A Diatribe on Dilution

Some have voiced concerns that having AppliedUsers as well as ASCnet threatens to dilute either the pool of knowledge or ASCnet membership and will have a negative impact on the support system for Applied products.  I do not buy into that line of thinking, AppliedUsers may provide some friendly competition (OK perhaps the friendly is a little one-sided), but we aren’t out to destroy ASCnet.  AppliedUsers is an alternative source of knowledge sharing as well as professional social networking and although our philosophy is that such things should be freely available to those who wish to take advantage, we do not dismiss altogether, the need for commercial products and services.

When was the last time you shopped at only one store,  or got your news from only one source, or put on only one shoe?  The point is, there is great value in having multiple resources for anything.  Many of us use Citrix in our professional lives, and I’m sure some of us have used the official Citrix forums (free by the way), but I’m also quite sure my fellow IT professionals have also relied on Brianmadden.com or have googled for an answer to a Citrix issue they are troubleshooting.

Choice is good, having options is good.

There is also the concern about having to look in two places.  You don’t have to look in two places, but if you cannot find your answer in one, why not check out another?  How many drawers do you have in your kitchen?  Would one be better?  No, because you can keep different things in different drawers, and if you cannot find something in one drawer you can always check another.

Dilution is what happens when you put soda in whiskey, we are not soda, we are 100 proof in an oak cask – take a sip!