Friday, September 19, 2008

OTN forums : 28 days later, what else ?

In reference to the horror movie 28 days later.

Tomorrow, already 4 weeks later. Or 28 days later... (to continue the movie reference, read this article : 500)
28 days after the OTN forum's software upgrade. And ?

Well, a lot of posts have been written about new features around the blogoshpere- like the most (in)famous point system.

So, 28 days later, where are we ? Instability is still the main problem, at least from some part of the world.We have to be patient, or learn patience... down... up... down... up... and network issue...

Instability.

The top user list has been dropped down. Since OTN forums is cumulated points and no more the number of posts for the top10 users, everyone have seen his point counter dropped to 0.
Ok, if this is not a problem in the two major forum (Database - General and SQL & PL/SQL) where there is enough activity to show this activity, I think this is a real problem on some less popular forum like one of my favorite - Peoplesoft.
Between instability, no more people in the top users list, and a point system not very well explained, people are went away. There was some sort of activities in such forum, but since... there is very, very, very few.

Less acitvity.

Then, some new behaviours have been seen. Ok, there is an report abuse button, very good. But...
Sometimes, there are a bunch of answers without more questions about the requirements where it would be required. Pity.
Some people copy&paste what they found over Internet/Metalink without given the link reference, and they got points, because the OP doesn't realize the plagiarism (it seems to me it happens much more than before). Pity.
Sometimes answers are marked as correct when obviously it is not. Pity.
Sometimes answers are marked as correct for giving a link to http://tahiti.oracle.com/. Does that make sense ?
Sometimes people claim their points. Pity. Did they claimed a thanks before ?
It is interesting to see how point system has motivated some people to try their chance, and also to "reactivate" some old account. Indeed, I haven't seen so much active "old" account since a while.
I have no statistics, but seems to be a lot of new users have been created after the upgrade...
In the mean time, a lot of other people disappeard.
Coincidence ?

New people. New behaviour.

Well, finally, it seems we got a new "OTN forums world", like a new world 28 days after pandemic with only few survivors.

I wish a long and a workable life to the OTN forums.

Have fun,