Eddie Awad asked me to take a look at the new OraQA site that he’s set up. I was pretty tied up with other things last week and Eddie was mid-implementation over the weekend, so it’s taken me until today to get to it (and for goodness’ sake, Tom, give the rest of us a day or two, eh? Only kidding …). The lame question and answer I submitted was just to test the interface!
Anyway, I must admit that when I received Eddie’s email, my first thought was back to a comment that Nuno made on an earlier blog expressing concern about the fragmentation of the Oracle community caused by so many forums, blogs, listservs etc. (The fact I can’t find the comment only adds to my feeling that I need web design lessons from Howard Rogers.) CDOS has provided a free service for many years now (although I’m not completely convinced myself), asktom has grown into a fantastic resource (thanks to the search facility ) and I was particularly conscious of the Co-operative FAQ which seems very similar to OraQA to me. Then there are useful forums.
As usual, I like Eddie’s design and comittment to growing the community, but if there are many sites serving a particular purpose, maybe it’s a distraction? I suppose that the community will decide what they find the most useful in the end and I hope Eddie won’t think I’m being too critical.
I like Eddie’s design and comittment to growing the community
Thank you. That’s what a community is all about, give and take (knowledge that is).
I hope Eddie won’t think I’m being too critical.
Not at all. In fact, Howard had the same feeling as well. I always welcome criticism., it makes me grow and see better.
the community will decide what they find the most useful in the end
Absolutely, I totally agree with you. The community will have its final say, not you, not me, but all of us. If no one in the Oracle community finds OraQA useful for example, OraQA will die by itself. On the other hand, if many of us in the Oracle community find OraQA useful and contribute to it, OraQA will thrive and grow.
Finally, I believe that the Internet is not a Pizza pie, it is an open and vast medium, only the useful and the reliable will surface in this medium, the rest will sink into the black whole of the web…