Re: [ANN] DiffDog 2005 - the dedicated differencing utility for developers, DBAs, and power users

"DA Morgan" <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message news:41ed39d2$1_1_at_127.0.0.1...
> Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. A complaint is being filed with your
> company.
> Read the charter.

Dear Daniel A. Morgan:

As an Oracle partner we are concerned with the tone of your message, your reference to our product as "SpamDog" and the associated capabilities that you have ascribed to it in your reply, as well as the threatening voice mail you've left with our PR manager today. We understand that developers subscribed to a newsgroup do not always like to read commercial product announcements, which is why Altova (a) posts these in rare circumstances (i.e. less than once a year e.g. when Altova introduces a brand-new product), (b) only posts to a newsgroup where we believe the product is relevant to the readership of that group, (c) prefixes the message subject with "ANNOUNCE:" or "[ANN]" to allow automated filtering, and (d) refers to the charter of a group whenever possible.

The charter for this group, which we located on the web, is copied here for reference:

[Quoted] CHARTER: comp.databases.oracle.tools

[Quoted] [Quoted] Comp.databases.oracle.tools is a news group provided for discussion of software applications and tools available from Oracle Corporation, or designed to work with Oracle applications. Developers of end-user applications will find this newsgroup most useful.

This group includes but is not limited to articles discussing applications and topics such as the following:

• Oracle Developer 2000 (Forms, Reports, Graphics)
• Designer 2000
• The SQL Language, SQL Plus, PL/SQL
• Training and books

Due to the wide variety of applications which are discussed in this group, each article title should begin with the application it involves (examples: Forms4.5: Reports2.5: SQL/Plus: etc.) Do not use general titles such as "A simple question".

If the comp.databases.oracle.server newsgroup is created in this reorganization, then discussions of tools and applications designed for use by database administrators should be carried on in the .server newsgroup, and not the .tools group.

END CHARTER [Quoted] [Quoted] Based on our review, nothing in that charter "specifically forbids any promotional or marketing or public relations postings", which is what you have stated in your voice mail. I hope you will understand, that Altova had no intent to upset any readers of this newsgroup, and that we did indeed assume that developers working with the SQL Language, SQL Plus, and/or PL/SQL would find a developer differencing utility potentially useful, and, therefore, would be interested in our announcement, given that we permit people to download the software and use it fully functional for a 30-day free trial period. I would also like to add that to date this is first complaint that Altova has ever received with respect to a newsgroup posting.

If our announcement was upsetting to you or any other reader, we apologize for the inconvenience. Your suggestion to post the announcement in comp.databases.oracle.marketplace instead is well received, and we will do that in the future.

Sincerely,

Altova Received on Tue Jan 18 2005 - 19:44:13 CET