We are familiar with the Rumor Ratings (I hope). But let’s talk a bit more about how to rate a rumor.

There are a couple of things to consider:

• The person or people giving the rumor. If only one person that no one knows is telling the rumor then you kind of have to keep it at an R1. If several people are saying “My agency said this” or if someone who has been around a lot and everyone knows is saying it then it’s a lot more likely that an agency is actually saying it. Also, since some people distort what the agency said, you kind of need it from multiple people so you can be a bit more sure that this is actually what the agency said. Sometimes I have two people email me “my agency said the cut off will be the 5th” and then someone forwards me the actual email that very clearly says something like “our next LID date is the 5th and we hope these families are included”.
• How many steps has it taken from the original source? Is it a “my agency said”, or is it a “the person I work with said their agency said”, or is it a “someone on my agency group said that someone on their DTC group said that….”. Every extra step adds a little more chance that the rumor has been changed since the original source gave it.
• Whether one agency or multiple agencies are giving the rumor. When multiple agencies give the rumor it has a lot more likelihood of being correct.
• Whether other agencies are giving conflicting information.
• An agency’s previous track record. This one is not as clear cut as everyone seems to think it should be. I don’t know of a single agency that takes chances with rumors that is batting a thousand. And it is those agencies that take chances and tell what they have heard that we really appreciate. The people at the CCAA don’t always know what is going on, so an agencies person at the CCAA may occasionally give information that does not play out as expected.

Now for some examples.

Let’s say someone posts a rumor on your DTC group. If that rumor comes from someone who doesn’t say their agency and no one else is saying it and you’ve never heard from this person before then that’s likely a 1. If they’ve given rumors before that have been close to the mark, then it’s a two. Or, if several people with this agency are giving the rumor then it’s a two or a three, depending on the agency involved.

If that rumor is coming from a couple of agencies then it’s a three. Even if there are other agencies saying something different. A three basically means that you are sure that an agency is saying it and that it might have credibility, but doesn’t give much confidence in the rumor being true or false.

For it to reach a Four we need to get rid of the conflicting information and/or have one of about three agencies say it is so.

And for it to reach a Five we have to be positive that this is what is going to happen.

I’d also like to point out that you should usually share rumors even when they don’t seem to have a lot of oomph to them. Sometimes it just takes the first person saying something for a couple of people to chime in with “yeah, my agency said that yesterday” or “I heard that too”. We have to be careful that all of the people chiming in aren’t also hearing it from the DTC group or some other second hand source, we need another person who heard it from the source to upgrade the rumor, but the point is that if the rumor is never out there to start with then it can’t be upgraded.

Also, sometimes a rumor has more than one part to it, and people feel like if they can prove one of those parts that the other part has to be true, too. It does not always work out that way, so be wary of doing that.

Sometimes we want a rumor to be true so bad that it’s easy to overlook the fact that it’s a pretty shaky rumor. Try to step aside and look at it without the emotions. I know, easier said that done.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 7:17 amand is filed under Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.