A couple of days ago I posted a thread titled "Hit me like a ton of bricks", who would have believed that my little panic attack post would create so much commotion, especially from someone such as Paul Davis himself! Although Im am sure Mr Davis Site, BFI, has some very interesting topics and points to make, I am not that fimiliar with it. In fact, I have not spent that much time reading it at all. I do not discredit Mr. Davis or his opinions, because I believe that all views on a subject are worth considering, Y2K in piticuliar. But what I have seen from his site, and his postings on Yourdon's fourms, I think I have a pretty good idea where he is coming from.

Mr Davis believes that I am an established doomer, pretending to be someone else, and am out to hoodwink unsuspecting victims and suck them into Y2K hell.

I am sorry to say that I am just a bench warmer sitting on the sidelines of this debate, trying to understand and deal with the possibility of far reaching ramifications that will not only effect me, but everyone.

Unlike the posturing bulls in this pen, I am just one of the herd who is trying make the best of the situation. From some of the wonderfull responses that was left on the original thread, it struck me that alot of them were from people who do not regularly post on the forum, but people much like myself who question everything, study as much as they can, and try to make a informed decision about a very important topic. And every once in awhile, you realize why you are doing what you are doing, and its scares the hell out of you, nothing no more or no less.

Of all the debate on the subject of Y2K, pro or con, at best you can assume a 50/50 chance of something or nothing happening that will effect your life in a dramatic way. Sorry, those are odds that I feel no thinking person can just ignore. If I am wrong, so be it. We all can sit back next year and have a good laugh, no harm no foul, in fact I will welcome it. There are alot of things that I want to get done in my life, and screwing around with this stuff just take up to much of my time and resourses.

But, on the other hand, if I am correct, and the decision I have made is the correct one, I will be makeing alot less of an effort to survive, and more time living and dealing with bigger issues.

So, there you have it. No big conspericy, no eveil plot, just some poor slob reaching out to fellow members of the herd who have stopped grazing on the grass, and have lifted their heads up and are looking for possible danger on the horizion.

oboy

-- oboy (oboy@oboy.com), June 18, 1999

Answers

It is very hard to say whether Davis is a complete moron or a clever troll (sort of an unpolished Decker). I feel your pain.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), June 18, 1999.

If you had bothered to read what was posted, you would have found out something else. I think I will keep a link to this thread, just to have something to prove how Internet rumors get started.

http://206.28.81.29/HyperNews/get/gn/1304.html

Now there is the thread you are griping about! The first post is simply a repost of your thread with a simple comment that the infectious idea of TEOTW hit you pretty hard when you caught it! Pretty much what you just said, right?

I got this response.

======================================================================

Doomer plant post. Seen it a couple dozen times already

From:

When they need to "juice up" the ranks or distract from things like the NERC report, one of them posts a "scary" piece like this. I don't buy it. I havn't seen the NERC report mentioned over there yet. I wonder why.

===================================================================== My answer was:

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Actually, the Fed thread was on Yourdons yesterday.

From: Paul Davis

As usual, they are playing silly semantic games to make it sound as bad as possible. I used to bother to answer that stuff, but got tired of the constant fight. The assumptions they are making are so bad it is just silly - and they hide most of them so the fast reader will accept them without question.

The biggies here are: 1. - the govt. has no clue as to what systems are really critical and what systems aren't critical - 2. ONLY those systems identified as critical will be remediated in any way.

Simply taking note that this is 90% of the doomer defense, lets you really see the poor quality of logic on this thread.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000xRa

I did not know the other thread - catching the meme - had been around that much. It still sounds like a guy who had a mild infection suddenly going into the full blown meme.

=====================================================================

Now just how does that line up with your assumption? I told anon the Fed info was here already, and told him I did not like the logic used over here to pick at it. I ALSO told him you sounded like someone who just caught the Y2K TEOTW idea in a bad way.

See what I mean about the inaccuracy of second hand reporting? Check things out for yourself - from the primary source if possible. Various people have been caught 'editing for content' to put a negative spin on Y2K stories. This does not help anyone make up their mind about what is coming.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), June 18, 1999.

I beleive what I tried to respond to was the editorializing you made further down on your own fourm, in this you said...

I HAVE TO WONDER,

Just how many real posters there are on Yourdon's board, and how many are doomers with a dozen different names. I would give ten bucks for a print out of the IP addresses used to post on each thread, sorted by date and time of post with the handle and email used printed next to each IP. Since most people stay on line a while, it would sure show some interesting things.

Then, in a response to a thread titled:

Debunker's challenge: Davis throws down gauntlet.(Just quoteing the very last line, most of the rest are just reposting of earlier statements)

Come on Outings, you old she-troll, tell me just how many handles you have. Three? Five? This is the most trolled board on the Internet- everyone from Flint to RDHerring to myself has bemoaned that fact on occasion. And you are the worst of the bunch!

This was linked to your original "meme" posting on your fourm that had my original "ton of Bricks" thread. One would have to assume since you put your comments on this piticular thread, and not the many others you have going, that you are implying this is fake, and possibly even Outings.

So maybe this is a good example of how internet rumors start.

oboy

-- oboy (oboy@oboy.com), June 18, 1999.

I was referring to the general problem of false names and trolling over here, not you in particular. Sheesh, man, I defended you once already by saying your story sounded realistic even after anon said he had seen it before. What more do you want, egg in your beer?

-- Paul Davis (davsip1953@yahoo.com), June 18, 1999.

Paul,

Working hard for the US GOVERNMENT again this morning, I see. Does your boss know you spend a good bit of your time posting on this forum? Is this in your job description?

-- polly411 (polly@corp.eng), June 18, 1999.

Every time Paul Davis makes a post here, he is being PAID by the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT his salary as an civil servant for the Army Corp of Engineers.

Care to debate this Paul?

-- Paul's Supervisor (bossman@hq02.usace.army.mil), June 18, 1999.