Re: PostgreSQL Certification

On Feb 4, 2008 7:07 AM, Gregory Stark <stark@enterprisedb.com> wrote:
> "Selena Deckelmann" <selenamarie@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > On Feb 4, 2008 4:27 AM, Dave Page <dpage@postgresql.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Even a new domain seems odd to me - if this is to be official, then
> >> surely it should be under postgresql.org.
> >
> > Having a separate TLD actually increases the visibility of the effort
> > from a search engine perspective.
> >
> > We can learn a lesson from Perl advocacy - it is still possible to
> > render projects invisible to the outside world through excessive
> > consolidation.  A search for "perl blogs" still does not put
> > use.perl.org in the top results.
>
> Firstly, if we could be a tenth as successful as Perl that would be great.

I agree!  :)

> Secondly, the above has nothing to do with whether it's in a new domain or not
> and everything to do with how often those blogs are linked to from the outside
> world. I've never heard of them which tells you something about how heavily
> referenced they are.

Ok, I think that I stated things to broadly. The search problem
doesn't affect people who are already in the know - it affects
everyone else.  I'm sure you're aware that a large number of
references doesn't necessarily mean that the information has any
quality.

Too much consolidation inhibits growth and probably discourages it.  I
was only trying to say that there's nothing wrong with having multiple
domains.  If we suddenly had 100 postgresql-related domains pop up
with interesting content, things would be messy for a bit but the
situation would work itself out.

And postgresql.org would still be there to guide the way through the mess.

> In any case search engine optimization is a mugs game. Concentrate on building
> a service that people want to use and people will talk about it and that will
> get you on the search engines. Search engines follow, they don't lead.

I agree except for that last bit.  Search is huge and relying only on
word-of-mouth is silly when we have plenty of people who know how to
optimize.

-selena

--
Selena Deckelmann
PDXPUG - Portland PostgreSQL Users Group
http://pugs.postgresql.org/pdx
http://www.chesnok.com/daily