From: IN%"[email-masked]" "Tang, Huang (UH-Chem)" 4-MAY-1994 15:26:51.99
To: IN%"[email-masked]"

Hi, Yungui and others,

Thanks for your compliments.  Now come to my past experience, I have little
to share, because I learn these operations from you guys, esp. when I was
EM.  I'll write down whatever my stream of consciousness flow onto the
screen :-)

In my month long editing experience, I think one important thing is to try
to inform the contributor for any changes you made in his/her article.  That
will make a good communication between editor and reader/writer, even for
someone you don't like.  I have received some mails which any editor will
love to read (I forwarded some to you guys but not all).  I had a bad habit
for not Cc-ing my replies to authors back to you guys (I changed lately). 
Sometimes it's better not to send a standardized message.  Send a personal
acceptance message will be better IMO, though you can have standard one and
changes here and there to different persons.  This COMES after you are sure
that the article will come out.  (I remembered one time I sent a letter to
CCF; after soemtimes I saw it on CCF but nobody informed me. If I saw it that
way, I would have said it differently.  I don't mean to be personal to any
fella editors.  Just an illustration).  This is important because I guess
everybody has a second thought on what he/she wrote.  Thus give a chance for
them to revise, as Mi Mi Sr. said, even you are very satisfied with them.

Second thing is: always double check whatever you wrote.  I have also
another bad habbit: I'm very impatient to check my own writing, even though
I check other people's carefully.  I'll never forget what I felt after
reading thecriticism about "evoke/revoke"  Had I double-checked it, I
wouldn't have chance to feel embarrased about it.  That's a loud slap in my
face.

I also learnt that as an editor, try to be low profile in treating some
controversial issues.  What I mean is not to get involved personally.  I
didn't learn it after I made some mistakes (I wish I hadn't written that
piece to IFCSS' networks;  it doesn't help in anything). 

Always put the mails/messages you want to use in store for next issues.  Try
to put out the edition as early as possible.  Whenever I sent out 1th draft
on Won. or so, I always got low output for picks :-)

From my own experience, I like our fellow editors to be picky.  The picks
should not only in wording, but also on the overall design/ideas.  Maybe
because we are Chinese, and we know too well how not to pick on someone too
much, I feel sometimes our editors bypass some not-so-good stuff even we
knew it.  Soemtimes when I'm inert to do further changes, I like someone to
tell me "Hey, this ain't right! You better change this to bla bla bla..."
That is, candid pin-pointing works better for me.  That's why I from time to
time call for participations/ideas/pick.

The harder picking is good for CCF.  Whenever something wrong to CCF,
readers don't just see EE or EM, rather take EBCCF or CCF as a whole.  They
never say: "That editor is lowsy", but rather "CCF is a lowsy magazine".
Hopefully this thing won't happen :-)

Again, I reiterate my proposal for setting two accounts fro CCF: one is
ccf-editor for contribution; the other is ccf-internal for the board.  Is it
difficult to implement?  We have similar thing for cnd, China-net, etc.  We
can borrow from.

Have I said all negative things (I don't wanna check :-)  If we avoid
mistakes, we make progress :-)

This stream is getting way too long :-) 

Happy editing...

                                   Tang, Huang

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Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 18:28:54 -0600
From: [email-masked] (Baixiong Tu) ==> XU Yingyin temp. address
To: [email-masked]

Hello, My friends and colleagues,

How are you all and how is CCF doing?  I recall ending my term as EE
quite "promotly", and abruptly too, at the end of May.  Hope it hasn't
caused any inconvenience for the succeeding EE and Assistant EE -- 
Cheng Ming, have you been promoted to EE yet?  I still remember the long
list of errors you picked up from the CCF drafts which really put my 
negligence to shame.  And that certainly speaks strongly for your 
dedication and your potential as an editor.  

Can anyone tell me what is new in CCF?  I am dying for news in and out
of CCF; out here in Montana, I feel my existence is so wretchedly insulated
even if I dutifully watch TV everyday.  After all a pastoral life lacks
the diversity and excitement of a cosmopolitan.  It just occurred to me 
that if we have CCF we can live far away from a geographical cosmopolitan.
This may sound laughable to those uninformed, but to me it has a ring of 
truth.  I have long wanted to say that the short period I worked as an EE 
was extremely fruitful and rewarding.  With my eyes glued to the screen 
for five to six consecutive hours every afternoon, with my consciousness
oblivious to the rumbling and grumbling noise of the powerful AC in the 
computer lab, with my concentration enhanced by the space absolutely vacant
except for my own presence, I felt my mind and my intellect reached their
(though I am not sure if I can treat them as two separate entities) maximum 
productivity.  As an EE, the least I have to do is to grind out a slick 
passage of FTE that has the appearance of effortlessness.  Yet somehow
it is the most anxiety-inducing part of the job, though invariably ideas,
distinct, fully articulated, would emerge out of the nebulous cloud or 
muddle that has been forming at the back of my mind even while it is
oppressive and obstrusive.  However, the EE term is not a one-man show; 
one has to work in a supportive, friendly, nourishing environment that is
conducive and constructive to the intellect.  Correspondence with and 
feedback from other temporarily off-duty editors have provided me such an
environment, for which I am VERY grateful.  At no other time in my life have
I experienced so acutely the unadulterated team-work spirit.  For one thing,
it draws out the best performative instinct or potential in an individual;
it forces one to go public, and subsequently to "show off", or to excell.

Let this be a reflection that barely "wraps up" my term.   Sorry it is such
a belated one.  Changqing, I owe you this, and many more.  I will not discuss 
the technical details of actually editing each weekly issue, for here my 
words will carry the least weight, and I have been heavily indebted to 
Changqing and Yaxin all along.  

Weihe, could you please add my temporary e-mail address to the EBCCF?  It is
"[email-masked]".  This is a friend's account, but he never uses it, so 
it is confidential enough.  I would like to sign on now.  Thanks.

I am happy to see you all again.

Yingyin
6/16/94 from Missoula, MT

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