Bter account screen is finally showing a reasonable number for estimated value of my coins, that seems like a good sign.
At first it was showing absurdly high numbers. Then it was showing 0. Now its finally showing a reasonable number which is about equal to the value the BTS I have there was at when bter went down. (Its not showing current value but I wouldnt expect it to, it is showing the value as of bter's final trading prices).
Hopefully this means that they are actually managing to sort things out.
Bter becoming operational again is a best case scenario. (Okay, actually them catching the hacker and getting the BTC back is best case, but I dont expect that).
If they return to operation, not only can we withdraw our BTS or other coins, but we can also eventually get snapshot shares and vested shares.
If they only enabled withdraws, everyone would pull out all their coins and bter would fade, and we probably wouldnt get snapshots ever.
Trying to go full operational again is a MUCH better plan on bter's part. It also provides some hope to BTC holders, because they can partially pay them bakc over itme out of trading profits.
Finally, an operational bter, even one that loses the majority of its customers, still has some value. It could later be sold to a new owner to pay back some of the BTC (or possibly this has already happened). The value of bter is directly based on the size of their customer base that they retain, so it is in their interest to make sure as many people as possible get their coins and dont sustain big losses.
Of course, that is the good case. We arent in any way out of the woods until such time as the coins we have in bter are safely withdrawn into our personal wallets. But I interpret this attempt to return to full operation to be good news. This SHOULD have been their first statement after 'we've been hacked'. They should have been working all along to try and repair their security hole and return to operation with as little damage to customers as possible.
It sees they might have sold the site, and the new owners ("their partners") have much more sense and are now trying to maximize bter's value.