Originally posted by Uluru I don't what is worse:
1) people being too excited in anticipation and predicting sure things based on rumours, or
2) the so called coolheaded, but in fact knee-jerk responses from those who "observed the whole thing rationally", categorising all those under (1) as fools.
Or, you know, instead of posting something like this, we can try to look for a lesson to prevent these situations, regardless of which "side" you were on.
I would say the lesson is to
trace sources. Ask yourself
"Who said what?" and
"What did they really say?" as opposed to what someone says they said. Here are some key facts from this episode:
1. Svitek's story has been around for a few weeks now, and started rapidly changing after it got posted here.
2. RiceHigh's March 27th countdown rumor was (originally) unsourced, and has no connection to Svitek's story.
3. "K-3 = FF" is traced back to PF's April Fools joke from last year. This association is greatly exacerbated by Photo Rumors' automatic assumption upon every mention of a "K-3" whether or not the source did.
4. Photo Rumors made the leap to connect all three of the above.
Whether or not you believe rumors, the most important thing is to keep the stories straight, and follow them from the start. That way we can have organized discussions on the credibility of original information, rather than getting into a tangled mess of jumping right into the middle of things, arguing over connections that didn't exist and things people did not actually say.