==+==+==+== C h i n e s e C o m m u n i t y F o r u m ==+==+==+=== Sunday, May 1, 1994 (Issue No. 9421) +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Chinese Community Forum (CCF) is an e-journal published on China-Net. CCF is dedicated to the discussion on the issues related to the Chinese community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the Editorial Board of CCF. Contributions to the discussions and suggestions of new topics are very much appreciated. +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= # of Table of Contents Author | Lines ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 1. A Brief History of China-Net...............................Weihe Guan 45 2. Introduction to CCF.............................................EBCCF 40 3. FAQ's about CCF..............................................Ning Luo 207 4. China-Net Readership Update.....................................EBCCF 25 5. Main Topics in the Past CCF Issues..............................EBCCF 45 6. A Thought on CCF............................................Anzhi Lai 94 7. Support Re-Opening China-Net...............................Ming Cheng 50 8. Open vs. Closed China-Net....................................Mi Mi Sr. 13 9. Moderated or Unmoderated?..................................Diane Chen 18 ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== -- From The Editor -- Since the remodeling of China-Net to a moderated mailing list about eight months ago, we have witnessed the revivification of China-Net. The encouraging indication is the steady increase in readers' subscriptions. The moderation of China-Net does not mean that China-Net is closed down---it is still open to our readers. However, because China-Net is a listserver- based mailing list which has a limit on how many mails flow into readers' mailboxes each day that a typical reader could tolerate, some degree of moderation is necessary to monitor and filter e-mail traffic and to bar some flametory messages. Such measure is especially necessary because this list serves thousands of readers world-wide. After the reform, China-Net is intended to be a carrier for quality publications and messages which interest majority of readers. Our editors are working hard to ensure that China-Net lives up to this standard. Even with its success, the current setting of China-Net is by no means perfect. China-Net is still seeking further improvement, especially for its main publication, the Chinese Community Forum (CCF). As such readers' input and contributions are vital to the improvement of China-Net and CCF. Thus we bring out this special edition on China-Net and CCF as a summary and review of China-Net and CCF to date. We hope that this issue will bring constructive feedback from our readers, particularly with regard to the directions China-Net and CCF are heading toward. First article written by Weihe Guan is a brief account of China-Net since its birth, which is followed by an introduction to CCF and FAQ's about CCF. We also show the statistics about the readership of China-Net. In addition we carry four readers' thoughtful comments on operations and management of China-Net. We welcome our readers to send us your thoughts on China-Net and CCF. We welcome contributions to CCF. ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 1. A Brief History of China-Net...............................Weihe Guan 45 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- In May 1989, China-Net was set up for the communication and coordination of overseas Chinese students and scholars (CSS), by a group of volunteers who formed the China-Net Management Committee (CNMC). The founding members of CNMC were Dai Jiangang, Dai Haiquan, Guan Weihe, Chen Guoying and Ding Chen. One of China-Net's first missions was to coordinate the preparation work for the Chicago CSS congress which later formed IFCSS. The net was first set up as a Unix mailing list in Stanford University, and later shared by two other lists in New York University and Case Western Reserve University. Due to technical limitations, the net was not open for free subscription and posting. Only registered coordinators representing a CSS organization could post to the net, and the posting was supposed to represent the opinion of the organizations. Each organization had no more than two coordinators on the net. There was a total of 200+ registered coordinators on the net. In September 1990, the net underwent a major reform. It was relocated to the University of Georgia on the LISTSERV, and became open for public subscription and posting of personal opinions on IFCSS activities. In September 1991, there were about 500+ subscribers on China-net. The posting volume increased dramatically. CNMC posted announcements on the net trying to regulate the use of the net, and dedicated China-Net to be "The Communication and Coordination Network for IFCSS". CNMC members took terms to be the "Executive Manager" (EM) to monitor postings on the net