Fang Xingdong posted a question to his personal blog last week: "Who is the most famous blogger?" Fang is the founder of BlogChina, which just this month overhauled its interface and changed its name to Bokee.

Fang's ruminations, and BlogChina's upgrade, touch on the metamorphosis of the Internet in China, from a haven for experts and tech enthusiasts to a wide-open plaza. Fang adapts Eric Raymond's metaphor of the cathedral and the bazaar - anyone, regardless of motivations or ability, now has the potential to attract a readership. He characterizes these new personalities as belonging to a new era of the Internet:

If we say that Zhang Chaoyang, Ding Lei, Chen Tianqiao and others represent the achievements of the commercialization of the Internet or the the era of "Internet Version 1.0", then the emergence of Sister Hibiscus, Muzi Mei, and Rascal Swallow indicate that the social strata of the Internet have truly started to change. They imply that the era of "Internet Version 2.0" has begun.

Reactions in the comments to Fang's post are predictably mixed. Many commenters agree with his analysis of the present situation but feel that blogs, as well as the larger Internet, can still be saved from vulgarity and irrelevance. Others reject his conclusions outright, saying that he's gone over to the dark side where value is demonstrated by number of hits.

Included below are excerpts from Fang's post along with a selection of comments.

Excerpted from Fang Xingdong: "The cathedral model faces an attack: Who is the most famous blogger?"

For a time, I believed...I was the most famous blogger in China. But one day in 2003, Li Xueling said "Muzi Mei is the most famous blogger, not you Fang Xingdong." I was stunned, and I scoffed. In the end, it was only when Muzi Mei instantly increased Sina's traffic by 1/3 that I was completely won over. Li Jun said, "Fang Xingdong, if you wrote a lifetime of articles, could you write something that would instantly increase the traffic on Sina's Tech Channel by even 10%?" I considered this and replied that I certainly could not. And the Tech Channel is only 3% of Sina's total traffic.

Evidently, what separates me from Muzi Mei is not the question of who is more famous; rather, I am separated from her by a gap of several levels.

If that's not enough, here's some more recent evidence. The blog of Rascal Swallow was established just over ten days ago, and without any sort of promotion, traffic has already passed 130,000 hits [above 200,000 at time of Danwei posting]. I've been hard at work writing for a year, and I've only been able to push past 120,000 hits. Really, I can't resist any longer. What happens when Sister Hibiscus and Muzi Mei open their blogs?

The blog world changes quickly. Even I, who started stumping for blogs three years ago, have begun to feel left behind, to feel pressure forcing me to the margins.

But such is the power of blogs. Blogs in the end belong to the masses rather than to a minority of enthusiasts or the elite. What is a blog? What will blogs become? In what direction are bloggers going? The people to answer these questions may no longer be those of us who believe that we hold the power to speak for bloggers. Rather, it belongs to the majority that still sits in silence.

One of the online personalities Fang mentions is Rascal Swallow (流氓燕), a blogger who shot to fame much in the same way as Muzi Mei, by publishing nude photos and writing a sex diary. Her blog was recently resurrected in a more subdued incarnation, but it still brings the traffic.

Here's a selection of comments to that post (note that while an effort has been made to gather a variety of opinions, what is quoted here in no way represents the opinion of all of China, the Chinese Internet, or even BlogChina or Fang Xingdong's readership):

• kilo: "Going back to the masses is the only road to permanence."
• Zhang Li: "Individuals' hobbies are merely hobbies, but society's interests all come down to commerce."
• wh7983: "I'm disappointed to see this kind of argument. If you make BlogChina into a porn site, won't you have an immense amount of traffic? I've always liked BlogChina and I don't want to see it go down that road."
• SMBLOG: "Damn, increasing the number of visitors through bad taste - I don't know what you are thinking, Fang Xingdong. I must say that people like them are only temporary. Look at your writing - it's so overdone!!!!!!!"
• gonewiththewind: "I disagree! I'm disappointed in you. You're losing your honest and upright character! Every person has a responsibility to society. Media, a popularizer, grabs the eyes and the time of its audience, and it has an even greater influence on those around it. So it has a responsibility to influence and lead. Muzi Mei and others have no sense of responsibility to society. All they have is a selfish, inflated reputation. This is detrimental to the public, society, and people's lives. If BlogChina permits and even encourages this crowd-pleasing ugliness, then as rising new media and new technology, you will have lost your upright character and will certainly fail."
• baino5: "I think there is some truth to what Fang says. The kind of netizens you have indicates the type of online celebrity there will be. If the public doesn't like Sister Hibiscus's exhibitionism, then even if she shows more skin it won't matter. Although sex is everywhere, there will always be people pursuing scholarship and doing serious things, and there will always be people who support them. Blogs belong to the public, not to a small elite. Blogs are the blooming of one hundred flowers, not a single blossom. Having no vulgarity or sex on blogs is unhealthy as well."
• xiaozhao_100: "Last week my post on 'Sister Hibiscus, yesterday and today' received over one thousand hits, while the article I translated from The Economist, 'Ten years of eBay growing pains' got just a few dozen. Is this really because traffic skews toward Sister Hibiscus? Not necessarily. In my view, the reason is that 'Sister Hibiscus, yesterday and today' was selected as a 'Choice Blog Article,' while 'Ten years of eBay growing pains' was not."
• Ke bo: "Ah, Mr. Fang, there are some things that cannot be measured in traffic or numbers. You are a businessman now; have you forgotten your days writing poetry?"