Dear Canuck,
Yes, besides thanks, I also have some suggestions to you, which I hesitate very much to give. It is your words “…all topics are acceptable” and “This is the world”, and the fact you mentioned that you actually do have rejected someone’s idea of putting restrictions on topics, that have encouraged me to go forward. And you didn’t tell me to shut up yesterday.
If this forum is a world, then I’m afraid this world is too soft and tender to seem real, maybe due to your good intention to keep it always a loving place. But philosophers tell us that everything in the world goes in contradictions. I think it is quite true. When all one can taste is but sweet, then no sweetness can be felt at all. If all we can read here are but those soft and tender things, we’ll soon become tired of it. After all, the real world is filled both with love and hate, happiness and bitterness.
I know you have grounds there to keep this forum the way it has been, friendly, loving and free of any fierce disputes or other hard things. Maybe you have experienced too many displeasing things that you don’t want to be reminded of them here any more; maybe, born to be such a decent and “fine” man (Mary’s definition), you’re instinctively resistant to those arguments with negative suggestions; maybe you’re working intentionally to pave a nice and pleasant place for us all to relax and enjoy. Whatever the reason, dear Canuck, you do have succeeded in creating a fairyland to which we can escape. And it is right this character of this forum that accounts partly for its popularity and our gratitude to you. But, dear master, praises, consolations, caressing and even encouragements are not all what we needed. We have to face the true reality, to learn lessons from it, to grow in tackling it, whether when in real life or in the net world.
Now, president Bush has given Saddam an ultimatum, and the ultimatum will expire in minutes. The America-led war has become a topic discussed almost everywhere by everyone; and Chinese government, which exerts a great influence upon Chinese society is undergoing a shift. However, not a single word about all these can be heard here. It makes this forum appear so strange that I wonder if it is really in THIS world that it exists. My only attempt to initiate a discussion about the war has invited immediate “polite warning” form you.
Dear Canuck, ugliness do not always lead to bitterness. It’s like receiving an inoculation; one’s exposure to a certain amount of viciousness can save him from a fatal struck of a bigger vice, so it’s not necessary to keep this place always so pure and clean. Every minute we spend should serve to make us stronger and wiser, including the time we spend reading here.
And there’s another thing I’m afraid I can not agree with you, namely, longer articles should be awarded more stars, as one forum member has protested before. It is true that certain quantity of words is needed if you want to fully express an idea or describe a situation, yet there’s another principle: to tell the most by writing the least. We’re doing discussions, as the name “forum” suggests, rather than working out theses, so I really don’t think too long articles are necessary. Again, I know you’re doing so out of your kind and sympathetic nature, and you’re trying to be fair, for you may think long articles will take more time and energy, and are more demanding. This is of course a logic conclusion. But I find it is not always the case. Often, when I let my pen go leisurely with what I’m thinking, writing down whatever occurs to me, paying little attention to accuracy or brevity, I can write smoothly on and on, page after page. It is only when I’m trying to cram what I want to say to the fewest possible lines that difficulties rise. Yet we have to do so, in order to save the reader’s time.
There’s still another problem about long articles. They’re time-consuming and very tiring to the eyes for one to read on the screen. I can print them out, but there’re always those more important materials waiting to be printed and I’m afraid I can’t afford the extra cost. To be frank, I always hesitate whenever I come to a long article.
So dear master, it’s my wish that you could award stars more according to the quality of an article rather than its length.
Well, dear Canuck, in spite of its possible offense and its coarseness, this article can be said a long one. Let me see how many stars it can get.