and send advises to those who posted improper messages. Some old members left CNMC and new members joined in, which include Xu Gang, Ding Jian, Huang Guyang, Wang Yang and Shen Tong. In September 1992, due to the establishment of many CSS organizations which also need network service, China-Net was re-named to "The Communication and Coordination Network for CSS organizations". CNMC further regulated China-Net to be "subscribers post only", in an effort to eliminate irrelevant postings. These efforts led to debates among CSS on how to best use China-Net. In September 1993, China-Net experienced another major reform. It became a moderated net and started hosting the electronic journal of CCF, along with other edited newsletters from registered CSS organizations. CNMC members and CCF editors worked jointly in pursuing a unique niche for China-Net in today's diverse netland at large. China-Net, after 5 years, remains as one of the major networks for CSS's communication and coordination. (Received: 30-APR-1994) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Introduction to Chinese Community Forum (CCF)...................EBCCF 40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CCF is a journal published on China-Net and dedicated to the exchange of viewpoints, ideas, and analyses related to the affairs in the Chinese student and scholar (CSS) community, Chinese professional (CP) community, and overseas Chinese community at large. CCF is published by Editorial Board of CCF (EBCCF), a group of volunteering China-Net readers. At present time, CCF carries a regular weekly edition on every Wednesday, an irregular weekend edition and occasional special editions. The regular weekly edition is the major publication of CCF, which usually includes a section of discussion focusing on a particular theme, and some other column articles. We have opened discussions in columns such as "Voices from Campuses", "China Watch", "Chinese Culture and Tradition", "Community and Society", "Life In A Foreign Land" and "Between Readers and Editors". The weekend edition carries digests of the analysis and commentary articles from other publications, mainly for providing background information on the current topics of CCF. Special edition is designed for particular interesting topics or contingent issues. EBCCF will from time to time invite individuals to write on various themes, but the major portion of CCF is from the contributions of CCF readers. The active participation of readers is critical to develop and maintain a constructive, healthy and lively environment for discourses on public network, which is the founding goal of CCF. Contributions to CCF are greatly appreciated. The criteria for selection by CCF are the relevance and the informativeness, not the opinion inclination. The articles published in CCF, except the Editorial, do not necessarily reflect the view of EBCCF. The original author of each article is to be consulted if any questions should arise. Suggestions and comments on the format, style, content and theme topics as well as operation of publication are also welcome. Editorial Board of Chinese Community Forum [ccf-editor@ifcss.org, 11/17/93] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. FAQ's about CCF..............................................Ning Luo 207 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions: 1. How many subscribers are there to CCF? 2. What are the goals and objectives for the CCF? 3. What does CCF provide for Chinese Students that other media sources do not? 4. Why do you think people subscribe? 5. How did CCF begin? 6. How is it staffed? 7. What potential is there for this type of media in the PRC? 8. As I understand it China-net has many components; CCF is one. What are the others? 9. Where do the stories in CCF come from? Are they all submitted by readers? Do some of them come from Networking in China? Answers: 1. How many subscribers are there to CCF? There are currently over 3000 direct subscribers of China-Net, on which CCF is distributes. There is an anonymous ftp site on cnd.org (in directory org/ccf), where people could retrieve back issues of CCF via anonymous ftp or gopher. We do not have statistics on how many readers get access to CCF through these channels. 2. What are the goals and objectives for the CCF? CCF is an e-journal published on China-Net and dedicated to the exchange of viewpoints, ideas, and analyses related to the affairs in the Chinese student and scholar (CSS) community, Chinese professional (CP) community, and overseas Chinese community at large. 