I enjoy The Standard newspaper, not least because several of their staff read this site and they have free links to their website, making it blog-friendly. Then there's the Sudoku (why haven't I won yet?) and the generally high level of reporting, stories and op-eds. They're running rings around SCMP.

So I don't blame them for not reading the SCMP at all. Today's HK Confidential on the possible demise of Icered, Hong Kong's free-for-all bulliten board:

Icered, the amazingly vicious community discussion Internet site that specialized primarily in anonymously slandering anybody and everybody - from fellow journalists to research analysts and others - has suddenly disappeared. Nobody knows where it went - or if, or when, it will return. Network Solutions, the American company that has owned the domain name since 2000, says it is trying to find out if something untoward has happened or if the name has simply expired. The site, www.icered.com, now simply says: "This site is under construction and coming soon.'' If it never comes back, it won't be missed by most of its victims who have been slagged off anonymously. Nobody has been able to find out who actually owned the site and no one has ever been able to figure out who to sue for defamation. But they would certainly like to know.

Social networking website Ba8ua.com has taken over the management of Icered.com and is planning to relaunch the online message board community in the next two weeks, according to Ba8ua's founders. The IceRed forum has been down for two weeks as Ba8ua - which is pronounced bagua and means gossip in Cantonese - works to integrate the online property with its own service offering.

Ba8ua chief executive Jonathan Lee said the overall look and feel of IceRed would remain intact after the relaunch, but the new site would contain elements of the Ba8ua service. "From the standpoint of appearance and look, we won't be making any significant changes, but we will be integrating our functionality, giving our service offering to the IceRed users," Mr Lee said.

Ba8ua is a Hong Kong start-up fashioned after social networking sites such as Friendster.com. It aims to bridge the online and offline lives of busy professionals. Mr Lee would not provide financial details of the partnership. "We have decided it is probably not in our best interests to disclose the specifics of the transaction. But we can say the strategic relationship will allow us to leverage their brand in Hong Kong immediately," he said.

At the same time, IceRed would have access to Ba8ua's brand, staff and capital base. Ba8ua sees its biggest opportunity in the mainland, where there is far larger internet user base, and value-added services for mobile phones are more popular. The IceRed deal also gives Ba8ua a foothold in Singapore, where the Web forum operates.

I hate to destroy the obvious glee for author of the HK Confidential piece, but if it makes them feel better I'm reading the SCMP so they don't have to.