The social network for Oracle people

People are missing Howard...

Today I was checking statistics of my blog. Some of the traffic was from search engines and 1 guy searched for dizwell password in Google. I have one post about Dizwell and then an update that Howards has password protected his website content. So Google directed him here.

One thing for sure...People are missing Howard...at least I do :(

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Eddie Awad on February 25, 2008 at 9:23pm: Maybe you should start a petition here in the form of a forum post titled "Petition: Howard, please come back" or something like that. Then, invite people to sign it (i.e. reply to the post with at least their name). After gathering enough signatures, email the link to the post to Howard. Maybe he'll change his mind then. Just an idea.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amardeep Sidhu on February 25, 2008 at 9:57pm: Nice idea Eddie...I am gonna do it...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TongucY on February 26, 2008 at 12:03am: > Maybe he'll change his mind then.

We all know Howard and his stand, blog tagging was the cause he closed his resources, so I am nearly sure that he will not give any interest similarly for a petition on another social networking environment.

But yes we all miss his fantastic articles and of course his OTN forums replies, so let's give it a try :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kevin Krause on February 26, 2008 at 12:28pm: all I can think of is...heaven help the soul that gives out Howard's password!

I do hope he changes his mind.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stew Stryker on February 26, 2008 at 1:22pm: So who was this Oracle Community that blog-spammed him? He referred to it on his front page. Was that caused simply by the creation of this community? Or because people kept doing track-backs to his blog?

What's the beef?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eddie Awad on February 26, 2008 at 1:31pm: Stew, here is some background information.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TongucY on February 26, 2008 at 1:36pm: It was blog tagging Stew, check this one;
http://www.oracle-base.com/blog/2008/01/10/quick-note-about-publish...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Stew Stryker on February 26, 2008 at 1:51pm: Thanks for the clue, guys. I didn't reply to that semi-chain-letter, or realize that it was showing up in some Oracle aggregator. I can certainly see how some would find it annoying. But as you said, they can just subscribe more-specifically.

Howard's comment that his request for people to lay off sounds like it wasn't well-received. So I guess we deserve the punishment we get. Personally, I'd never heard of his site before this! That shows how heads-down I've been around here! :-/; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Howard Rogers on February 26, 2008 at 3:18pm: Thank you Stew. You make my point beautifully.

Other people screw around with things and it becomes MY responsibility to "subscribe more specifically"? I don't think so.

When someone drives dangerously on the highway, is it then your responsibility to get out of their way? Pragmatically, you might well do so, because you value life and limb. But actually, the responsibility is for the dangerous driver to slow down and stop being dangerous.

Pragmatically, I've just quit the community, because there are idiots in it who think behaving like a thug is OK... and justify their behaviour by saying that it's my responsibility to deal with its consequences, not theirs to avoid causing them in the first place. But actually, they shouldn't have caused them in the first place!

Meanwhile, one doesn't "subscribe" to a blog aggregator. One just visits www.orana.info... so if you'd care to explain how to "more specifically" read a web page, I'd be curious to hear it.

So, short answer is: no, you can't just "be more specific" about it; and even if you could, you shouldn't have to. The fault, dear Brutus, lies in the people doing the spamming, not in the alacrity or grace (or lack thereof) with which one dodges the spam.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary on February 26, 2008 at 8:39pm: "one doesn't "subscribe" to a blog aggregator"
Not quite accurate. OraNa.info provides aggregated RSS feeds (see the right hand side of the web page) to which you can subscribe through an RSS feed reader. For those who don't wish to subscribe, it does allow you to view the aggregated RSS feed through the web page.
Personally, I prefer to subscribe using Google Reader, so view the feed through the Google Reader interface (also through the web, so nothing installed locally). Google Reader keeps track of which items I've read and which I haven't, so I don't miss any items (or I can mark an item as unread if I want to re-read it later in more detail). It also allows me to include other RSS feeds that aren't in the OraNA aggregation (eg comments on Jonathan Lewis's Scratchpad blog).
I'm not saying its wrong to only use the web-page to view the aggregated feed. Just that there are other options that offer more power/flexibility; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Howard Rogers on February 26, 2008 at 8:50pm: I am quite aware that Eddie provides all sorts of options to people that want them. I'm aware how RSS readers work. I do actually understand the technology and I don't need lessons or explanations. I'm not actually that thick!

The fact remains: all of your advice actually misses the simple point: THIS "one" does exactly what he said he did, and doesn't see any reason why he should change the way he's been reading the site for about two years just because some jokers think a bit of vandalism is just harmless fun.

Instead of telling me to be more selective, do things differently, install some RSS reader software, install some firefox plugin, change my browser (which have all been pieces of advice offered during this sorry saga in one venue or another) how about people absorbing one simple message: it's wrong to spam. It's wrong to flood news channels with crap. It's wrong to expect other people to change their behaviour just so you can indulge in some antisocial activity or other.

That's all that needs be said. Offering this sort of 'technological advice by way of a fix' misses the fact that WRONG has been done and HARM inflicted, and no amount of technological amelioration changes that. Moreover, suggesting there's a technological workaround merely shows tolerance for that wrong-doing. And whilst the "community" demonstrates such tolerance, I will not be making my material available. End of story.

Further, I won't participate in such a "community", except when the existence of a petition on a site is drawn to my attention by a well-wisher in an email and except to the extent that I can explain why a petition to me is a complete waste of time, but a complaint to the vandalising culprits might pay dividends.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gary on February 27, 2008 at 3:30pm: "and doesn't see any reason why he should change the way he's been reading the site for about two years just because some jokers think a bit of vandalism is just harmless fun."
I don't want to be drawn into the debate about 'blog-tag'. I wasn't recommending actively subscribing to the feed purely in response to that. Rather that I recommended it as a way of dealing with an increasing volume of posts available through OraNa and those feeds which aren't available through OraNa.
I recommend Google Reader as an install-free option that works fine in the major browsers without any plug-in. Where people's circumstances and requirements differ, they may have other preferences for a reader.; ▶ Reply to This