RE: iSeries Legends

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Booth Martin
>
> By the way, the other day Joe spoke of certain points made in
> various posts as being FUD.

Actually, no I didn't, Booth, not here.  The place was RPG400-L, and the
phrase was "throwing FUD on the fire" in response to a post that was
absolutely incorrect yet presented as fact.  And I even amended my comment
to say that by "FUD" I meant that people should exercise more care today
than ever in posting "facts" without first at least doing the research.
This especially holds true on a list like RPG400-L where the syntax of the
lnaguage is in question and easily tested.  It's a little harder here where
some topics, for better or worse, are based more on opinion than hard fact.

But the point is that any time someone has an opinion with no proof yet
presents it as fact, then they are indeed casting fear, uncertainty and
doubt on the issue in question.  Unfounded opinions are the bane of our
industry, and whether initiated with malice or not, we need to stop
spreading them zand in fact need to actively and aggressively counter them.
And while I agree the term FUD was probably inappropriate since FUD does
have a certain narrow meaning (and actually was originally an anti-IBM
term), I don't think the negative connotation index was a bad thing, because
some of the crap that passes for truth on mailing lists is really quite
damaging to the industry and to especially to the end users who end up
paying for our lies, damned lies and statistics.

Joe