That is an unreasonable solution. This is why:

That is an unreasonable solution. This is why:

Alan has posted that number for years.

Suddenly, he is attacked, sometimes in very vicious terms. The purpose of the attacks is to get him to stop posting the numbers.

One of the attacks is his failure to post a link to his source. So, Alan agrees to post a link to his source.

Then, he is attacked again, after he agrees to do something that he was asked to do.

The claim is that the statistic scares people, and that the word "short" shows up in searches, so the word short that Alan uses is a word that scares people every day. The people objecting to this word try to solve this purported problem by posting repeatedly, using the word short many times. That seems a little counterproductive, don't you think?

So, someone posts a number, other people object to a publicly-available statistic being posted, and your "even-handed" solution to this is: force Alan to stop posting the numbers.

That is utterly illogical. You're saying, "let's solve this problem by giving one side what it wants."

Why should a publicly-available statistic suddenly become such a terrifying thing that this board on that statistic, and nothing else, for a month?

Someone tell me please how all this is helping the company. It sure isn't making the board pleasant to read.

What I say is, Alan posted the statistic for years. He agreed to add the link, which was supposedly a big objection. Now that he's done that, people should focus on something that would actually be worth reading, like the excellent research that some people have posted here.

I didn't give a rip about that statistic. But now, it seems that it is very important, so I encourage Alan to keep posting it.