November 28, 2006 at 7:15 am
some "new" content
http://www.apexsql.com/lockwood/2006/11/theres-gold-in-them-thar-hills.html
http://www.apexsql.com/lockwood/2006/11/red-gate-says-sqlservercentral-served.html
http://www.apexsql.com/lockwood/2006/11/out-foxed.html
http://www.apexsql.com/lockwood/2006/11/response-to-red-gates-shill-factor.html
http://www.apexsql.com/lockwood/2006/11/red-gate-will-soon-start-reviewing.html
coming soon ...
I will post soon "building the next SQLServerCentral from scratch - right this time - technical and ethical foundations of a web based community."
I will soon start to aggregate a list of people wanting to participate/lead in this project along with a suggested list of corporate "supporters" who'd be lined up to bankroll it with advertising spending.
I will post "Rules of Site Governance" that Jude O'Kelly is working on for SQL-Server-Performance t0 provide full disclosure so people will *know* how his site is run. It will form a "blue print" for other sites to emulate (something that should be required for any site calling itself a "community") - and also one the new owners of SSC could belatedly write up to help address some concerns.
I will post specific requirements for how this site should be run to address the majority of concerns expressed by SQLWildBill and others, including everyone who has written me. RG can of course ignore it (as they've done everything else I've said) but at their own peril.
I will post scan of part of my sql-server-performance contract proving the existance of anti-competive clauses used by RG (no other company in this industry does this - if they do they steer clear of my company as I've never seen it). This should address some doubt about my claims to this regard.
One interesting side effect of this - advertisers are tripping over themselves to tell me they don't allow the aforementioned anti-competitive practices (bogus exclusivity clauses etc). Obviously they have caught wind of this story (and want my excess ad dollars!) I'm meeting with the Editor of SD Times next week to review this story (if you don't get this publication you should check it out - it's kind of like a technical newspaper) Exposing this practice alone is a tangible accomplishment from this fracas.
Brian Lockwood
President
ApexSQL - SQL Developer Essentials
November 28, 2006 at 7:41 am
Your last post shows good positive action. I was not intoning for you to 'shut-up' politely or otherwise, simply stating that what I viewed as repetitive ranting was not productive. The actions you are now taking (perhaps were already long in the works) are something different and which I prefer to see - I do wish you luck in the enterprise and will watch it with interest. Being a so-called serial-entrepreneur myself, I much prefer competitive action vs the verbal ranting.
One last point and I will retire from this thread as I do try to contribute to a thread vs simply add to the tirade- Your mention of anti-competitive clauses, is unfortunately, nothing new. In the 90s I worked at one of the original programming add-on tools vendors and the tactics used by some vendors, magazines, distributors and retailers was an eye-opening experience to me. Some were just irritating - a few unethical (to me) and one or two I would have thought borderline illegal, including suing a competitor to simply drain their resources, or the so-called 'co-marketing dollars' (kickbacks) to the distribution chain for simply 'touching' your product. Business can be ugly, hence my earlier comment about the 'high-road'.
Best of luck
Non illigitamus carborundum
November 28, 2006 at 8:17 am
Tim,
it seems like you have seen more of these practices in your career than most have. You know this stuff goes on, I know it goes on - but the vast majority of this community doesn't. And in my opinion it's important that people are allowed to make informed decisions about whether to support this site or not based on real information - not platitudes and "talking points" from the RG marketing dept that cut against what experienced business people know as the truth. This conversation (and in fact you've articulated even worse example than I have) goes a long way to accomplish this. Thanks for your follow-up.
Brian Lockwood
President
ApexSQL - SQL Developer Essentials
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