Dear friends，
I personally appreciated all the thanks given to the Master's work. As Masters, we try to steer the forum to the way we think is right. As a society...or family, however, Canuck’s Comments needs no more Masters but members and friends, who are more important than the Masters in some ways. I've just read Tim's article about his great concerns for China striking a balance on corruption. Despite that we Masters don't get any monetary profit, we will get a notion that nobody should have opinions against us and what all we do is correct and exclusive, and eventually ruin our forum, if we are not careful with our thoughts and words and actions. We could treat people like Kim the troublemakers or rascals or anything we would like from a subjective view. We could make ourselves in this little warm "home" and talk about anything we wanted. But I am afraid the group of protesters is not small. A lot of "others" out there would rather see another different scene. A scene that many newcomers would not think we are just family members, but also members in a society that accommodates most of them, with little pressure and more acceptance. This is hard, since we've got to keep the warm image and exotic characters in some friends' minds, while we must do what we can do to make it better for the "protesters." Though we know we can satisfy all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time, we are dissatisfied to know while many people love to read the forum articles, they fear to join in. We don't wish to see our forum go dim when the few major writers are absent, do we? "I have been your reader for years," a former friend of the forum back in 2002 told me on message string last night.
"Oh, really? Thanks, then. :-) May I know a little more of you" is my reply. Then we went into the topic of the forum. "You don't write in the forum very often, do you?" I asked. He replied, "I don't but I do pay attention to your family a lot and recommend my friends to there." "It's so nice of you making this little place popular! Would you mind telling me what prevents you from writing here?" "Well, I know you are so warmhearted to want to make the forum more blooming. But don't you think it needs people in different positions but not only writers?" His answer perplexed me. So I asked him why he said so. Maybe I sounded upset. "I am sorry but I think I didn't express my thoughts in a clear way to you. The forum has good writers and readers. Maybe I am in the second group. :-)" He replied. "I was not angry or upset at what you said in the previous message, I was just wondering what was your idea. OK, hope you feel happy in the second group." I said. He continued to say, "But please don't be too proud of the forum. Eurdee raised a point which I have same feeling about it. So do some of my friends. I hope it can grow to be a more free and fresh place with different opinions which is not only those obey 'owners'. " Before we bid good-night, he left me this message: "Jenny, since you are one of the hosts of the forum, I suppose you can do more than what we can and that's the reason I told you my real thoughts about the forum. Don't make it like a small family with some genearches." Today I asked the opinions of a close forum friend of mine. She goes to Wang Wang English Forum for English learning materials but thinks this forum is unique with its topics and people. She says most of the posts here have words of meaning while many of the other forums don't. I have been to a column in Wang Wang. Open and "bustling" as it seems to be, I can hardly get food for thoughts as much as I can in here. Then why some people don't like here? STARS, they would say, some articles are nothing, but they get top stars. I admit, from my personal perspective, some stars are given too emotionally, but there seems to be other reasons besides what Eurdee pointed out in her article. Many members are working people, and they get online in office hours. They want to relax from work, not to write or read serious topics, in forums, which are usually considered great online "recreation parks". When they get off work, they are too tired to write or read. Some members don't read long articles online. Let alone English ones! Some like here, but fear writing when they see the shining stars. This happens not only in English forums. Still a few are troublemakers, or irrational critics. We can't and won't change for these four groups of people, but I don't think we can ignore the people who complain about stars. Eurdee and some other members have made excellent points and analyses to the problem. Now we invite you all to advise us the weaknesses of the forum and ways to overcome them. We are glad and honored to have your constructive suggestions. We will see what we can do with them. Sincerely, Jenny
