Wow, I wondered if this would generate some discussion...
I think a certain balance is required. In the left corner we have a newbie
who doesn't know about http://tahiti.oracle.com. In the right corner, we
have the Oracle (no not the product, nor the company, THE Oracle, you know?
The one who has seen, done and read it all and is only to be disturbed by
Larry himself and only about the most grave technical matters?
Somewhere in the middle are the rest of us. I know that I am still way down
near the left corner, and trying to learn as I go. i think that the views
here are excellent and I expect that there are people the world over reading
these posts, nodding and saying "yeah, sure" in full agreement.
I think most would agree that this forum should not be restricted to
discussing the esoteric undocumented features of oracle, or critqueing the
implementation of the X$ memory structures, or debating the merits of the
physical block layouts etc. While interesting and certainly within the scope
of this forum, I suspect that most of us have little need for such topics.
On the other hand, I think this forum should not be used a the "first port
of call", regardless of the complexity of the problem. Doing so can be
construed as a little bit lazy and relying on others to solve your problems
without first trying yourself. I think the objections raised earlier is less
to do with the neture of the question rather that it appears that NO
research had been conducted prior to requesting the help of others.
So I think everyone should try to help themselves as best they can before
asking for help. After all, if YOU can't be bothered to try and solve your
problems, why should anyone else? I would expect that all of the people on
this list would be very willing to help others solve particular problems. I
believe in "What goes around comes around". If you help others, others will
help you. If you try to solve problems, others will help solve those as
well.
This is sent in the spirit of community and honesty. I hope that you all
take no offence at anything I have said. This is a great forum and I want to
see it continue with the involvement of skilled and reputable experts. We
are all time constrained, but if we are lazy in our use of this forum, the
more knowledgeable folk will get sick of time wasting questions and leave
the forum. Remember, this is a valuable resource consisting of volunteers.
Respect the time of others by first investing some of your own time and I
think this forum will work a treat!
I just scrolled up again and realised that I'm rambling, so enough
preaching from me, I've used enough of your time
Russell
On 10/20/05, Ram K <lambu999_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> When a person starts learning the DBA side of things they see tremendous
> amount of information, spread among hundreds of Oracle manuals (which change
> every version), let alone books, online sources, etc. Even if we consider
> the manuals only, reference to a specific topic probably could be found in
> 200 different locations in 10 different manuals. It is quite possible the
> answer may be in one manual, but when I am a beginner it gets difficult for
> me to sort things out. This could be sometimes overwhelming if I am new to
> the topic.
>
> So when people who are experienced see such questions, it will be greatly
> helpful if they can put themselves in the shoes of beginners for a bit. If
> you like an analogy let us say some of the very experienced DBAs set to
> learn medicine. There are thousands of manuals and books. All the
> terminilogy, the talk, the terms, etc will be completely new. It will be
> very confounding to them. The questions they ask may sound very basic to
> experienced doctors. New learners of Oracle are in a similar situation.
> Experts: please bear with us. Thanks as always for all your help which we
> get for free here :)
>
> Ram.
>
> On 10/19/05, Murching, Bob <bob_murching_at_budco.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I am not sure how we can collectively balance out as you suggested.
> > > Should we take turns ask one mid to advanced question for every newbie
> > > question posted to keep this list interesting?
> > First, for the record, I agree with much of what you said; the concern
> > I have is that this list isn't necessary "better" if it concerns only
> > questions that less than 20 people on the planet are qualified to answer.
> > Some of the best discussion I see here begins rather innocuously with a
> > newbie question that evolves into something much more interesting... people
> > read the original question and ask it again but with a different spin. Some
> > of these innocent questions have led to the so-called experts disagreeing
> > with each other and making for some interesting debate. It would be a shame
> > to see all that gone. The best signal sometimes comes with a little bit of
> > noise.
> > To answer your question.... absolutely. That's exactly what people
> > should be doing. The list is what its members make it. If you feel that the
> > content doesn't meet a certain bar, then raise the bar by asking tough
> > questions or offering answers of a caliber that you feel should set the
> > standard. Or take the newbie question and rephrase it in a way that takes it
> > to the "next level" (whatever that may mean.)
> > Bob
> >
>
>
--
http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
Received on Wed Oct 19 2005 - 20:19:36 CDT
