为纪念小东岳 请将你的user name前加C

为了表达我们对东岳小妹妹的怀念，请你在你的MSN Messenger user name 前加上C吧，如 C_wsry、C_sabrina (or X_sabrina)。以下来自The Global and Mail 的文章由网友wrsy贴在本网时事新闻论坛。

Internet users pay respects to Cecilia
By JACK KAPICA
Tuesday, March 30, 2004 - Page A9

Feeling helpless in their shock at the news of the death of Cecilia Zhang, some people have taken to expressing their sympathy on-line.

A movement has started among users of MSN Messenger, Microsoft Corp.'s chat program, to put the letter C -- for Cecilia -- or X in front of their on-line names as a tribute to the slain nine-year-old girl.

"Some people put it in brackets, others separate it with a dash but no matter how it is placed it has only one meaning: Cecilia Zhang," said University of Toronto student Feon Chau.

She said that when she returned to her dormitory Sunday night after a weekend away, she signed on to MSN Messenger, and almost all her contacts had prefaced their on-line names with the letter C.

Only hours earlier, a Toronto coroner had identified a body found in a suburban Toronto field as that of Cecilia Zhang, who had been abducted in October.

The case has received national and international attention in the traditional media, and has now taken to the Internet.

"It's a sign of respect for Cecilia," Ms. Chau said.

Rebecca Mackenzie, a third-year student of politics at Queen's University, found a variation early yesterday morning when she signed on to MSN to find that many people on her contact list had used the letter X in memory of Cecilia.

"I don't know where it started or who started it, but this message went out really eerily from person to person to change your MSN name to X in memory of Cecilia Zhang," Ms. Mackenzie said.

"It was a very spooky 21st-century communication thing as I watched the majority of the 100 people on my MSN list who live all over the country all change their names to X. I talked to a few people about it, and there was some confusion over whether people should change to a C or an X. So people did both," she said.

Vivian Kong, a third-year computer science student at the University of Toronto, found out about the movement late Sunday evening.

"When I got back home, I saw everyone on MSN with the C, like I heard the news about Cecilia earlier this evening, and I suspected that was it and so I asked my friend and he told me," she said.

Mark Williams, a student at Ryerson University in Toronto, changed his login name as early as 7:48 p.m. on Sunday.

"Lots of people have it on their names here," said Jason Stornelli, a third-year business student at the University of Western Ontario. "I just asked someone. I decided to put it on mine cause I feel terrible for that little girl and her family."

"It's just something we can do," Ms. Chau said. "It's symbolic."

This is not the first time users of MSN Messenger have used their on-line names to express their feelings on-line.

Users had placed the letter X to mark their respect for the victims of the terrorist bombings of commuter trains in Madrid on March 11.

Like the earlier MSN Messenger campaign, the commemoration of Cecilia Zhang is a grassroots movement, largely among college-aged people.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft Canada said the company has no details on when it surfaced or how many of the 120 million MSN Messenger users around the world were doing this.