Editing VM (operating system) (section)

== Marketing ==

In the early 1980s, the VM group within [[SHARE (computing)|SHARE]] (the IBM user group) sought a mascot or logo for the community to adopt. This was in part a response to IBM's [[MVS]] users selecting the turkey as a mascot (chosen, according to legend, by the MVS Performance Group in the early days of MVS, when its performance was a sore topic). In 1983, the teddy bear became VM's ''de facto'' mascot at SHARE 60, when teddy bear stickers were attached to the nametags of "cuddlier oldtimers" to flag them for newcomers as "friendly if approached". The bears were a hit and soon appeared widely.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vm.ibm.com/devpages/christin/vmwebart.html|title=Gallery of VM web GIFs|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061018022910/http://www.vm.ibm.com/devpages/christin/vmwebart.html | website=IBM z/VM site|archive-date=October 18, 2006}}</ref> Bears were awarded to inductees of the "Order of the Knights of VM", individuals who made "useful contributions" to the community.<ref>Varian, ''op. cit., p.'' 2 – the teddy bear story</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alanflavell.org.uk/vmteddy.html |title=Explain "official VM teddy" |website=Mr. Alan J. Flavell |publisher=Alanflavell.org.uk |access-date=July 2, 2015 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304120917/http://www.alanflavell.org.uk/vmteddy.html |url-status=live }}</ref>