To: Michael Dean <mdean@sourceview.com>
Cc: pgsql-advocacy@postgresql.org,  pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Toward A Positive Marketing Approach.
References: <446CD9F3.9020100@sourceview.com>
In-Reply-To: <446CD9F3.9020100@sourceview.com>
From: Greg Stark <gsstark@mit.edu>
Organization: The Emacs Conspiracy; member since 1992
Date: 19 May 2006 01:28:02 -0400
Message-ID: <87sln6oa71.fsf@stark.xeocode.com>
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Michael Dean <mdean@sourceview.com> writes:

> Greetings Guys
> 
> As a newbie person moving away from my technical background to marketing, I
> think a refreshed course for pg is needed!  So far I have read all 5000 or so
> of this month's emails and want to make a few remarks IMHO:
> 
> 1.  We should treat all marketing efforts by hackers/programmers as social
> bugs.  Get some marketing pros (debuggers) in on this, or the popularity of
> postgresql will continue to pale in the real world.

And this is a problem why? You seem to have mistaken this as some sort of
commercial project that needs to return a profit or some sort of evangelical
movement. It is neither. The contributors get the benefit of a good database
which for whatever varied reasons satisfies their needs.

> 8. Stop mentioning mysql in every breath.  It serves them, not pg.  After all,
> mysql must be better, or why would these folks at pg be so specifically,
> vociferously and universally concerned! talk only about pg, make comparisons to
> the whole field of db's, don't single anyone out!

I do agree with this point (though not the rationale). 

Bashing mysql (or Oracle) doesn't really accomplish much to improve Postgres
or help Postgres users. There is some room for "let's avoid the mistakes
others have made" or "learn from what others have done well", but there's an
awful lot of contentless "mysql sucks" threads too. Personally I have "mysql"
killfiled in these lists.

-- 
greg