Oracle 8i Row Chaining and Migration Article

[slimdave]

What are the plans for the "Performance" series? I wouldn't think that you could let it stand as it is, with so many errors in it.

[fstroud]

slimdave, the Performance series is on hold as the author works on revisions. He hasn't given a timeline on when he expects to have those revisions completed.

[fstroud]

bang_dba, I apologize for making that generalization in my earlier post. I also don't want to speak for the authors too much, so I'll hold off until I hear more from them, specifically from Gaurav.

[chrisrlong]

I understand that these folks are trying to help the general community - as are many of us on these boards. I also understand that they are making an effort to put these articles together, as are, again, many of us who put the effort in on these boards. I also understand that it takes 'guts' to put your thoughts out there for the world to see and critique, so they should be given some leeway for making the attempt.

Understanding all this and knowing how difficult that actually is does give me some amount of sympathy for them

But only a small amount. There are a lot of very bright people on these boards. There have been a lot of very good discussions here. There is also a lot of good information elsewhere.

So to put up an article on this sight without at least knowing the fundamentals of what you are addresssing seems foolish at best.

If somebody gives a wrong answer in this forum, there are usually ten people there to correct them. If one reads through an entire thread, one usually ends up with the right answer and, quite often, a better understanding of the problem. However, that takes a good bit of work on the part of the reader as well.

An article makes it easier on the reader, and so article must be held to a higher standard. The reader does not get the benefit of multiple views on the subject and does not get to see what other people think of the solutions. They generally assume that the author knows what they're talking about, so the solutions presented must be correct.

Therefore, when such an article is fundamentally flawed, as in this latest article, or wildly innaccurate, as in the performance articles, this actually *hurts* the community at large instead of helping it.

1 - If you are going to write an article, have some knowledgeable people check it *before* posting it anywhere real.
2 - If DBASupport.com is really trying to help the community, then they should do the same - have someone knowledgeable check the article before it is posted.

Otherwise,

1 - Some people will be led astray
2 - Once word gets around, the credibility of the author is shot. Which is how I (and I'm sure, many others) feel about the author of that performance series. There is no point in 're-working' the article. This person has already shown that he knows virtually nothing about performance, and has no problem in publishing garbage that is blatantly un-true. So, since I already know that half of what he already published was complete garbage, do you honestly think I'm going to use the 're-worked' article as a source for figuring out things I *don't* know? Please.
3 - The credibility of the web-site can be damaged as well. A lot of people now know about the fiasco with the performance series and that it was posted *here*. Now this latest article and all its issues are posted here as well. Credibility is one of those things that, while it certainly seems hard enough to build once, it is doubly hard to build a second time. Now, I'm not saying that this has hurt the site much, if at all...yet. I'm just saying that we might want to be a little more careful is all.


So, I do apologize for my original glib remark. However, I do feel strongly about protecting against the proliferation of bad information, and am hard-pressed to have sympathy for those that get caught doing it.

- Chris

[jmodic]

I couldn't agree more with what Chris has said.....

[grjohnson]

As an author of a couple of articles on dbasupport.com, I do agree with Chris. Although my articles are "How to.." type articles and I don't enforce my article as being the ONLY way to perform the function, they are only SUGGESTIONS. I do find it important to give correct information to people with similar issues.

Cheers,

[patel_dil]

quote:
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Originally posted by fstroud
Completely different author, but a few similarities -- 1) both are from India and are not entirely comfortable with the English language; 2) both really want to contribute to the Oracle community by helping others, and they've taken it upon themselves to do so by writing these articles for free; and 3) they want and encourage feedback on their articles to make them as accurate as possible.
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Disappointing remarks..

[Edited by patel_dil on 09-26-2002 at 08:28 PM]

[ashoo]

I too agree with chris.I am a new dba and I relay on dba support articles but after reading this thread I lost my faith on forums I was in the impression that these articles are double checked by some knowledgeable dba gurus.

[Tarry]

Originally posted by ashoo
I too agree with chris.I am a new dba and I relay on dba support articles but after reading this thread I lost my faith on forums I was in the impression that these articles are double checked by some knowledgeable dba gurus.

There's no need to lose faith.
How are you going to layout your path to learn and then enhance your knowledge, that's the question.

You should and so do most of the renowned database experts say is read the manuals(starting with the concepts manual) written by the vendor(which also requests you as a reader to correct them). and besides the "Oracle does this or that" (which you too must try to fathom), the rest is all for you to try it out and see if that's the way is works as it says.

Bad Information can be disastrous.

Cheers!

[Sameer]

Originally posted by chrisrlong
1 - If you are going to write an article, have some knowledgeable people check it *before* posting it anywhere real.
2 - If DBASupport.com is really trying to help the community, then they should do the same - have someone knowledgeable check the article before it is posted.

How do you upload articles without checking its contents?

Originally posted by fstroud
Completely different author, but a few similarities -- 1) both are from India and are not entirely comfortable with the English language; 2)

Being a administrator, I feel your way of writting is much surprising than the contents of article...

Sameer

[Edited by Sameer on 09-27-2002 at 09:21 AM]