Re: Event Spam..???

Chander Ganesan wrote:
> Also, I notice a lot of events in the training database that seem to be
> dedicated more to "lead generation" than a reasonable effort to run a
> training course. For example, 'Certfirst' lists PostgreSQL courses
> throughout the US in a wide range of different cities. It is my belief
> that these courses listings are designed not to actually offer a wide
> range of courses, but to maintain a "main page" list of courses to
> generate leads. Is this an acceptable practice? I'd hate to see a
> bunch of vendors adopting this practice to be competitive....
>
> It seems to me that such a practice would not be to the benefit of the
> community - since it wouldn't help community members find events that
> were actually running - rather it would put them in touch with companies
> that could add them to their marketing databases (or they'd get taken
> with a "bait and switch" - where they sign up for a class in the
> Bahamas, but end up being redirected to a course in Chicago).

I agree it's not good if that is what they are doing, but do you have
any proof? How would we distinguish between that, and say a dozen
courses put on by EnterpriseDB, Command Prompt or OTG?

> Also, how about putting a disclaimer on the training pages indicating
> that the listing of training courses doesn't constitute the endorsement
> of a company by the PG community - and that customers should do their
> own due diligence to ensure they get what they pay for. I think many
> customers look at a listing of training and consider it to be an
> endorsement by the community..

I haven't gone quite that far, but following a discussion with Magnus I
have added a line saying that PGDG doesn't endorse any third part events.

Thanks, Dave.