be assured that the hosting services we would switch to remain available in China. The best solution, I'm afraid, would be to set up that VPN. The side benefit is you get access to all those services.