Oh boy, I stirred something up. Now lets go down to business as unusual as it can be.
I got very interesting, if not to say insulting, responses to my last post. Unfortunately Vowes blog posts have not been listed in PlanetLotus since Friday. This might be a coincidence and a technical glitch or something happened in the background of PlanetLotus, everybody should probably take notice. Therefore you might want to read what was said after I got myself into this:
Friday „This is how it works.“
This is how it works
byVolker Weber
I have heard so much hyperbole about the Notes 9 posting, that I think I need to explain how this sort of thing comes along. Here is what happens:
- Somebody sends me great news.
- Since I don’t believe in miracles, I check what the chances are that the information is correct.
- When I deem the information to be correct, I ask the source whether there is a problem if I proceed. Only after that I post the information.
- When I find ambiguities later, I slipstream details in.
- When I find inaccuracies, I correct my mistakes with an Update amendment.
And that’s all there is. No politics, no tactics. Just my view of the world. Your view may be different. Just do not assume either one of us is right.
On a more personal note: By all means sling shit. Just don’t expect me to sling it back.
If this is true, and as long as it isn’t proven wrong and since I and probably most of the readers here believe in democracy we accept it as the truth at this time, this is pretty much what you do as a journalist. No bad behavior. On the other hand, if you absolutely want to find a glitch you might say: „Oh my god, there are even two leaks!“
Has there been any damage done by Volker in this case?
I quote:
I have zero complaints from IBM. A few tongue-in-cheek comments along the lines that they were wondering what took me so long, but that’s it.
Looks like none. Will there be any consequences to the Design Partner program? After all, I don’t think so, but I am certainly not sure (since I am a lower life form and not in the DP), but when I look at the whole thing (without the outrage of a few), one thought springs to mind. That could well be a professional leak. Don’t be fooled by the impression, that every leak out there is a real leak. Apple is really good at it. Would let your employees running around with a secret prototype of the next iPhone and then, accidently, it is lost in a bar? Yeah right. If Volker got two people telling him something that is apparently THE big secret, one get’s suspicious. That’s just to good to be true.
Was it really THE big secret? Well, no, as many said. If you kept attention about the various public presentations and posts, the 8.5.4 client was first a maintenance release and then came with a Social plugin. The X or 10 Notes client was discussed before, too (I am still strongly opposed to the X) and the 9 Client was something in between. Since the Social Extension (or whatever it will be called) is now integrated, the 8.5.4 client couldn’t be pure maintenance and the 9 client would have nothing new. Therefore skip the 8.5.4 and go to 9 directly is the logical choice. Many thought the same thing and when you read the responses to the post, the discussion switches pretty fast to Connections and other things. These news were no news. Who ever planned that leak, must be pretty disappointed.
Has product management a problem now? I don’t think so. The game works like this. (Look at Apple again). Start with a bit of information here and there. Just enough to keep it slightly simmering (movie – who gets the leading role), then turn up the heat slowly. Start leaking more things, start more rumors. Everybody becomes interested , but keep it in a way, that nobody is exactly sure, what is going to happen and then deliver the rest in a big bang. That is the way, how you make people turn their head in the direction you are standing. The problem is, you have to be sure, that you can deliver better (but at least equal) than what is expected. The big bang must contain a few surprises. Unfortunately, now that the rumor has been affirmed by the explosion of a few volcanoes, product management might be a bit annoyed, because the leak did not work as projected. But a problem? Na. They can still build up expectation for Notes towards Connect-o-Sphere (like that, too) and show of, when everybody is looking.
Now, I am accused of allowing Vowe wreaking havoc for the last five years, because I defend him. It does not matter what I say, it is wrong, just because I do not share the same values than others. If those values lead to censorship, yes, I don’t share the same values. In other cases, we might well have the same opinion, but since I am wrong here, I am generally an idiot. What sums it up best for me, is,
“I don’t have a ’side’—I’m responsible for what I say and nothing else.”
― Glenn Greenwald
Many times I think Volker is wrong. Sometimes I even say so. Sometimes he responds, sometimes not. That works. We don’t share mutual respect for each other or other sentimental c…., we don’t even know each other. He bores me to death with all those phone or mixed tape reviews. When he writes about biking and different bikes and accessories for his tours I just want to yell (which is bad, and therefore I don’t): „Get an old Swiss army bike. You get the double workout, for half the price AND you will never have to buy another bike“ but I will never accuse him for killing whole tribes of Notes geeks, he is just not important enough. And this is how it works. Basic politeness does the trick and he at least hasn’t been very impolite to me … yet.
If I respond to certain other members with a different view, I get stabbed in the back. That doesn’t work, but I got used to it. I probably get myself a shirt with a cross on the back and „please enter knife here“.
I truly hope, that Volker comes back on PlanetLotus, otherwise we have a real problem and that is not because Volker is important to PlanetLotus, but free speech.
PS. I probably get my blog listed on Collaboration Today 🙂
Let’s forget about the „leak“ and where it came from and whether or not it was an „intentional“ leak or not.
Regarding PlanetLotus – there is no „censorship“ at all. This is NOT a free speech issue.
Censorship imply’s the publics right to speech is being taken away or otherwise impaired by a higher authority.