3. What does CCF provide for Chinese Students that other media sources do not? There are two aspects of CCF which combine to give a quite unique feature for CCF: It is a journal published on e-net, and it is a journal dedicated to discussions. There are many Chinese journals which carry news, news analysis and discussions. However, an electronic journal distributed on computer network is quite different from the printed journals distributed through traditional channels. The technological progress in "information highway" is bringing us closer and closer to the original meaning of "forum", like the squares in Ancient Greece where people could debate all issues ranging from philosophy to everyday life INTERACTIVELY, but without the limitation of spacial separation between the participants. There have been a number of electronic journals distributed on computer network operated by Chinese. In fact, the overseas Chinese students and scholars were among first pioneers to explore this virtual world in providing news service as well as networks for community development. Most of them provide general or specialized news services. Two examples are CND and AEIC NR. There are also many networks which mainly serve to the organizational coordination, such as IFCSS NR. The main difference of CCF from these journals is that CCF is so far the only e-journal dedicated to discussions, hence its name "forum". Besides the electronic journals, there are several USENET newsgroups for Chinese. Among them, soc.culture.china (scc) is the oldest (established in late 1987) and still holds the highest traffic volume and largest reader group. Many interesting discussions and heated debates have taken place on these nets. The main difference of the discussions conducted on CCF from these net discussions is that CCF is distributed on China-Net, a moderated network. Therefore, the discussions are more focused, and the noise level is greatly reduced. 4. Why do you think people subscribe? We believe that people subscribe CCF because it is a forum operated within a cleaner environment (China-Net) where in-depth discussion could be pursued. We are living in an age of information abundance. To find a piece of useful information, people often have to spend more time and effort to screen out the information not needed at the moment than to search the information being sought. The high noise/signal ratio and drifting attentions on the "free nets" such as scc where anyone could post any message at will make it very costly for people who want to pursue focused, in depth and meaningful discussions. For example, one might have to scan through dozens, sometimes hundreds messages daily on scc in order to find a few messages worth of reading. That's the first reason for many people to subscribe CCF, where one could not indulge him/herself in the luxury to see his/her writings be broadcast to thousands of readers at a touch of a key, but in return he/she does not have to waste a lot of precious time in digging out a few jewels from the huge piles of network junks. Once a reader starts to subscribe CCF, he/she will find that the discussions on "hot topics" as well as new issues flow continuously, which is another contrast to the sporadic pattern typically manifested on "free nets". The "depth of discussion" could not happen in one shot. It has to be built upon accumulation. Continuity means that people do not have to repeat on the same topic with the same arguments at the same level over and over again. 5. How did CCF begin? The beginning of CCF was closely related to the history of China-Net. China-Net was one of the first large scale coordinating network among Chinese students and scholars (CSS). It has contributed a great deal in mobilization and coordination of CSS activities since 1989. Due to the establishment of many organizational networks, the role of China-Net as THE network among CSS as subsided. (There have been some research done on Chinese computer networks such as CND and China-Net. Therefore, I will not elaborate further here) The China-Net Management Committee (CNMC) decided to change the net from a free-net into a moderated net on September 1, 1993. A few new volunteers started CCF at the same time as the main communication vehicle on China-Net. The number of subscribers of China-Net at that time was around 1,000. 6. How is it staffed? Currently, there are 21 members (all volunteers) in CNMC. 18 of them volunteer to the Editorial Board of CCF (EBCCF) which is directly responsible for publishing CCF. The rest CNMC members and some ccf editors form the technical support group of China-Net. The editors in EBCCF take turns in monthly terms to serve on the Executive Editor (EE) or Executive Moderator (EM) position. EE is mainly responsible for compiling the source materials and editing them into issues of CCF; EM is mainly responsible for scrutinizing incoming messages and classifying them into different categories: Some will be used by CCF, some will be forwarded to China-Net, some will be returned to authors. 