Home » Other » Suggestions & Feedback » Restructure/ add new forums
| Restructure/ add new forums [message #482675] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 05:09  |
Frank Naude
Messages: 4581
Registered: April 1998
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Senior Member |
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I would like to add some new forums (at the very least a MySQL forum).
Oracle has so many products that I'm not entirely sure the current structure still makes sense. Any ideas would be great!
Best regards.
Frank
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #482687 is a reply to message #482675] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 07:15  |
Frank
Messages: 7901
Registered: March 2000
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Senior Member |
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I doubt if you could ever keep track of all of Oracle's products. (Re-)introduing a MySql forum will, in my not so humble opinion, cause a lot of noise: all of a sudden, we're no longer Oracle centered, which also means that the Server sub-forums and even the SQL forums will be cluttered with questions that only after some iterations will turn out to be MySql-or-whatever related.
I'd say stick to what OraFAQ is good at, but if you really want to go that way, it would require a very thorough think through of how to organize the forums..
Of course, always willing to help out, whichever you decide.
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #482693 is a reply to message #482687] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 08:05 |
Frank Naude
Messages: 4581
Registered: April 1998
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Senior Member |
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We absolutely need to restructure to remain relevant. Usage of this site is declining with less messages posted year on year. If we do nothing we will sooner or later have to close it down.
2007 - 77565 messages
2008 - 75584 messages
2009 - 55160 messages
2010 - 43415 messages so far
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #482722 is a reply to message #482694] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 11:28 |
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Michel Cadot
Messages: 68718
Registered: March 2007
Location: Saint-Maur, France, https...
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Senior Member
Account Moderator |
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I agree with several (and conflicting) opinions:
* It should be great to open the forum to MySQL and SQL Server
* It would be a mess if question about SQL Server or MySQL all go to SQL forum (due to misinterpretation of the forum name)
* Even answers to pure SQL questions would be very dependent on RDBMS => have different SQL forums ("Oracle SQL & PL/SQL", "MS SQL & T-SQL", "MySQL SQL", "RDBMS independent SQL"?)
* Several current forum are not used or very few, see below statistics, so maybe some can be merged and other removed
* Oracle documentation and concurrent forums are better each year (and Oracle forums or blogs become very numerous, especially Indian and now Chinese ones)
FORUM_NAME 2006 2007 2008 2009 01-09/2010
-------------------------------------------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Application Express & MOD_PLSQL 169 202 403 507 388
Application Server 428 456 386 331 158
Arabic 10 1 5 4 8
Backup & Recovery 2151 3334 2856 1935 1200
Business Intelligence 4 21 206 122 186
Client Tools 178 1209 1297 1006 1049
Collaboration & Content Management 15 21 1 1 0
Community Hangout 292 546 472 263 337
Data Guard 292 779 579 412 216
Designer 89 62 62 55 29
Dutch 3 32 0 0 0
Enterprise Manager 312 1094 824 621 409
Forms 7137 7734 9659 7900 5071
French 10 24 14 2 27
General 592 910 890 606 706
German 2 0 0 2 0
JDeveloper, Java & XML 420 398 745 460 356
Japanese 4 5 4 0 0
Linux 326 771 702 482 303
Marketplace 523 616 406 295 216
Moderator discussions 0 65 470 261 182
Networking and Gateways 678 967 930 728 558
Open Database Interfaces 45 151 192 123 133
Oracle Fusion Apps & E-Business Suite 3283 3624 1486 1364 829
Other Application Suites 26 61 28 18 10
Other Operating Systems 39 40 35 30 3
PeopleSoft, JD Edwards & Siebel 37 65 35 9 11
Performance Tuning 2265 3465 4439 2674 1897
Portuguese 0 0 8 13 1
Precompilers, OCI & OCCI 247 398 454 236 164
RAC & Failsafe 272 437 566 623 384
Replication 145 230 353 217 128
Reports & Discoverer 1998 2600 2078 1844 1055
Russian 1 7 4 0 0
SOA Suite, BPEL and OWSM 1 10 16 30 4
SQL & PL/SQL 24700 30841 30933 23679 17000
Security 467 790 691 555 375
Server Administration 5174 7613 6192 3552 1880
Server Utilities 1707 2642 2711 1831 1508
Spanish 25 15 25 4 47
Spatial 31 14 32 19 26
Streams & AQ 56 200 284 173 67
Suggestions & Feedback 347 666 409 350 385
Test 144 209 148 159 146
Text & interMedia 109 153 266 138 121
Training & Certification 871 2190 1451 398 314
Unix 540 1070 802 575 244
Warehouse Builder 250 171 224 129 38
WebCenter Suite & Portal 53 37 40 12 7
Windows 508 621 770 413 390
For instance, in forum group "Applications", only the first one "Oracle Fusion Apps & E-Business Suite" generates a significant number of topics, maybe we could merge all these forum in a single one.
