Re: PostgreSQL giving jitters to Skypak

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004, Josh Berkus wrote:

> Scott, Marc,
>
>> I believe no other publication could be better since a) no other
>> publication would have the same impact as the original one that posted
>> the "hit piece" and b) the same audience may not be reached by another
>> publication.
>
> As you guessed, we have already contacted CXOToday, and researched the
> background of both the publication and the reporter (thanks Simon!). Based
> on both research and our interaction with the reporter, we do not believe
> that any story from us would receive fair treatement.
>
>> Here is a company in India that complained about the atrocious performance
>> PostgreSQL was giving them, they complained vocally about it, and "the
>> community" jumped to the rescue? Are we going to jump the rescue of the
>> next one too? Are we setting a potentially bad precedent by advertising
>> that "if you yell loud enough, we'll focus our attentions on you"?
>
> We won't be giving them any help they couldn't otherwise get simply by
> subscribing to PGSQL-PERFORMANCE or jumping on IRC.
>
> The reason that Skypak ended up in trouble is that they are NOT interent-saavy
> at all; their installation of PostgreSQL was put in by an apparently
> less-than-competent constulant who then disappeared when they ran into
> problems (at least, according to Skypak). So they were completely unaware
> of the existence of postgresql.org, the mailing lists, or online
> documentation. I, personally, don't have any problem giving them some help
> in getting connected with these resources -- the same as I do for about 10
> people a day who contact me through advocacy.postgresql.org or
> press(at)postgresql(dot)org(dot)
>
> Also, I think I can get a good news story out of it, which is worth a little
> effort.

Agreed ... the only concern I have is the way that they went about getting
that help ... the whole 'pre-article' and all that ... the whole thing
just has a feel of 'if I cry loud enough, someone might come along and fix
it for me' ... its the public denounciation, followed by us rushing to his
aid, that puts the hairs up on the back of my neck *shrug*

----
Marc G. Fournier Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
Email: scrappy(at)hub(dot)org Yahoo!: yscrappy ICQ: 7615664