PlanetLotus is a PRIVATE site. We all use it but’s it’s owned and operated by one person – Yancy Lent. I’ve met Yacy and he’s as nice a guy as there is. He’s provided a wonderful service to the Lotus Community for years. But it’s HIS site.
Volker runs his own site at vowe.net. On that site he is known for deleting comments that he doesn’t like. This is addressed in his own FAQ and he himself says it’s not censorship:
http://vowe.net/archives/005436.html with excepts here:
===
„You deleted my comment again.“
Maybe you just pissed me off. Hey, this is my site. I live here.
„This is censorship.“
No, it isn’t. Stop being a happy troll.
„But you are sooo wrong.“
Go to bed. There is always somebody wrong on the Internet.
====
Personally, I’m happy he was delisted from PlanetLotus. Again – forgetting about the leak itself. PlanetLotus is a site dedicated to the „Lotus“ community. He just produced so many non related posts for off topic product reviews and such that is was silly for him to even be on the site. Sometimes there would be like 3-4 in a row. These will push out posts that were actually related to Lotus products. Now that’s just anti-productive.
Of course there will always be off topic posts and there might even be posts by people that don’t post about Lotus much any more. It’s a community after all. But they might be from long term community members with a long history of sharing knowledge and interacting with the community.
I’ve seen people post – and I’ve no idea if it’s true – that Volker never even asked to be listed on PlanetLotus. I guess someone else requested his feed be there. So assuming that’s true and he never even asked to be there – then who even cares if he’s been delisted then? If people want to read his stuff then they can certainly subscribe to his feed directly.
Should I do the same? Nope.
Let’s just say, I don’t agree with your definition of censorship.
But if your view of PlanetLotus is true, we should also ask for the removal of that Sharepoint blog and the Turtle has written way too much about wabbits. You certainly don’t want that, no? Where do you draw the line? You will end up with a bunch of yes-persons. I don’t say removing vowe.net is illegal, but I would rather know why. Anything else leaves a bad taste and shines a bad light on Yancy Lent and everybody shooting against Volker. You can’t say you believe in democracy when privately you rather behave like a dictator.
He wasn’t delisted, if he really has been, for what he was posting. He was delisted because a bunch of people complained about his blog because they were pissed about the „leak“. The people who were most pissed about it were essentially the people with privileged access to that information. That is understandable given this economy.
For all I know, he asked to be delisted. That’s something to consider.
I’ll say that again: That’s something to consider.
From what I have read, it is very possible, maybe even probable, that nobody in the DP leaked the info. Nobody.
If I was one of the „delist him now“ crowd I might feel a little sheepish right now. Literally sheepish. There is clearly enough information around to see that this breach may not have been what it appeared to be at first glance. Too bad this stuff has to be so murky.
His removal left a bad taste in my mouth too. Sit back an look at it objectively and it is impossible to justify on any reasoned basis.
I absolutely accept that it is Yancy’s site and people on the same wavelength as Yancy will find it of great use. Personally this decision its pushing me back towards a feed reader.
You know what. Let‘s end the speculation. I will just ask them.
All I can say is, if you use a Mac or an iOS device I heartily recommend Reeder (which uses Google Reader under the covers).
That way you get to read just what you want to read 🙂
Reeder is good, as is FeeddlerPro. I really like FeeddlerPro myself.
David, you know I like you. And we allowed disagree on this.
I never asked to be listed on PL. I have no problem with being listed. But since my site is not fully Lotus, should it not be removed by the same logic? Where is the line?
Yancy was asked to remove Volkers site after some emails were sent complaining. Simple as that. Completely childish and unjustifiable.
With Paul on this. To single out Volker is playground bully tactics. I don’t agree with him some of the time, but I don’t agree with most people most of the time either.
Planet Lotus is like Fox News and MSNBC, It’s enter-news-ment. Not all news. Not all entertainment, But a mixture. If anyone does not like what he says simply use the MyPL feature to tune him (or anyone else, including me) out or go to Collaboration Today for „good news bear“ moderated „stuff“ that is all full of unicorns and rainbows.
A sad day, and even though this may not meet the technical term of censorship it certainly smells like horse shit.
Russ, I did not ask to be delisted. It’s Yancy’s site. I did not ask to be listed, and also did not ask to be delisted. It was others, one IBMer calls them the „lynch mob“ in private conversation with me, who demanded that vowe.net gets delisted.
It does not really matter for my site. What does matter is that bullies can’t win.
Only you can clear up this mess..
If you got permission from someone at IBM say so, because right now they have thrown you under the buss for a leak that may have never happened or was intentional
if you didn’t get a go ahead from IBM, just say sorry i didn’t know this was under NDA, my source was wrong about its status
Or say i dont care if it was under NDA it s no big deal or Vowes position here…
You dont have to say anything, but if you did it might clear up this whole mess.
I did not know it was under NDA. And no, I do not publish information without asking for permission from my source. Plus, I am legally bound to protect my source. I explained it all here: http://vowe.net/archives/013478.html
Since it becomes clearer and clearer, what happened, I will now ask Yancy to list vowe.net again. I hope that everyone who does not agree with what happened, will do the same. We all may or may not agree with Volker once in a while or even every time, but this goes too far.
I can only imagine, what pressure the „lynch mob“ must have put on Yancy. May they
Couldn‘t have said that better.