MOSC….

Change is always welcome. Its the sign that some thing is moving, some thing is getting improved. With change, there are always chances for new ideas to get born and groom. By constantly changing the way things are working, we always can make our work, life more better. To sum up, to grow, become more error-free, a change is required.

But as it is said, there is nothing always black or white. There are always exceptions to every rule. I mentioned above change as its need in our lives. Does it mean we should get married to a new person every other year to make our lives more better ? Heck no! And there are some rules which work forever. One out of those rules is, if some thing is not broken , don’t try to fix it. We need change but it should be done if there is a need to bring it. It should not be done just to make sure that no one sits idle and there should be some work for people to do, doesn’t matter its useless work too.
When OTN Forums( http://forums.oracle.com) got upgraded( or degraded, whatever you may want to call it, suit yourself) and the new point system got introduced, there was a huge hue and cry among many people. Some liked it , some hated it, some didn’t bother. Many blog posts were written talking about its pros/cons, many threads were created over Forums to understand/protest/suggest about it. I am not going to write another post talking about the same thing. I chose to be neutral about it. There is no need to shout over something which we can’t change. I like/dislike point system, it won’t make any difference to OTN team and in their decision to bring it or discard it. Infact, I guess with some exceptions like repeated posts to get points, people not bothering about giving points to right answers, this point system have proved to be good. I know couple of posters whose question count is in thousands. With the previous method of making someone a top user with only number of posts, they could had become top user as well with no benefit to others. They just ask questions, don’t contribute by helping others and that’s what a top user(s) should do. So with point system, only “noisy” people got sacked from the top user listing. Though its not the NYSE listing ,dropping from which can give some one a heart attack but still, now the list is having those who really spend time to give answers. Okay, there are still debates, arguements about some posters that they don’t do the right thing and have attained points by repeated posts. But I guess, there is no system which is totally error-free. So to sum up , this change over the OTN Forums was a welcome change, atleast for me( and if I don’t mention the sluggish performance of forums afterwards, another topic and may be another day).

But one ketchup doesn’t suit all the dishes does it?  I was browsing over Twitter and I read a link which Eddie posted,

http://www.dba-oracle.com/oracle_news/news_oracle_support_community.htm

WTH! So it means that now over Metalink too, there will be point system? So what would be the metalink support analysts will do? What if some one who is not from Oracle support attains more points than anyone ?Should we start listening to him/her and leave what Support people say as they don’t have “enough points” to prove that they are right? There is so much debate that people are striving to become top users over OTN forums. Now what would happen, if some one from Support or not from Support would come and try the same?I have not seen the interface of this MOSC yet but if its the same like OTN than what if someone finds an answer from someone rude and reports it as abuse? Would that person be banned from Metalink as one can be from OTN? Not to forget about the requirement to use Flash to use the new interface! Some thing which didn’t require any fix got “fixed” and now everyone is in a “fix” what would happen next?

I don’t think that this was needed at all. There may be something better in someone’s mind who suggested , implemented all this. But I believe, some times , simple is better. I still like my normal Nokia8210 the most, doesn’t matter what Iphone has brought up? Not so modern may be I am!