All of us are interested in documenting any Y2K effects, latent or otherwise, but I am appalled at the lack of details given in the supposed "events". Many posters refuse to disclose their names, or the names of the companies having the Y2K problems. I can understand this (to a point), HOWEVER must we beg for details such as the City and State where the problem is being reported?

Posters, please provide some identification to the reported problems, such as the city and state. I read posts here and I'm clueless to what part of the United States (or otherwise) these events might be happening.

I hear of trains not running, but where? Companies having computer glitches, but where? What state or city might this be? Doors don't open, erroneous bills are being sent / received, but where? Over and over agan, forum posters post excrutiatingly small details of the events now transpiring.

Please try to include some useful and potentially verifiable information. Many of us are attempting to document what is occurring and the lack of information in some posts in appalling.

I would also encourage everyone to provide a link to any articles referenced if at all possible. The basic Net etiquette rules apply here as well. Don't make us guess, give your report more credibility by providing details and links that support your report.

-- Lurking (lifeofliberty@yahoo.com), January 03, 2000

Answers

Lurking- Couldn't agree more. Unsubstantiated rumors and stories about events without identification of the location where they occurred are wasting our time. I am wondering why some people believe there is value to such reports? On the other hand, I want to thank everyone who has had the courage to report events and to identify their circumstances. That is the courage that makes this board priceless, and different from the mainstream media. Ursula.

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), January 03, 2000.

Has it struck anyone as strange that the majority of these sometimes rather vague reports for today have come from America? I mean, where are the detailings of similar problems from overseas? I've heard practically nothing from Asia outside of the India power surge report. Europe, about two or three odd quirks at most today. Latin America, Central America, Africa, Russia even? Not a word that I can immediately recall. America, meanwhile, appears to be ridden with signs of imminent collapse. Now, I'll accept that this board is perhaps primarily meant to be a USAcentric locale by semi-default, but even so, it seems to me that while here people are tracking down any and all last report and passing it on ASAP, just about every other industrial country has little to offer in comparison, while most other places have nothing to say, period. This may seem therefore to confirm to some that Something Is Wrong Here -- but I have to look at all this and also ask, isn't it possible that what we are seeing is yet another instance of the near-unique American tradition of holding officialdom utterly suspect? This isn't the first time when something with such national attention has been viewed this way, and it won't be last. I'm glad, actually, that officialdom *is* held utterly suspect in many ways. Keeps the focus and the pressure on in even the smallest of ways -- but it can easily become its own self-fulfilling prophecy at the same time. I gots ta wonder...

-- Ned Raggett (ned@kuci.org), January 04, 2000.

Well, there is the language barrier.

Otherwise, I'd just give it some time. It's still Monday. Many similar glitches and Y2K-related disruptions have been fully covered in the maintream press in, for example, Britain. There were those 200,000 credit-card swipers that malfunctioned right after Christmas ... got full coverage in the papers over there and here too. Old Git evidently scans the UK websites and posts full length articles of substance. But we seeem to have lost Colin MacDonald and only get an occasional hey-ho from Risteard Macthomais.

-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), January 04, 2000.

There are some Y2K problems - mostly aesthetic. PCBoard BBSs do not show the date message was read time correctly. There had also been a problem in that no subscriptioon could expire past Dec 31, 1999 if the time was before that.

So the SYSOP expired everyone on Dec. 31, 1999 and after that it had to be resat manually on the MOONDOG.BBS

-- clepgrebo (sammy.finkelman@moondog.com), January 04, 2000.

I know for a fact that a "large" insurrance company in Washington State has been testing their "systems" for the last 2 days.. all of the "other" employees are to call in the morning to see if they have to come in..... They will :-) some minor "security" issues are all they found.

-- Netghost (ng@no.yr), January 04, 2000.

Fair point on the language barrier, Squirrel. Still, I'm also thinking of places with strong English-language prescences or notable English-language press outlets. Japan, the Phillipines, Hong Kong and Singapore all fall into this category (India as well, natch). They're currently into their first or second day of active work now -- not a thing to hear about or report from any of those locales? *shrug* Anyone know?

-- Ned Raggett (ned@kuci.org), January 04, 2000.

NB: Monday (Jan3) was a holiday in the UK. Today (Tuesday) is the first day of real business there.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), January 04, 2000.