Tony Davis

Simple-Talk Editor
News, views and good brews

What do you want to see on Simple-Talk?

Published Tuesday, June 12, 2007 4:20 PM

At Simple-Talk, we're always looking for new and innovative ways to present practical technical content to our readers, and to stimulate discussion. Whilst sharpening our pencils, we dream of capturing some of the glorious, anarchic pooling of ideas and creativity that one finds in the open source communities.

 

From the ultra-practical Workbenches, to the "what you need to know rather than want to know" style of the Crib Sheets, to the condensed 'bullet-point' directness of the new Soup-to-Nuts series, we've developed and introduced several different styles of articles in order to help people learn new SQL Server skills.

 

However, we're aware that we could always be doing more – and we'd like to hear your suggestions for additional things you want to see on Simple-Talk.

 

  • Are there different styles of article that you'd like to see?
  • Should we be experimenting with different types of content altogether (book reviews? software reviews?...)
  • Are there ways we could refine our existing content and styles?

What do you think? Add your suggestions below… we'll be offering Simple-Talk goodie bags, including the collectable, executive-style, Red Gate USB dongle, to the three best suggestions. Winners will be announced in the 26th June newsletter.

 

Cheers,

Tony.

Comments

 

Rodney said:

I am so glad you asked...
First I would like to say I visit Simple-Talk at least once a day, not because I blog for it which has been scarce of late, but for the articles that are updated on a regular basis. Robyn Page's article on XML is a perfect example. It was not that I was working on an XML project at the time, but it was more of an IF I were to work on one, this would be an excellent beginning point for me. And further because I read it I was more motivated to begin work on such a project.  Phil Factor always has great insight borne of experience as a top notch DBA and his code and examples are welcome reads.
If anything, I would like to see more code dealing with large scale SQL Server deployments, you know the kind you see in surveys: How many computers are in your organization: 1-20...21-100... Well, working for multi-billion dollar company now...managing 50+ SQL Servers across many different states with a small team of DBA's sometimes calls for high levels of automation. There have been great articles on automating many tasks, and I would like to see more.  This ties in more with wanting to see real world DBA experiences, candid and expository.
Rodney
June 12, 2007 8:54 PM
 

GSquared said:

How about a wiki for how-to and other SQL information?  Articles could be "seeded" by editors, etc., then contributed to by registered users.  Technical articles in wikis often end up being quite good (as opposed to political articles, which have too much controversy in them).

I personally find the wiki article format often more readable than a blog with a lot of comments at the end, but they accomplish similar things.
June 13, 2007 8:21 AM
 

sangha said:

Review section for books and software is a good idea. Also more of real world expreriences would be good.
How about a script library for sharing scripts in categories.
June 24, 2007 5:30 PM
 

herbnet said:

I would think a "HOW TO" area would benefit all newbies to areas or operations they are beginning to use.  The major requirements would be to write the "How To" to never begin or assume the readers have any high level experience in referenced material or on the subject being written about.

Another area could be titled "TOOLS" where users could see which tools are being used by everyone out there.  Just a running count where there is a count of users for a tool and counts showing various acceptance levels the users group themselves. The tools would be entered by us, the user group.  There should also be a date showing the last time a tool's status were updated.
April 7, 2008 2:18 PM
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