7. What potential is there for this type of media in the PRC? First, electronic network is the future of media. Here is an excerpt from the Editorial of CCF on March 16, 1994, in celebration of CND's fifth anniversary: "The development of communication media has had profound impacts on the development of the whole human civilization. Telling stories about events not happened on site and at the moment were probably the most distinct characteristic of human nature which separated and drove our ancestors from the animal world. The invention of written language provided the means to code the civilization and pass it on beyond generation barrier, which coincided with the births of those which we call today as "the ancient civilizations" around the world. The spread use of printing was one of the technological cornerstones of the social revolutions since Renaissance. The birth of national states and modern democracy would be impossible without newspaper. The popularization of television has been attributed as one of the key factors led to the recent "wave of liberalization" around the world. Now we are witnessing again another technological revolution which will eventually merge together all forms of media human has ever invented: Voice, text, music, and picture, in an almost real-time fashion (i.e. no or very little delay) through the virtual land of cyberspace which knows no boundary in real space on the Earth. What would be its impacts on community and society is hard to overestimate. "The network association among CSS symbolized by CND has created a new dimension of our community. Actually, due to the lack of the community development before 1989, this has been the major dimension of our community. Although computer network is now mainly accessible only by CSS in educational institutions and national laboratories, where CND also draws the major portion of its readers, the expansion of the network to the entire society is only a matter of time. "It has been said that the virtual world of the netland "is not real" and some associations initiated through network are "going out of e-mail network". Well, maybe not long from now we will realize that going to netland is not escape from reality but "escape into the reality (a phrase from I. Asimov)", the imminent reality." In addition to the technological aspect, we are also trying to promote the dialogues among people with different views on various political, economic, social and cultural issues. We hope that by changing "multimonologues" frequently seen in discussions among Chinese into dialogue, a better communication can be established. We believe that good communication is essential to the development of our community. Although the development of computer network in China is still in its infant stage, the prospect of fast growth is within the scene of near future. As the "hardware" of network media develops, China definitely needs accompanying "software" to utilize the network to serve its integral social development. The experiences gained here on news media (e.g. CND) and discussion forum (e.g. CCF) will be very beneficial. 8. As I understand it China-net has many components; CCF is one. What are the others? In addition to CCF, we have CCI (Chinese Consumer Information) and CCB (Chinese Community Bulletin), both are irregular publications by EBCCF. CCI is for exchange of consumer informations such as surveying on airline services; CCB collects messages sent to the net which are not included in CCF publications, but have some value of general interest to the community. 9. Where do the stories in CCF come from? Are they all submitted by readers? Do some of them come from Networking in China? They are mostly written by the readers and editors of CCF. So far we have not established connection with the network in China, but it is certainly on our agenda. Besides these journals published by EBCCF, representatives from organizations in the community could also register for Direct Posting Privilege (DPP). At the moment, there are about 20 DPPs registered in China-Net, they represent organizations like IFCSS, CAL, ACP, etc., and some of their public liaison groups. DPP is mainly for the exchange of coordination information of these organizations. The messages posted from a DPP account must bear the signature of the liaison officer or the organization, and must be related to the activities of the organization and not contain commercial promotions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. China-Net Readership Update.....................................EBCCF 25 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Editor's note: These data do not include those accessing CCF via anonymous ftp or gopher) DATE SUB# Chart: Subscriptions vs. Time ~~~~ ~~~~ 04/25/94 3164 04/10/94 3177 03/23/94 3249 03/10/94 3299 03/02/94 3319 4000 - 02/18/94 3337 | 02/12/94 3408 | * 02/02/94 3381 | * * ** * * * 01/19/94 2321 3000 - 01/13/94 2316 | 12/08/93 2319 | 11/30/93 2285 | * ** 11/22/93 2236 2000 - * ** 11/11/93 2082 | ** * 10/27/93 1880 | **** 10/12/93 1779 | * 10/09/93 1754 1000 - 10/05/93 1624 | * 09/27/93 1620 | 09/20/93 1512 | 09/15/93 1442 0 +-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----| 09/12/93 1408 Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr 08/10/93 954 (Data provided by Ning