Was this the first use of "polly" by the Y2k Doomers?

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Reg, You are a fool. That is your choice. You will be a dead fool in 2000. Continue to disbelieve everyone, worldwide. Go back to sleep. In the face of literally mountains of evidence that staggeringly devastating events are going to strike critical systems world-wide simultaneously there are really only two choices one has. First, do nothing, Second, prepare. Let's see, if I do the second and am wrong, I am still alive. If I do the first and am wrong, I am dead. There is a Darwinian element to all this.

I don't really care what you think. Your opinion is utterly without value. Y2K will kill millions. Most of them will be starry eyed Pollyannas like you. I hope you are single with no kids, you moron.

-- Will Huett (willhuett@usa.net), May 31, 1998.

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Well, see there you go demanding that Y2K problems will kill millions. It can't possibly cause a mere recession -- it is a coming dark age!!!

Meanwhile, disease, hunger, environmental poisoning, and god knows what else thrives without the y2k kooks even noticing.

If the y2k problem will cause society to collapse why isn't Ed Yourdon in the trenches fixing the problem? Supposedly, he was a mainframe programmer once so you would think he would feel a little guilty. But I guess Ed doesn't feel saving society is worthy of him getting his hands dirty?

Yes, I fear a y2k disaster. Gary North is now a regular guest on the Art Bell radio show. Art Bell's weekly show is nothing but con artist guests peddling junk to the ignorant. An appropriate place for Mr. North's fatalism.

-- Reg Smith (rrr@ibm.net), May 31, 1998.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), October 05, 2000

Answers

Is this a trick question?

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), October 05, 2000.

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0005U7

What The Experts Think

Charles Reuben. Ranking of problem: June 1998- 8.0

-- What (the@experts.thought), October 05, 2000.


RE: 8.0..........3.0 of that was the effect I thought the Doom Buzzards of Y2k were causing. Note that by mid-1999, I gave them little credence and neither did 90% plus of the American People. The REST OF THE WORLD........YAWNED.

Charles Reuben. Ranking of problem: June 1998- 8.0. August 1998- 7.2. October 1998- 7.0. December 1998- 7.0. January 1999- 6.7. February 1999- 6.7. March 1999- 5.5. April 1999- 3.5 to 4.5. May 1999- 2.0 to 3.5. June 1999- 1.5 to 2.5. July 1999- 1.0 to 2.0. August 1999- 1.0 to 1.5. September 1999- 0.9999. October 1999- 0.75. November 1999- 0.5. December 1999- 0.5. B.Sc. (Physics,Chemistry,Biology), M.A.(Mathematics), Businessman,Dallas ..programs in 9 languages has been working with Computers for 20 years..

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), October 05, 2000.


CPR, you certainly were a doom zombie until late in the game. August 98: 8.0!!! Feb 99: 6.7! (Way worse than I ever thought of being.) Maybe it was you who in a fit of extremism coined the phrase, and have forgotten about it.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), October 06, 2000.

3.0 points for the effects of the Doom Fud Merchants, ErringBoy.

-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), October 06, 2000.


What a fascinating older thread that is.

Y2K Scare Authors: Read this

The optimist who started the thread offered an article from the John Birch Society's website (!) as a reason for believing y2k was no big deal. A little later, the optimist implies Ed Yourdon was deliberately exaggerating y2k to sell his book.

One pessimist said --

I read the article. It didn't convince me not to prepare. Since the article didn't state that Y2k wouldn't be a problem, how do they know how bad it will be? They said it wouldn't be as big a problem as some experts think, but do they offer solid proof? Nope...

In fact when I try to find out information from local sources like utilities, etc. about Y2k all I get is non-answers, or no answers. Silence is a lie by omission.

At least the so called "scare mongers" seem to say they don't know exactly how bad it well be, just that people should be prepared.

Of course as this is just my opinion, and I hope I am wrong.

Another pessimist mentioned GAO reports suggesting that not everything would be fixed in time.

It's classic 'pollyanna' vs. 'doom and gloomer' several months before the terms got shortened to 'polly' and 'doomer' and the flame wars of 1999.

-- Definitely (worth@a.read), October 08, 2000.


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