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What exactly was on the SMTH BBS of Tsinghua University that drew the attention of the government officials? Were they concerned about the subversive statements (or, at a minimum, 'sensitive' comments) posted by people inside or outside the university? What exactly was present on that BBS?
The SMTH BBS is a massive database which must contain tens of millions of comments over its ten year lifespan. It would be impossible to classify those comments. This leaves people, including users, operators and observers, with varying types of subjective impressions.
Here is a translation of a post at InMediaHK. The two takeaway points are that there already existed tight control on SMTH and that the board contents were quite diverse:...
...My second translation is from an individual by the user name of BorlandKylix who was able to post this item briefly on SMTH on March 18, 2005. The takeaway point here is that SMTH is an information hub for research and development. Such BBS's must be considered integral to research advancement in China, and it is counterproductive to prevent interaction with the rest of the world....
...The black hand behind the BBS crackdowns is alleged to be Zhou Jie (周濟), who is leader the Department of Education. The following is a counteroffensive against Zhou Jie, published at SecretChina, which I must qualify as not being the most reliable source in the world... ... Now we move to an article by Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), the president of the Independent Chinese PEN. He has another article, which is humorous as he starts off with the comment that the arrival of U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice has caused the police guard to re-appear in his front door after a brief respite following the end of the two Congresses. But this other article was published at ChineseNewsNet and is an analysis of comments at major websites on Condi Rice....