Luo) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Main Topics in Past CCF Issues .................................EBCCF 45 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) From the Year of 1993: 9/1 Opening issue: Community and Society; Windows to China 9/8 Olympic 2000 in Beijing? Pros and Cons 9/15 IFCSS: Today and tomorrow (1); Windows to China 9/22 IFCSS: Today and tomorrow (2); Community and Society 9/24 China Lost Olympic Bidding (1): Responses 9/29 CSPA and Its Impact 10/6 China Lost Olympic Bidding (2): After Thoughts 10/13 IFCSS and local CSSA 10/20 Russian Revolution 10/27 IFCSS and local CSSA 11/3 Russia's Crisis and Russia's Future 11/8 Trails of the Former Eastern Bloc 11/10 Voices from the Net of Presidents of CSSA 11/11 Is Corruption Not Necessarily a Bad Thing 11/12 APEC Meeting in Seattle 11/14 Asia Survey (I): A Billion Consumers 11/16 The 1.5 Cultural Shock (I) 11/17 From NAFTA to APEC 11/21 Asia Survey (II) 11/23 Progress Report on IFCSS Financial Inspection 11/24 Dialogue on Development of a Country: Econ. vs Political and Social 11/28 Rise of China 12/1 China Watch: Tax and Financial Reform 12/3 The 1.5 Cultural Shock (II); Readers' Comments 12/8 IFCSS Activities: Financial Management 12/10 China Watch: Deal with China 12/15 Human Rights: Universal or Idiosyncratic? 12/18 China Watch 12/21 Human Rights (II); Readers' Comments 12/22 Mao Zedong and China (2) From the Year of 1994: 1/12 Life in Foreign Lands 1/19 IFCSS Activities: Financial Matters 1/26 Chinese Community and Society: Email Networking; Life in U.S. 2/2 The legacy of Mao and Modern China 2/3 2/9 Chinese Festival Customs; China and International Affairs 2/13 China's Economy in the New Year 2/18 IFCSS: Today and Tomorrow (III); Life in a Foreign Land 2/23 Sino-US Relations; Future of Taiwan and Hong Kong. 3/2 East & West; Trade & Politics 3/6 WE: East & West; Trade and Politics 3/9 IFCSS, MFN & CSS; Trade & Politics 3/16 Trade & Politics; IFCSS & Chinese community 3/20 China and US: MFN Issue 3/23 Trade & Politics; China Watch: A New Constitution? 3/30 U.S. Foreign Policy and MFN for China 4/6 East-West Culture: Interview With Lee Kuan Yew 4/13 East-West Culture: Political Education in the U.S. 4/20 East-West Culture; Politics and Trade 4/23 East-West Culture and Politics 4/27 To Cane or Not to Cane: a Case Study; Chinese Politics ===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***=========== 6. A Thought on CCF............................................Anzhi Lai 94 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is interesting to witness the back-and-forth's among our 'experienced' IFCSS veterans on the issue of professionalization of news groups in general. Although I am very tired of a lot of senseless arguments about IFCSS, CCC, TEMPO, CND, CCF, and so on, I do feel want to say something about this issue, which I hope will not be regarded as targeting at any particular individual or group, although I do have some criticism towards certain things in a most general sense. I have been a reader of both CND and CCF from their births. I very much respect the dedication of these two new groups for that the workers are all volunteers. In the case of CND, I believe the tasks are relatively simpler -- airing news, which by a large sense is easier to be neutral or objective, although there is no such a thing of ABSOLUTELY neutral in the world when we talk about news media. In the case of CCF, since it is a FORUM by nature, it would be relatively harder to keep a neutral stance. I am not surprised at all to see it being biased towards one side or another. However, I want to point out the following: if a forum really wants to attract readers (and writers as well), it will have to at least try to "hide" its editorial board's inclination. Also, it should try as much as it can to give all sides equal volume, needless to say to try to present things that are as close to fact as possible. I do see a lack of balance in this regard on the CCF. I roughly estimated the volumes that the CCF allocated to different sides -- by side I mean the side favored/unfavored by the CCF editorial board or a particular CCF editor (we actually know the inclination of the CCF EB on a lot of issues, otherwise it does not make sense to talk about being favored/unfavored, but please be assured that I am not commenting whether the inclination of the CCF EB is wrong or not) -- it is about 85:15 towards the EB's favour. I am not saying that this is an accurate number (different people may have different classifications), but it would definitely ring a bell in my ears if I were working in the EB even if the ratio is 65:35. I would ask myself a question: how much more attraction can we keep to our readers and writers? In fact, I do see such a problem with the CCF. Just look at the authors of those articles on the CCF, the portion of the CSS is getting smaller and smaller, and the articles are getting more and more monochromatic, which makes me wonder how much longer