Ok - this was something that was said in a number of different places throughout Lotusphere. Now, I know the underlying message is one of strength and commitment to the brand and future, however, adding the "yet" to the end of the sentence just confirms the fears at the heart of the message - that one day, Lotus will be dead. Surely the message needs to be more aligned with Mark Twain-like "reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated" - get away from the negative campaign - respond to it and move on - don't make it the centrepiece of your campaign.
In truth, the real issue with the message isn't that it repeats the "Notes is dead" mantra of the opposition, but the use of "yet" at the end of it - adding a "yet" also adds an implication that it's something that is likely to happen at some point in the future - near or distant - and in the world of competing software products that just means that it's always relevant no matter how far in the future IBM commits to the product. Drop the "yet", respond with a simple "Notes is not dead" and let's all get interested in the good stuff.
For the same reason, I don't want to be a Notes developer who has to go around admitting to being a "sicko" just because someone with very little relevance dropped a quotable sentence when outraged at a community which stood up and was counted instead of going quietly into the night. Every time we mention the term, we give credit to that group and their statements against the community - let's get out there with something more aligned with the fact that we, as a community, won't take any crap rather than concentrate on the whinings of a single person.
More and more people are becoming made aware of the "sicko" reference - most of them don't know where it was from or what it was about, and every time they have to be educated about the whinings of the little fish in Radicati - giving more attention to a negative statement which we're trying to get away from, but instead just giving it more and more attention despite it's lack of credibility... let's just move on.
In short, I believe that Lotus and the associated community is strong - perhaps stronger than they have been for a while - let's get away from defending ourselves, get on the offensive and make the others play by our rules.
What Ed Brill has been saying is " 'Notes is dead' is dead". I like that mantra better.