Dear Charles and David,
Please note that we are not arguing but discussing.
I don't know if you have seen the TV series named "Walking to Republicanism", Charles, but your article reminded me of the theme of it. Though this forum has nothing to do with republicanism and rights and profits, we are doing the same thing, that is to say, we are determining to get rid of our out-of-time habit rooted deep in life. If you read books like Who Moved My Cheese, you will know keeping a ritual all the time means death of a person, of \a company, and of even a country, let along our little forum.
Hongen realized it, so it was added this new feature. Actually, Hongen just followed the trend. Please take a look at other big forums like 21cn and Rongshu. It's very hard to find a forum without the function to mark Top or Quintessence and to place such articles on the top of the page. It takes up the space, of course, but it's still catching on. Why? Why does an useless feature get popularity? As we know, popularity gets most of people's attention and make them like, or agree or need that kind of thing. If the majority feel it unnecessary what in the world is this able to become popular? You know it because you're a teacher. A good teacher knows how to make students like his or her classes by changing features based on the main style of teaching. But can he or she make it possible that every student like his or her classes. No. Not even the most excellent human teacher in the universe.
What you wrote is summarized as follows.
1. The top topics take up the space so that you have to scroll down to see new posts.2. The top topics are decided by the Master, so you may not like them all the time.3. The topics can be "top" without such a feature since they themselves are hot.4. A well-written article does not necessarily need to be put on the top. 5. In general, it is useless.
It's none of your business, indeed, to "top" or "untop" an article. In my family we have a man to be responsible and deciding when big occasions come, though sometimes the three of us have distinct opinions. In schools we have principals to be leaders of all the people who have different ideas. In our country we have Hu Jintao and other big leaders to keep China running. So could it be said that a thing decided by a Master is not fair and necessary just because every one has different views?
The top topics do take up some space, but they do not hamper new posts to show, and if you look carefully the page gets longer so that there are as many posts to be on Root Article section as before. It's *your* business to scroll down the page as soon as you get the page to avoid seeing the top topics. If you think it is a big hassle to "pull the slider to see sometimes even a new article," you may "lay off" your mouse and stop using computer. If you don't even want to scroll down, do you think it is fair to those well-written articles in the not-so-long past that you have to bother to click "Next" button? Sometimes some good posts are just "pushed" into the Next Page so quickly that few people have read it. Unfortunately, many people don't bother to go next page to take a look. Very soon the authors' efforts have been forgotten completely. Now we have this new feature to give people more opprtunities to read some excellent works that are probably forgotten soon.
I've posted an article in a Chinese column. The Master put it on the Top. Now about 500 people click it and 40 people replied it. If it wasn't for the feature my article couldn't have been read by so many people because of the fast pace of new posts. I felt respect from the Master also. Is it a well-written article? Probable not. It has many wrong Chinese characters in it and the words that have not been crafted, because it is a combination of my letters to a friend. From the angle of grammar and structure it is an awful article. But it is about my experience of learning English. So from the angle of use it is a good one. The word "well-written" therefore has many angles to measure.
I, and some friends have written articles that attracted many replies without the feature, it's true. A saying goes like this, "You're sparkling everywhere because you're a piece of gold." Gold is even more beautiful if we polish it and showcase it. Even the gold that can't be discovered has no value of beauty. The feature is used for that. Besides it has not only one kind of use.
Do you see Notice Board on the entry page? How do you think of it? Unnecessary also? Ask any of the Masters in Hongen how they think. For many members and newcomers it is a window to lead them to interesting topics. Imagine if it were canceled many people had to open each column to peek in. Top Topic section is a miniature Notice Board for members to know directly some topics held in there. They still have another choice. That is to see new posts. So the Top Topics are not hampering people but giving them a new choice so that they may not have to look for topics that interest them. It's easier for Masters to lead discussions.
In all, it is a wise and nice choice to have Top Topic section.
As I said, every one has their ideas. The above is mine. So let's have our members decide if Canuck's Comments needs this new feature or keeps the way it was.
Jenny