we can still call it a Chinese (and) Community Forum. I have also another comment. We all know that the most effective means of an editor to impress the readers is his/her way of editing. In this regard, I think that the CCF's editing needs improvement. Let me give an example. Quite some time ago (don't remember exactly when, may be towards the end of 1993), CCF carried an article by Luo Ning about the CSPA campaign, in which he started from the "Round Table Meeting" of the IFCSS in 1992. After reading that article, I felt that it lacked fairness, and then wrote an article at once trying to give the readers another angle of view. My contribution was not carried for quite a long time, which I did not feel too much of anything at all because I recognize the right of editing although I hoped that my article would be carried. The surprise to me was that the CCF carried eventually -- after this year's "Round Table Meeting" of the IFCSS. This should not be such a big issue either, but what annoyed me was that my article was put after another article of Luo Ning (This probably has nothing to do with Luo Ning), in which he talked about "Round Table Meeting" once more, meaning this year's RTM, the same words that I used to talk about the RTM two years ago in my contribution in response to the aforementioned article. This certainly left the readers in complete confusion. I showed the whole package to someone here. He went through and said to me afterwards, "Either I am confused or you are. It seems that you were talking about completely different things than what the other (Luo Ning) talked about. I guess you do not have better ways to kill time, don't you?". Personally, I did not expect at all that the CCF would in a few months later carry such an old article of mine, which had its particular time-sensitive topic. On the other hand, the way it carried it could hardly be called professional or fair for the confusion it caused. This example showed a need of improving her techniques of editing in the CCF. I have actually forgot about this until now -- people are talking about the CCF again --, and I really do not care much about this at all, but, things like this could well be interpreted otherwise if it happened to someone else. It is my hope that the CCF editors will be more careful in editing as well as checking out facts. There is another issue related to 'Spy Hunting' type of things. I certainly do not like the languages such as 'Da3 Zhe2 Hong2 Qi2 Fan3 Hong2 Qi2', and I do suggest Qingsong avoid using this kind of language in the future. Also, I do not think that to call the opposition to the IFCSS on some particular issues an 'anti-IFCSS mentality' is a good thing to do. But I also feel that to relate these statements to 'Spy Hunting' is too much of an imagination. The term 'Spy Hunting' has its unique background, which should not be taken so sensitively when facing criticism -- just compare the languages we see so often in various places (including in the CCF) criticizing the IFCSS (such as Han4 Jian1, Mai4 Guo2 Zei2, power and money hunger people, etc), one would know how mild the aforementioned terms are, and yet I did not see those associated with the so-called 'radical' faction of the the IFCSS were so sensitive (maybe they are too insensitive) to relate these terms to 'Violence Hunting', which existed as long as the 'Spy Hunting' did in the short history of the IFCSS. If we say that the IFCSS should be subjected to 'public scrutiny', then any other groups that provide services to and in one way or another have impact on the public should also be subjected to 'public scrutiny'. 'Public scrutiny' is 'public scrutiny'. It could be very hard to listen to (Nan2 Ting1) and extremely relentless. I suggest those who run some public services learn something from those 'dirty' US politicians in how to deal with the 'public scrutiny'. What I see is this: They usually take easy with the 'public scrutiny' unless it distorts the fact. Too sensitive is as unhelpful as too insensitive, that is to say that Lao3 Hu3 Pi4 Gu3 Mo1 Bu4 De is as bad as San1 Gun4 Zi3 Da3 Bu4 Chu1 Yi2 Ge4 Pi4 Lai2; the latter has been said to be the feature of the IFCSS. (Received: 21-APR-1994) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Support Re-Opening China-net..............................Ming Cheng 50 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a reader and writer for China-net for many years, I strongly support re-opening China-net with minor and necessary control. Before the net has been patrolled, I was a very active netter, and had received many positive responses for my posts. I was even called for an interview by an US magazine after they read one of my posts. Occasionally, I also posted for local, or even for nation-wide organizations. I was first one in China-net to call national attention to the trial on Wang JunTao and Chen Ziming when I was asked to take care of IFCSS e-mails temporarily when most IFCSS officers visited