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Back to the Forum Archives Meanwhile, I would like to introduce everyone to our new column. We call it the Forum. We want that to mean just what it sounds like. It is a place where people can express their ideas, theories, and thoughts on a variety of subjects. All of us here will probably contribute to the Forum. The Gaffer often has things to say which do not fit directly into his philosophy series. In addition, Evie is sure to have a contribution or two as will I. Beyond the home grown stuff, we hope there will guest editorials and essays to post in this spot. For that, it is necessary to outline the criterion for works that we can consider for posting. I do not like rules myself and I am reluctant to impose very much in the way of rules. Let's keep it simple. First, my website's most basic philosophy must apply. I will not post anything on this site that I would not want my grandchildren to see. That is nothing more than common sense and human decency. Besides, in communication foul language is not particularly effective, nor is titillation. For those who want to offer contributions, it may help to read our full web philosophy. Other than that, no subject matter can be considered out of bounds. We must simply pay attention to common ethical practices. It is not wise nor effective to present arguments which are excessively personal or derogatory. We do have laws concerning libel and slander. Here is a definition from Microsoft's Bookshelf. Libel and slander, in tort law, two forms of defamation (unjustified disparagement of the good name and reputation of an individual). Defamation is classed as libel when it is in some permanent form, such as writing or a picture; when it is oral, it is classed as slander. In both cases, it must be revealed to a third party. A statement is generally not defamatory if it is true, but under some statutes a defendant must prove good motives in the utterance. Certain privileged situations (e.g., testimony in a court of law) shield a defamer from liability. The usual remedy for defamation is monetary damages. We should always keep these laws in mind when we write or speak. As to the size of essays, we must consider the time and attention span of the people who are reading our stuff. We hope they are thoughtful people who have a lot to do. They want to see stuff which will stimulate their imagination and later their conversation. However, being healthy busy people, they have limited time for reading, especially reading from a monitor. I have found that an essay of from 750 to 2000 words makes a nice read. That's about one and a half to four normal 50 line pages. When we think of the readability of a piece, we must consider the rules of good written communication. We never use multi-syllable words just to impress people. They do not impress thoughtful folks. Also, long sentences and paragraphs will just make our readers tired. Here are the rules of thumb. Keep the average sentence size below 16 words. By average, I mean just that. It is perfectly acceptable to have an occasional long sentence, so long as it is coherent. What we want to avoid are those rambling sentences that are so long the reader forgot the subject by the time he got to the end of it. Keep the average word size to around 7 characters. It is also a good idea to have frequent paragraph breaks. Our readers need to rest their eyes. These things will make our work easily readable for reasonably literate people. Submissions must also be in a format I can deal with. The point is, it must be in an electronic form so my computer can accept it. I have found rich text to be a good format for this. Most word processors can export and read it. Beyond the format, I will expect contributions to be reasonably logical and well structure. Pointless rambling will turn me away quickly. Also, I will not even look at stuff that has to be edited. A decent word processor will check spelling. Good syntax creation is a matter of practice. I am not a teacher and I do not have time to criticize or correct careless writing. Careless writing, I have noticed, has become an epidemic with the growth of e-mail. I have no idea why people have the notion that carefulness does not matter. It matters a great deal if our intention is to communicate. Nevertheless, I regularly get e-mails and solicitations which are singularly unreadable because they were dashed off instead of being written. If it is worth communicating, it is worth the effort to make it comprehensible. Otherwise, why bother? As to recompense, no one here gets paid and we have no resources for buying material. Those who submit to Wesoomi must be satisfied to see their work posted at our site. If you need to be paid for your work, send it to someone who can pay. Wesoomi cannot. Finally, we do not want or expect people to agree with our politics or philosophies. Don't pander to us. If you like some of the things we are doing, by all means, send us an e-mail and say so. We will treasure it, but we will not post it. I deplore publications that print that kind of twaddle. They solicit inputs then print only the positive ones. You know darn well the get the other kind too, probably more often. At the same time, it is not necessary to pick a fight with us. Whatever
you write, make it about you and your values. Make it about something
important or useful. Make it interesting to read. Give us something we have
not seen before that will make us think, chuckle, laugh, cry, or even get
angry, not necessarily at you, but at what you show us. That's
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