So, Ziff-Davis publishes another bullshirt piece on Y2k (from our old buddy Mitch RatsAss), and you all howl about it (see the thread at http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000YX4).

Will you folks PLEEEEEZE quit feeding the Ziff-Davis troll! If you would just boycott their freakin' site, they'll quit writing this drivel and maybe, just maybe, fire Ratsass. I repeat that the ONLY REASON THEY DO THIS STUFF is because they KNOW it will draw repeat advertising hits from all the Yourdonites. ZD would KILL for the kind of traffic that this forum receives.

ZDNet is baiting you. Quit falling for it. Boycott ZDNet.

-- Jelly Bean (jelly@belly.com), March 01, 1999

Answers

Omygod: it never occurred to me that I was actually generating revenue for our erstwhile friends at ZD. I had to visit their web site to find Ratcliffe's article, as did my daughter. Geez, that probably generated enough revenue to feed him a few more peanuts.

I get lots of flame-mail from people every day, including angry journalists, and I don't answer most of it. But Ratcliffe had apparently created enough of a veneer of intellectual credibility in his first piece that a lot of people emailed to me in a state of confusion. They may still be confused (and Ratcliffe may still be munching on the peanuts that our web-hits purchased for him), but I do hope that Jennifer and I were able to communicate our disagreemtn with his perspective sufficiently well to clear up the confusion on the part of the various forum-lurkers who contacted us.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), March 01, 1999.

Good point, and good idea. Just about everytime I see Declan post something here, I think the same thing...

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), March 01, 1999.

Thanks for pointing that out Jelly Bean, I refuse to enter such irresponsible sites, especially when they are commercial and get revenues from the hits.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 01, 1999.

JB, would you post an occasional reminder, please? First-time posters here must be increasing every day.

-- Forgetful Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), March 01, 1999.

Ed, your efforts were definitely not wasted!! Both your essays and your daughters were masterpieces. I had printed them out and what do you know, my hard-skulled hubby read them and was impressed at the rebutals (many of his own rebutals to mine were of the Ratcliff type.) Hubby isn't stupid, just hard-headed. He recognized your expertise and professionalism. No comparison with Ratcliff.

So I for one owe you big and I'm very grateful! Let Ratcliff have his peanuts and enjoy them while he can, he'll remember them and drool next year.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 01, 1999.