Iranian Website “Balatarin” Back Online after Hacker Attack

Balatarin, which means “the highest” in Persian, is a very popular Iranian community website that was hacked [en] on February 3, 2009. Registered users of the site post news and links, and the community votes to make content appear higher on the list. The website has been filtered on the internet in Iran since 2007.

A campaign was launched by several Persian language bloggers to support the return of the website. Balatarin was reborn at the end of last week with a temporary website, and a message saying that the hackers had transferred the domains and assigned them to new DNS servers making the website was inaccessible.

For more information on Balatarin, you can read a previous interview on Global Voices with its founder, Mehdi Yahyanejad.

Legofish, an Iranian blogger and designer says [fa]:

به یکی از بهترین و به درد بخور ترین وبسایت های ایرانی تبدیل شده بود. امیدوارم که صاحبان سایت نا امید نشوند و بالاترین دوباره راه بیافته. مسلما اونها از حمایت همه کاربران بالاترین برخوردار هستند

Balatarin has become one of the best and most useful Iranian websites. I hope those responsible at Baltarin did not become disillusioned. All users of Baltarin support them.

Z8unak writes [fa]:

خبرهای مهم مملکت و جهان هم همیشه جزء لینکای بالا و داغش هست و می‌تونی با یه نگاه در صفحه‌ی اول بفهمی ایران و جهان چه خبراست… شور و هیجانی که این سایت در خواننده‌هاش ایجاد می‌کنه من در هیچ سایت دیگری ندیده‌ام .

Iran's and the world's most important news are always hot links at Balatarin. You just need to take one look on its first page to what is happening. I have not seen another site generate the excitement of readers like Balatarin can.

1pezechk, a very popular Iran-based blogger, calls [fa] Balatarin a “people's news agency” and encourages Balatarin‘s users to support the site.

Updateblog considers [fa] Balatarin the best Iranian social media website. The blogger hopes the situation will return to normal as soon as possible.

Behrang says [fa]:

همان اوایل که بالاترین راه افتاده بود، نوشتم که به گمان من، بالاترین فقط یک سایت وب ۲.۰ فارسی نیست؛ که نماد دموکراسی ایرانی است.

When Baltarin started I wrote that it, in my opinion, is not only a web 2.0 website, but a symbol of Iranian democracy.

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