"...This is why I feel it's great for us longs that the shorters are getting out of the way, it clears the runway ready for takeoff..."

SP, please think this through with me: we are interested in the share price "rocketing" higher, materially so. What causes the share price to rise? Buying. If the shorts are slowly unwinding their position AHEAD of the forthcoming news, do you realize that this DECREASES the rocket fuel for catapulting the share price AFTER the announcement? So, really, your statement above is precisely...wrong. (No biggie)

Look at it the other way: if the shorts were piling on right now, getting really short PTK, what would happen upon the forthcoming announcement? They would "cover" which just means "buy" at any price and the share price of PTK would launch higher than it would otherwise, capice?

I'm not really sure why people focus on short interest so much. Yes, they can play with your stock in the short term, but if you've done the DD and feel like the story is moving along, what can they really do? The shorts didn't collapse the stock last October, PNP did! And many think having supposed long term institutional shareholders along side is a good thing? I don't know, with friends like those, who needs enemies?