Yes, this is a no-memory battery, there is no need to fully discharge, and in fact, don't fully discharge it (leave 1 stick of life) ever.
I'll tell you what the problem was when I first got the iPod and the battery was hearing its first complaints. The deal was that in Canada, there were no Apple stores, so I would have to ship my iPod in its box to China (which would cost me about $40 for a package of that size with a tracking service), and then pay $169 + 15% sales tax for them to replace the battery - notice, just replace it, not give me a new iPod), which means I would have spent about $250, waited around a month only to get an old iPod with a new battery in it when a new generation iPod (improved in every way) would have cost me $399. Now you tell me if that makes sense, and that's why people complained, the fact was that it made more sense to just buy a new one. It's not until recently that Apple started flat out replacing the iPods with dead batteries.
I'll tell you what the problem was when I first got the iPod and the battery was hearing its first complaints. The deal was that in Canada, there were no Apple stores, so I would have to ship my iPod in its box to China (which would cost me about $40 for a package of that size with a tracking service), and then pay $169 + 15% sales tax for them to replace the battery - notice, just replace it, not give me a new iPod), which means I would have spent about $250, waited around a month only to get an old iPod with a new battery in it when a new generation iPod (improved in every way) would have cost me $399. Now you tell me if that makes sense, and that's why people complained, the fact was that it made more sense to just buy a new one. It's not until recently that Apple started flat out replacing the iPods with dead batteries.