A muddle is a state of confusion. You can find yourself in a muddle. And one of the causes of muddles is unclear writing that blurs or jumbles things that ought to be distinct. Muddles are ever so hard to avoid creating when you try to explain difficult, complex or subtle concepts.
Would you be surprised to learn that a lot of writing out there falls into the muddle category? Indeed, much as we try within OSS Watch, I would even guess we inadvertently generate our fair share. Of course we try to prevent this through careful editing of our documents. And we also review our documents on a regular basis to see, as with fresh eyes, whether we have overlooked a muddle. It’s an ongoing process and we appreciate it when someone reading one of our documents spots a muddle and let’s us know.
The key feature of these muddles, however, is that they are inadvertent.
What if your intent was to create a muddle perhaps in an attempt to manipulate a market space? Although such a malicious action might involve outright lies, there is necessity for that. A little understatement. Damning with faint praise. A few real cases where something has gone wrong for the other guy. And you are in. Because the object is not to get you to believe a falsehood, only to prevent you from learning and believing the truth. The deliberate intent to create a muddle for some other ends is sometimes called FUD; the sowing of fear, uncertainty, and doubt by one competitor or its proxies in an attempt to a manipulate a market space.
I honestly don’t know how much FUD happens. But I do know a muddle when I see one. And since most people do not wish to inadvertently perpetuate a muddle, a tell-tale sign of whether you are dealing with FUD or merely a benign muddle is how the author responds to having the muddle pointed out to him or her.
So this is a plea for everyone to claim the muddle ground. And we’ll work together to clear it up.
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