From the introduction of "POTS" on its official web site, translated from Chinese by Kai-Ting Lin with the help of Google Translate.
"POTS" is the first ever alternative free newspaperin Taiwan, also the only one with left-wing position and global vision. Moreover, it is the first newspaper ever entering the Taipei MRT station (later considered to have negative affects on the youth and would be harmful for Taipei MRT's image and has been kicked out). ...... Ah, if we got to go on introducing like this, this page will occupy more than 2MB.
"POTS" started as a small section belonged to the independent newspaper "Taiwan Li Newspaper" supported by Shih Hsin University. From 1994, it appeared weekly as Sunday edition with the name "Pots Weekly Paper". Officially inaugurated in 1995, reformed to the current form of free newspapers in 1997. At present each issue has a circulation around 80000 copies at a weekly base, distributed all over Taiwan's universities and high schools campus, chain bookstore (Eslite), pub, live house, coffee shops, art space, art galleries museums...etc.
The topics introduced and generated by "POTS" had left a deep influence on the youth generation since post student movement era till now. Lots of issues had been put to discussion in the depth prior to the media hype, such as "One hundred kinds of attitudes toward abortion", "Anti-anti drug", "Rave generation", "Spring Scream" (an outdoor music festival held in early April each year at Kenting (墾丁) in southern Taiwan), Formoz Festival, Ho Hai Yan Music Festival (on Fulong beach), Chinese contemporary avant-garde art, the world's independent media scene, the Voice of the Left, Gay / Transgender, Migrant workers / Foreign brides and so on.
The first on-line edition (pots.com.tw) of "POTS" had adopted open-source slashcode for the construction, is also the first in Taiwan to use the open-source resources as a news media platform, it once reached Google page rank as high as 6 / 10, even higher than some of the largest newspapers' on-line editions. Second edition (pots.tw) also used the open-source resource Durpal. In the future we will integrate membership management, advertising, e-commerce to provide more interactive services.