A situation that requires greater alertness, but is not necessarily critical (red alert). Sometimes the word "smell" is used instead, but "smell" implies that it is already deemed bad rather than merely suspicious. Something must already be rotten to produce a noticeable smell. In other words, "smell" has too many negative connotations. We have enough FlameWars as it is, so I would rather use a more diplomatic word than "smell". YellowAlert conveys a "check into this carefully" attitude rather than a suggestion to prepare to aim the torpedoes. -- top
Plus you don't get that annoying "whoop whoop whoop" like you do with a RedAlert?. (Wasn't there a "blue alert" once on TNG, when the power went out?)
CoolItMan
I like the above term to defuse FlameWar :) Problem is, both sides may aim their torpedos your way :(
See also: CodeSmell