Same thing for the group "Fusion Middleware & Colab Suite" (maybe changing its name).
Is it necessary to have "Unix" and "Linux" forums, why not just one "Unix" forum? I know that some questions are specific to Linux but, concerning Oracle, not much more than specific to AIX, HP-UX or Solaris.
Besides that, I think there is a problem with "JDeveloper, Java & XML" forum. Jdeveloper is a tool, Java is a language and XML is a way to store data. I don't know the first point. The second one generates Java language questions or rather JDBC ones to interface with Oracle. The third one mainly generates SQL or PL/SQL questions. Maybe we can split this forum, putting XML question to "SQL & PL/SQL" forum, Java question to Open Database Interfaces, and... is there Jdeveloper question? Just an idea.
Regards
Michel
[Updated on: Mon, 15 November 2010 11:30] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #482756 is a reply to message #482722] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 13:03 |
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Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9100
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
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Senior Member |
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If I am not mistaken, Oracle now owns MySQL, although I can't recall exactly when they bought it. However, as far as I know, Oracle has nothing to do with SQL Server. Oracle's own website and forums now support MySQL, so as an Oracle forum, we should do the same. As we all know, the SQL used is drastically different, so they should be kept separate, so as not to be confused with one another. Perhaps we should relabel the current SQL and PL/SQL forum as Oracle only, not MySQL, with a new MySQL forum directly underneath it, so that it is easy to find and see the difference. Perhaps adding a mandatory Oracle or MySQL field when posting, similar to the current version field would help double-check that and make it easier to relocate posts to the right place quickly.
I have been a moderator or sysop or ace on three different Oracle forums, 2 of which still exist. It seems to me that what causes a forum to stop being used is when it is down too much, when it is too difficult to navigate and use due to slowness, when there aren't enough good responses in a timely manner, and when users are offended by responses they don't like.
I agree that java and xml should be separated. I don't know how they got lumped together to begin with. It would also help if we are diligent in moving things to the correct forums. Most of us only have time to browse our areas of special interest and if something is in the wrong forum we may never see it unless whoever browses the forum it was posted in moves it. I probably miss a lot of Text posts on the OTN forums because they got posted in SQL and PL/SQL or general and were never seen or answered. Those few posts that make it to the Text forum have frequently been redirected by somebody from one of those forums.
[Updated on: Mon, 15 November 2010 14:19] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #482770 is a reply to message #482756] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 13:41 |
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Michel Cadot
Messages: 68718
Registered: March 2007
Location: Saint-Maur, France, https...
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Senior Member
Account Moderator |
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Quote:although I can't recall exactly when they bought it.
With Sun, in April last year.
Quote:Oracle has nothing to do with SQL Server.
I suggested this as it is a popular RDBMS. We can forget it.
Quote:Perhaps we should relabel the current SQL and PL/SQL forum as Oracle only, not MySQL, with a new MySQL forum directly underneath it,
We can have only one MySQL forum for the moment and will can split it into SQL, Administration, Backup and so on later but it is a big job for moderators to spread the topics.
