The 12 people you'll encounter in the Yellowverse
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this story. Sorry. There's something broken in my template, and I
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to sort out the problem in the next few days. But honestly, I'm not too
anxious about what I'll hear on this provocative but ultimately useless
post. 
As more people encounter our community here within the Lotus product line, I thought it might be valuable to provide some insight into the types of people you'll encounter. Forewarned is forearmed, and I'm sure we'd all like to be warned and armed against the following rogue's gallery of Lotus online culture.
As more people encounter our community here within the Lotus product line, I thought it might be valuable to provide some insight into the types of people you'll encounter. Forewarned is forearmed, and I'm sure we'd all like to be warned and armed against the following rogue's gallery of Lotus online culture.
1. The Inciter - Carefully crafts
every article, daintily crafting each headline to maximize click-throughs
and comments. The Inciter craves feedback and trackbacks above all else.
Most likely to post: a long, rambling dissertation with a title that
suggests "you are all retarded and I am a genius." The
truth of this assertion is intentionally impossible to determine.
2. The Counter-Inciter - Carefully reads every other site, and identifies trends. Then writes long posts about why those trends are wrong. Rallies the opposition force against the Inciter. Most likely to post: Anything about how global enterprises take umpteen years to make a decision about IT strategy, but only with a title that riffs on the original controversy.
3. The Grand Mediator - Only arrives when an Inciter and a Counter-Inciter appear together. The Grand Mediator posts yet another attention-grabbing headline, while disclaiming all personal connection to any prior conversation. Then he or she drops a few abstract accusations without naming individuals, and claims that nothing about the active conversation in the community inspired this particular article. Most likely to post: "Why can't we all just get along?"
4. The Joker - Awaits the arrival of the Grand Mediator, and then plays the part of jester. Posts fake controversial articles with attention-grabbing headlines, only to reveal silly pictures in the click-through. Most likely to post: anything with a bunch of comma-separated clauses in the title.
5. The Regurgitator - All press releases, all the time. Most likely to post: whatever just went out to AP, with one line of commentary like "get a load of this" or "whoa!"
6. The Lurker - The commenter that always starts replies with "I've been reading a long time and never felt the need to step in, but..." Most likely to post: a reply that either directly reinforces, or directly contradicts, the original article's point, but with a fake email address because they don't want to get in trouble.
7. The Eclectic - The purveyor of all things random. Two posts are allowed to be in the same arena, but the one after that has to be about underwater basket weaving. Or comparative philology. Or who lost on Dancing With the Stars. Just as long as it has absolutely nothing to do with anything that's an active point of conversation by anyone inside the community. Most likely to post: a rant about a local political battle.
8. The Spewer - The person that doesn't understand the difference between the content-rich model of the blog, and the content-transient model of Twitter, who feels the need to immortalize every random thought that enters their brain. Most likely to post: what their toddler did during breakfast.
9. The Neophite - The new blogger or participant who's never been around before, but is finally working up the nerve to get in the conversation. Usually well-aware of Google ranking, but not necessarily how to set up a blog. Most likely to post: "Test, test test"
10. The Apologist - The ex-yellow bleeder who still wants to be friends. Doesn't want to ruffle any feathers, but needs to talk about competing technologies, because that's the job. Tries to wrap everything in soft language with "if you've chosen to use X, here's how you do Y." Most likely to post: a guide to integrating with a platform that's intended to be a migration target.
11. The Technician - The engineer who sticks to nothing but engineering. Personal, professional or emotional communication have no interests here. It's just facts and algorithms all the time. Most likely to post: a detailed guide on how to enable some obscure feature on a version that's 4 years old.
12. The Pedantic - The Lotus equivalent of the grammar Nazi, the pedantic barks at every little typo in demo code and argues endlessly about whether the MD2 rolling checksum is sufficient to distribute hash codes evenly over a random bit space. Most likely to post: obscure corner cases that are easily addressed by a catch block that throws the developer's email address.
2. The Counter-Inciter - Carefully reads every other site, and identifies trends. Then writes long posts about why those trends are wrong. Rallies the opposition force against the Inciter. Most likely to post: Anything about how global enterprises take umpteen years to make a decision about IT strategy, but only with a title that riffs on the original controversy.
3. The Grand Mediator - Only arrives when an Inciter and a Counter-Inciter appear together. The Grand Mediator posts yet another attention-grabbing headline, while disclaiming all personal connection to any prior conversation. Then he or she drops a few abstract accusations without naming individuals, and claims that nothing about the active conversation in the community inspired this particular article. Most likely to post: "Why can't we all just get along?"
4. The Joker - Awaits the arrival of the Grand Mediator, and then plays the part of jester. Posts fake controversial articles with attention-grabbing headlines, only to reveal silly pictures in the click-through. Most likely to post: anything with a bunch of comma-separated clauses in the title.
5. The Regurgitator - All press releases, all the time. Most likely to post: whatever just went out to AP, with one line of commentary like "get a load of this" or "whoa!"
6. The Lurker - The commenter that always starts replies with "I've been reading a long time and never felt the need to step in, but..." Most likely to post: a reply that either directly reinforces, or directly contradicts, the original article's point, but with a fake email address because they don't want to get in trouble.
7. The Eclectic - The purveyor of all things random. Two posts are allowed to be in the same arena, but the one after that has to be about underwater basket weaving. Or comparative philology. Or who lost on Dancing With the Stars. Just as long as it has absolutely nothing to do with anything that's an active point of conversation by anyone inside the community. Most likely to post: a rant about a local political battle.
8. The Spewer - The person that doesn't understand the difference between the content-rich model of the blog, and the content-transient model of Twitter, who feels the need to immortalize every random thought that enters their brain. Most likely to post: what their toddler did during breakfast.
9. The Neophite - The new blogger or participant who's never been around before, but is finally working up the nerve to get in the conversation. Usually well-aware of Google ranking, but not necessarily how to set up a blog. Most likely to post: "Test, test test"
10. The Apologist - The ex-yellow bleeder who still wants to be friends. Doesn't want to ruffle any feathers, but needs to talk about competing technologies, because that's the job. Tries to wrap everything in soft language with "if you've chosen to use X, here's how you do Y." Most likely to post: a guide to integrating with a platform that's intended to be a migration target.
11. The Technician - The engineer who sticks to nothing but engineering. Personal, professional or emotional communication have no interests here. It's just facts and algorithms all the time. Most likely to post: a detailed guide on how to enable some obscure feature on a version that's 4 years old.
12. The Pedantic - The Lotus equivalent of the grammar Nazi, the pedantic barks at every little typo in demo code and argues endlessly about whether the MD2 rolling checksum is sufficient to distribute hash codes evenly over a random bit space. Most likely to post: obscure corner cases that are easily addressed by a catch block that throws the developer's email address.
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