Re: 9.5 Release press coverage

On 12 January 2016 at 14:58, Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> wrote:

> Three companies offered PR help with the release: EDB, Equinux, and
> Dalibo. I know that other companies have paid PR staff, some of them
> quite good ones. So while I'm down with giving advice to the EDB folks
> on being community-friendly, I'm really not happy with the amount of
> shit they get from various members of the community every release,
> especially from employees of companies who could have offered PR help
> and didn't.
>

I wasn't aware that you were accepting external assistance; had we been
aware you would have received offers from 2ndQuadrant and probably others
also. Not everybody that cares and can help reads this list regularly.

For the future, if you want additional help, just ask. You can rely on
2ndQuadrant every release, every time.

> Renee did a terrific job getting the 9.5 release in front of analysts
> and publications who don't return my calls; I would say that 60% of our
> english-language press coverage is due to her team's efforts.
>

Renee did a terrific job, yes, though the result makes people think that
the 9.5 release was produced by EDB.

When you say "our" press coverage, presumably you mean the Postgres
Community? How can it be "our" press coverage when we are not mentioned
anywhere? What you mean is that only 40% of the press coverage about
Postgres 9.5 mentions the people that produced the product. Wow, that has
to be some kind of international record for poor PR.

Oxford dictionary thinks that "announce" means "make a formal public
statement about a fact, occurrence, or intention.". To "announce" something
clearly implies that you have the right to make *formal* public statements,
which in this case they clearly do not. Other definitions use the word
official.

"EDB ... today announced the general availability of PostgreSQL 9.5"
clearly implies that the release was announced by EDB and not by the
Postgres Community. Reasonable, objective observers of that statement would
be confused by the word "announce", since it clearly implies that EDB is
the main developer. (To refute this, please measure how many time people
use the word "announce" in regard to new software releases when they do not
own the software).

That obscures the truth and is unhelpful to the PostgreSQL Community, since
we gain strength from acting together.

I accept that the post was approved by mistake and is not likely to be
approved in the future. What is surprising is it was sent at all, to
anyone. Surely any group should be concerned when someone starts making
formal announcements about them, especially when it is an insider, acting
without authority.

At what point does the core team act against this? Many people are
disappointed to see no censure, no action, not even disagreement with those
actions.

> Yes, it's worth discussing "how can we do better next time". But
> EnterpriseDB is, as a company, a big contributor to the PostgreSQL
> project, so please let's treat the EDB folks as contributors and stop
> with the shit-fests.

If we are to consider EDB's contributions, would it not also be reasonable
to consider other people's contributions as well, since those have been
obscured?

--
Simon Riggs http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
<http://www.2ndquadrant.com/>
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