We can alos have a MySQL group with its (sub)forums.
Quote:Perhaps adding a mandatory Oracle or MySQL field when posting, similar to the current version field would help double-check that and make it easier to relocate posts to the right place quickly.
This is a good idea.
Regards
Michel
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #482777 is a reply to message #482693] |
Mon, 15 November 2010 14:09 |
John Watson
Messages: 8960
Registered: January 2010
Location: Global Village
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Senior Member |
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Hello, people - this topic has the look of something that might be meant for moderators only? But if you don't mind a comment:
With regard to falling numbers of messages, is it possible that this is due to new members being frightened away by their first answer? To be hit by demands to submit additional information that they don't understand, possibly in a not-very-friendly manner, must be discouraging. Similarly, receiving a reply consisting of only an instruction to read the documentation. Of course, all learners should be encouraged to ask questions in a manner that permits a sensible reply, and to read docs - but could it be done more tactfully? Sometimes topics do read as though the questioner must justify his right to exist before getting an answer.
And as an off topic comment, perhaps this is an opportunity to say that I joined this forum nearly a year ago (when I heard that it was associated with someone I know and respect from a previous job in a previous country - hello, Frank!) and that I have been very impressed by the knowledge, humour, and attitude to teaching displayed by some of the contributors. I have learnt a lot from you. Thanks.
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #482817 is a reply to message #482777] |
Tue, 16 November 2010 00:31 |
Frank
Messages: 7901
Registered: March 2000
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Senior Member |
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John Watson wrote on Mon, 15 November 2010 21:09Hello, people - this topic has the look of something that might be meant for moderators only? But if you don't mind a comment:
With regard to falling numbers of messages, is it possible that this is due to new members being frightened away by their first answer? To be hit by demands to submit additional information that they don't understand, possibly in a not-very-friendly manner, must be discouraging. Similarly, receiving a reply consisting of only an instruction to read the documentation. Of course, all learners should be encouraged to ask questions in a manner that permits a sensible reply, and to read docs - but could it be done more tactfully? Sometimes topics do read as though the questioner must justify his right to exist before getting an answer.
Thanks for your input. I don't think Frank Naude meant this to be a moderator-only discussion (there is a moderator-only subforum for that), so everyone's input is welcomed.
I think you hit a good point there, this has been an ongoing discussion for the last several years now.
It is also how OraFAQ is often described in the OTN forums.
As an example of how to guide people to providing correct information, how to tell them that we don't do their homework, etc, I really like the javaranch forums. They tend to answer the questions asked (unless it's a blunt request for code), but spice their replies with links to pages where they explain a specific guideline. So, instead of having one big page containing all guidelines, which results in everyone being routed to the same page over and over, without a clear guidance on what bit they "violated", they get a friendly tip on how to improve their question (e.g. do your own homework)
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #482825 is a reply to message #482777] |
Tue, 16 November 2010 01:08 |
John Watson
Messages: 8960
Registered: January 2010
Location: Global Village
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Senior Member |
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I have to flame myself for my previous comment regarding frightened newcomers:
This is a FAQ
Is Google broken for you?
Did you SEARCH before posting?
I need an emoticon for "want to crawl into a hole and bury myself"
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| Re: Restructure/ add new forums [message #483053 is a reply to message #483052] |
Wed, 17 November 2010 20:20 |
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Mahesh Rajendran
Messages: 10708
Registered: March 2002
Location: oracleDocoVille
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Senior Member
Account Moderator |
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I would not call myself an experienced MySQL user . But I am spending more time on MySQL these days.
Maintain several databases ( less than 100), few around 2-4 TB,
some less than 100GB, most smaller ones (< 10gb).
100% of users are from scientific/academic community. Nobody cares
about performance as long as it is reasonable and data is safe.
Life is good in my MySQL world 
[Updated on: Wed, 17 November 2010 20:24] Report message to a moderator |
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