In Life, Be Careful with Your Words and Actions

Yesterday I used a traffic voucher Zhihu gave me to add two thousand impressions to my answer to “What Should We Make of the United States Having a Literacy Rate of Only 79%?” I published that answer on November 22, exactly a month ago. Over that month, however, it received almost no traffic, and its upvotes were only in double digits.

Unexpectedly, the exposure generated a strong response and triggered the system's traffic mechanism. In just two days, the answer went from a few dozen upvotes to eight hundred, and most comments were positive. This made me very happy.

If I stayed off my phone for a few hours, I would come back to 99+ notifications.

Yet this wave of traffic abruptly stopped at around 3 p.m. today. From my account, the answer had not been deleted, but other users could no longer see it. Opening the answer's link brought up only “a wilderness of knowledge.”

Since I received no violation notice from Zhihu, I judged that the answer had probably been hidden because it mentioned minor errors made by Ms. Hua and Mr. Mu. Quite a few people in the comments had also been rather unfriendly toward the two of them.

I asked myself whether I had said anything excessive. I had merely discussed the matter itself and pointed out a few flaws, and had even defended their reputations in the comments. After all, everyone makes mistakes, and there is nothing unusual about occasionally speaking imprecisely. They are, of course, humble and tolerant people; how could they hold something against a junior like me?

Zhihu probably was not deliberately targeting me either. Some comments did present risks, and they did not want trouble.

So I collapsed all the unfriendly comments on the answer, closed its comments section, and removed the two names from the text. I hope Zhihu's reviewers will approve it.

Of course, I am not holding out much hope. I will treat it as a lesson. From now on I must be even more cautious, as though standing at the edge of an abyss or walking on thin ice.

At a minimum, I should do the following:

1 Speak more well of others and less ill of them. Even when negative information about someone must be mentioned, avoid naming them if possible and leave them some dignity.

2 Promote more positive energy rather than negative views and attitudes. Even when mentioning problems in development, emphasize that the road is winding but the future is bright.

3 Do not leave the comments fully open on highly controversial articles. Normal discussion can be allowed, as can views on both sides, but any personal attacks should be withheld from display.

I see this as taking a step back to move forward. If I lose my account, I cannot publish anything at all. I must respect the rules of the game, leave others their dignity, avoid embarrassing them, and let everyone gain something. Only then can I keep writing over the long term.

I also believe that as long as I handle these sensitive remarks appropriately, I can pursue the truth while satisfying the state, the platform, and my readers. Everyone can get what they need and achieve a win-win result.

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