USSR. When China-net reformed, I was supporting the idea to limit the traffic of the net because at that time the net was full of personal posts causing many complaints from national-wide. After the posts sent to the net have been screened, I witnessed that the quality of the posts have come up to advanced level, particularly in literary respect. On the other hand, I also noticed some liberal posters have left the China-net. Eddie may be an example. As any other things in the universe, the patroller have to make balance between the freedom and the restriction dynamically. There is no perfect point at anywhere for good. When all articles in a publication become perfect, the publication is dead as all articles are trash. A very famous physicist has said, 90% papers in Physical Review are garbage. But if you do not allow these 90% garbage published, you will definitely lost the other 10% essence, because you never know My recent experience with China-net makes me more prefer an opening China-net. The first letter I sent to China-net after China-net reformed was dismissed without any reason until I protested. Though I believe that this is an individual incident, I even will not argue if someone says that my letter is very trivial or stupid one which is not worth to be paid any attention. But it is more obvious that not paying attention to a trivial letter may hurt China-net much more than allowing the letter to be published. I believe that it is better for China-net if it is a place where people educate themselves instead of a classroom where the editors educate the readers by selecting what they should read, though I fully admit the knowledge and dedication of all editors of China-net. Some of them even are my long time friends and I really take them as my teachers. Finally, let me thank the editor for attention they paid to my suggestion of opening China-net. I would like to share a quotation with all of you. "Nobody will listen to you unless he knows that it is his turn next." --- Ed Howe" (Received: 25-APR-1994) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Open vs. Closed China-Net....................................Mi Mi Sr. 13 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although I have the post privilege on China-net, as a leader of lads-l, I am not willing to post to China-net as I would at lads-l. My experience with lads-l tells me that if the audience is not confined to a certain group with the same interest, than opening the post privilege would soon lead the net to nowhere. Lads-l adopted open net policy, and lives will with this, just because the common interest is well defined as lads-related. I do not believe a net such as China-Net with much more diversified audience would do any good with open net policy. Thus, I vote for close net policy. Freedom of speech and post is cherished, however, forcing everyone on the net to sort through endless irrelevant messages will surely drive many out of the audience, which makes the freedom nonsense since nobody is listening. A moderated net will attract more netters, and let your relevant messages be heard. (Received: 27-APR-1994) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Moderated or Unmoderated?..................................Diane Chen 18 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd like to add my 'vote' on whether this list stays moderated or becomes unmoderated. I definitely would not like it to be opened up so that anybody can send messages to the whole mail list whenever they want. The way it is now, I get the information in one 'packet', so to speak. It's always well-organized, and I can skim the 'table of contents' for articles I want to read immediately or just save it for reading later when I have more free time. I trust the moderators to include relevant contributions and I think they do a good job. It does not clog my mailbox with lots of incoming mails, and I can just skip it, but leave it in my mailbox, when I don't have time to read it right away (which is most of the time). I also can tell what it is from the subject line, and can distinguish it from business mail, which unfortunately must take higher priority during the workday. I would probably quit the list if it became open to anybody, because it would just become too many e-mails. (Received: 27-APR-1994) +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++ + Executive Editor: Huang Tang Executive Moderator: Will Yang + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + For subscription: mail "SUB CHINA-NT Your-First-Name Your-Last-Name" + + to LISTSERV@UGA (bitnet) or listserv@uga.cc.uga.edu (internet) + + For unsubscription: mail "UNSUB CHINA-NT" to the above e-address + + For back issues of CCF: + + anonymous ftp to: cnd.org[132.249.229.100]: pub/community/CCF + + gopher to cnd.org: 2. English Menu --> 13. Community --> 1. ccf + + For contribution and inquiry: mail to ccf-editor@ifcss.org + +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++