Those were the days

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

At the risk of offending some of those who post these days, the archived thread to which Liberty refers below provides some compelling evidence that the quality of discourse here has declined significantly.

Folks like E. Coli, Runway Cat, Hardliner (though he still posts occasionally) and Blue Himalaya provided thoughtful, intelligent cogent insight into not only the issues, but also the intellectual underpinning so necessary for real and true argument.

That is not to say there aren't those still on the forum capable of proffering such, but their number has dwindled and been replaced in many instances by those who offer shallow reasoning handicapped by a narrow focus.

Maybe it's a natural progression that has occurred inversely proportional to the time remaining: When 500 days remained, there was plenty of time for abstruse thinking and intellectual philosophizing; with 106 days remaining, the time for polite discourse and recondite colloquy is long past.

This forum where Y2K is concerned is like the argument one hears about our republic: It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than anything else out there.

The forum is kinda' like a favorite old restaurant; it still gets a lot of traffic, but the quality of the food and service just isn't quite what it used to be.

-- Vic (Rdrunner@internetwork.net), September 16, 1999

Answers

must be under new management!

-- David Butts (dciinc@aol.com), September 16, 1999.

This is probably because the Pollys are getting more nervous and time is running out. All they have left is shallow reasoning handicapped by a narrow focus.

-- (its@coming.soon), September 16, 1999.

Vic, Amen. Chuck (the night driver) had a thread awhile back that asked, "who from the forum would you most like to meet?" At the top of my list were E. Coli, Blue Himalayan and Runway Cat. Their combined intellect (and ability with the written word) was so intimidating to me that I lurked for a long time, just reading their threads and feeling humbled. I wish them well wherever their journies have taken them.

-- RUOK (RUOK@yesiam.com), September 16, 1999.

Folks, we have knee jerk reactions on both sides.

Funny thing is, you don't have to seem reasonable in order turn out being right........

So, maybe the optimists are correct, maybe the profound pessimists are correct. I suspect the answers will be weirder than that, myself.

Back on topic, I suspect that many are here, as I am, for a bit of "community support". Much to most of the analysis has been done, we are to the point where the decisions have been made. So we snap a bit at others with opposing views. We have the "pre event" jitters. Did we guess right? Overprepare? Underprepare? Were/are we nuts?

Not necessarily a waterfall. Call it a set of rapids with MANY channels. Some may lead to Class 1 rapids, some to Class 5 (nasty, dangerous, to those who are not familiar with the rating system). Only we are not able to see where the branches lead.......

It can wear on the nerves at the end.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), September 16, 1999.


RUOK,

I felt the same way when I started lurking last winter. The eloquence is almost gone...... oh well.

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), September 16, 1999.



Wait a minute. did you guys walk through the snow barefoot back then? I would wager a guess that burnout is altering both perception and reality.

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), September 16, 1999.

When the thread split (into this, the preparation, and Humpty-Dumpty threads), most of the mindless stayed with this thread. There are still any number of frequent posters who are trying to conduct a civil, meaningful discussion.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), September 16, 1999.

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