On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 1:18 PM, Trevor Perry <trevor@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Your posting was unnecessary, rather it seemed
to be a complaint that COMMON did not market according to your own
personal standards, beefed up by identifying more of COMMON's perceived
failings. Ironically, you even suggested that you "long ago tuned out
anything having to do with COMMON", so how would you know whether "this
free, virtual, open event was not more heavily promoted"? Your posting,
overall, was more complaint than neutral observation. And that complaint
can be easily perceived as an attack.
My primary exposure to IBM i news is this list. I would have expected
more of an announcement on this list than Pete's post (starting this
thread). He even starts it off with "Not sure if everyone knows...".
It feels like an afterthought. If there had been even a modest
campaign to put notices on this list, by now I would have expected
messages to be more like "Don't forget that this Tuesday is...". If
I'd seen that, then I would have assumed that I simply missed previous
messages, due to my being too tuned out to COMMON events. (At least I
caught this one!)
I actually do see a lot of buzz on this list for paid COMMON events.
To my "tuned out" ear it sounds like a bunch of COMMON members telling
each other "hey, I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming COMMON
event!" But there is usually a flurry of such messages, so I do tend
to notice. I don't have any kill list or filter that hides COMMON
from my inbox. I just don't read them as carefully as some of the
other posts.
So I often hear about paid events, yet I hadn't heard about tomorrow's
free event until I checked my e-mail this morning. And no, it's not
my intention to blame anyone else for my own lack of information.
Just reporting a data point, which is me. (I will say that when I
e-mailed the link to my coworkers, it was the first they had heard of
it, and one of them *is* a COMMON member.)
If you want to consider me a complainer, that's certainly your
prerogative. I think the i is a platform worth promoting, and the
community surrounding it worth reaching. I am utterly amazed by the
value of this list. I think COMMON would add more value to the i
community *and to itself* (in the form of a greater chance to win over
new members) if it mentioned its free events more *on this list*.
That's my opinion.
Pete, thank you for your subsequent (long) post about COMMON, and why
it may be worth another look.
Eric, thanks for the heads up about watching the material later; I
hope people see it in time and register!
John
midrange.com
