Re: Free database tools announcements - invitation to discussion

jhking <jhking_at_airmail.net> wrote in message news:<cb9muh$oi9_at_library2.airnews.net>...
> Daniel Morgan wrote:
>
> > And how do you propose we separate "it is for money today" from "it will
> > be for money tomorrow"?
> I suspect you're just carping now, as I doubt that anything I say will
> change your mind, nevertheless: since we can't predict the future
> trying to police against software that might be charged for later is not
> practicable.
do you mean practical?

And not being able to see the future is exactly why ALL product announcements should be in marketplace.

> >
> >> It would disallow book announcements and ebay offerings and most
> >> seminars.
> >
> >
> > On what grounds? Isn't it inconvenient to have to look through
> > c.d.o.marketplace for them?
> You asked for a rule, I suggested a rule: If its for money it goes in
> marketplace.

And Daniel points out that rule doesn't work in the long run. Imagine the RED HAT scenario. After a product turns from freeware to commercial, how do you tell the poster, "well yeah you could post last week because your product was free, but now that it's commercial you can't post in .tools" That seeems a sure road to spam hell to me.

> >
> >
> > Actually it does. The fact that when I attach the word spam to every
> > attempt to do so the spammers scream so loudly indicates that they are
> > being hurt by pointing out what they do.
> And we wind up with days where a substantial portion of the traffic on
> this group is about "yes its spam" "no it isn't". That's what really
> annoys me and what I'm trying to end.

Then join the consensus and simply say no to spam. Most of these threads go long due to the spammer continually protesting their right to post while two or more reulars reply that they are off topic. (Go research the threads in google if you don't believe me.)

>
> > The convention nowhere I've ever been is to ignore spammers.
> What we are having, I think, is a discussion about whether people giving
> away Oracle related products are spammers. I say no.

Then you are in the wrong discussion thread. This is whether the ANNOUNCEMENT of oracle related products is on topic in .tools group.

 Discussing how to use the products (eg. threads of "how do I use X to do Y?" would be on topic here in .tools where X is an Oracle tool, and perhaps belong in .misc where X is a third party product). The extent of those third party products in .tools is a subject for a different discussion thread.

> >
> > Of which several of them are people that have previously spammed this
> > group and not one of which is a regular contributor that has helped
> > others when they've had questions.
> I'll grant you you've answered lots more question than I have, and some
> of mine, for which I thank you, but I have answered questions when I
> knew the answers. I'm not as knowledgeable in Oracle as, say, you or
> Sybrand and if I don't know I figure the questioner is better off if I
> don't just give a wild-a**ed guess.

> >
> > c.d.o.marketplace gets, at most, 2-3 posts per day. If you looked every
> > day the inconvenience would be less than 5 seconds. Is your life that
> > full of panic that you can't invest 5 seconds to fight spam?
> It's primarily the long "you're a spammer" "no I'm not discussions" that
> annoy me.

Then join us in asking the spammers, not to shut up, but just to move their posts elsewhere.

> > So how about a free tool from Microsoft to migrate from Oracle to SQL
> > Server ... would that be appropriate? How about one from IBM?
> If it were free, and posted about 1/month its no big deal. I'm not
> likely to use it, but some folks here might find it useful. If they do
> one those every day deals (like the guy with the report writer was doing
> a while back) that's spamming, free or no.

The volume might start low, but others would soon follow, pushing the boundary. "the group allows Once a month postings, so how about once a week? Darn still didn't get enough beta testers, so I'll try once a day." And if a half dozen companies start doing so, we get more and more!

Ed Received on Wed Jun 23 2004 - 16:54:41 CEST