>What, exactly, do you feel the original intent was?

Well, you'd really have to ask John. But basically, I think the intent was to tell people to stop calling VB OOP, when from a purist standpoint, it's not.

> If something different, why do you suppose it failed so miserably, and really only cemented a lot of pre-existing perceptions?

I really don't want to get into this because I don't really have the time, energy, desire or interest, but since you asked.

1. Because it was in a VB forum and John and the others who went there were outnumbered.

2. It got reduced to name calling pretty quickly.

3. Because when the VB people were beaten on a point they just used more name calling and refused to respond to the issues.

4. Mainly because the VB people really don't care. They're using VB productively without it and have so many ways to work around it, that they don't feel it's an issue. They also are so used to working around it, that they generally don't seem to understand what it is.