More, More, More

  • Before I type, I'm not in the best position to judge and some suggestions I make might be a little out of place.

    I joined this site when I was doing some personal work and I needed help connecting to SQL Server from VB6 on a remote system.

    Since then I've not really been working with MSSQL and whenever I see your newsletter in my mail box, i feel a bit guilty that I wont read it.

    I'm actually interested in working as a DBA but have not been opportuned to get such a job. On that note, my first suggestion:

    1. There is a page for SQL jobs, I think I've been there once but they are mostly jobs in the US IIRC, I would appreciate it if the reach is extended - say, to include even Nigeria;-):cool:

    2. I would suggest we have more basic stuff for novices (like me :hehe:) to learn from the scratch.

    3. On the whole though, I must say it is a very nice site - easy to use, friendly advice etc. Keep it up.

    P.S Oh, and I must add, I do enjoy the editorials (whenever I get to open the newsletter, that is)

  • Steve, it might be helpful to have something akin to Spolsky's "Reading Lists" section on his page. There is a lot of great content on SSC, but maybe some lists of the classics/most read/highest rated articles and posts would be neat. Sections for "Top 10", "Accidental DBA", "Performance", "Backups", "T-SQL", "Reporting" etc...and not limited to the normal divisions of articles/editorials/blog posts and such.

    At any rate, keep up the good work!

    Thanks,

    Tim

  • Steve, it looks to me like you are asking some questions that are very relevant to how today's technology is used to learn about customers and be able to respond better and faster to their needs and challenges. I think that if you add other types of communication aids, your site will quickly engage other segments of the technology users who are used to those new ways of communicating.

  • I agree with the comments on more organizing and better search. Search is hard, but worth even an incremental gain. One area that I find to be tedious is replies to forums. I'd really like to just have them emailed to me rather than the link. Another nice to have would be the option to get instant notification or a daily digest of replies to topics I follow, reduce the email some.

    There is probably 'more' to do, but nothing I feel like I'm missing or wanting comes to mind. If you do add something, I think it should be something at a lower frequency, or maybe based on events that happen, rather than trying to add more on a daily/weekly basis.

  • The site is great. I'll add my voice to improving the search engine. It would be nice to be able to limit the search when you do it the first time to Articles for instance, instead of having to do the search and then uncheck the boxes to do the search again to just get the articles.

    Since I access this site mostly at work, the video portion is usually not touched, so more video, while neat, would go unused by me. I'd have to remember to look at it when I get home, which isn't too likely.

    A library of "Best of" articles or the highest rated articles or something like that would be nice. A section on basic SQL stuff going to the more complicated stuff might be good too, although figuring out what is "basic" and what is "complicated" might be a trick and a half.

    Tutorials would be neat, but I have found that most of the tutorials available are VERY basic and there is nothing that is kinda mid-level. I know the basics (UPDATE, SELECT, DELETE, INSERT) but when it comes to some of the other stuff, like COALESCE, I'm a bit fuzzy on them. It would be nice to have articles and such that concentrate on other T-SQL commands organized somewhere, kinda like the library of "Best of" articles.

    The site provides a huge amount of information, which is what I love about it. Finding the information, though, can be frustrating at times. It is possible that there are so many requests for similar problems on the forums because the info to solve them can't easily be found (although a good portion of them, I'm sure, are because the poster is too lazy to go looking before he posts).

    -- Kit

  • My situation is similar to others. I likely would not use or appreciate video very much. I mostly use this site by reading the article summaries of the daily e-mail newsletter and following up if relevant.

    That said, I like the suggestions Phil Factor and GilaMonster. I also greatly like the suggestion from Andy Warren if I understand it correctly. If I am following the discussion on an article, I get those e-mails telling me there is another reply. In addition to the link (in case I want to reply back), can't you include the text of the reply in the e-mail? It would save me a lot of hassle if I could just read the e-mail.

    I like the article and discussion format. Great resource for filling in holes in my knowledge.

    Thanks for asking.

  • This site is great as is.

    I for one do not use all its resources now. Mostly the editorial, definitely the QotD and then look through the articles for something relevant.

    I probalbly wouldn't use anything live as I access from work and that would be frowned apon.

  • Most useful to me would be an improved search and categorization. The ability to perform an advanced search and limit results based on certain criteria would be useful. Organizing the scripts and articles into something more usable would enhance the sight substantially.

    On a side, the title made me think of a White Wedding. It must be what happened after:

    Last night a little dancer came dancin' to my door

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
    I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
    Learn Extended Events

  • CirquedeSQLeil (5/14/2010)


    On a side, the title made me think of a White Wedding. It must be what happened after:

    Last night a little dancer came dancin' to my door

    I believe you may be thinking of a Rebel Yell

    --------------------------------------
    When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
    --------------------------------------
    It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
    What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
    You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

  • Stefan Krzywicki (5/14/2010)


    CirquedeSQLeil (5/14/2010)


    On a side, the title made me think of a White Wedding. It must be what happened after:

    Last night a little dancer came dancin' to my door

    I believe you may be thinking of a Rebel Yell

    Rebel Yell is the one that has that lyric - but then the association to Billy Idol made me quickly jump to White Wedding. After more more more, they must have decided to get married;-)

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
    I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
    Learn Extended Events

  • CirquedeSQLeil (5/14/2010)


    Stefan Krzywicki (5/14/2010)


    CirquedeSQLeil (5/14/2010)


    On a side, the title made me think of a White Wedding. It must be what happened after:

    Last night a little dancer came dancin' to my door

    I believe you may be thinking of a Rebel Yell

    Rebel Yell is the one that has that lyric - but then the association to Billy Idol made me quickly jump to White Wedding. After more more more, they must have decided to get married;-)

    Very old-fashioned! : -)

    Now I want to hear a 1950s style cover of that song...

    --------------------------------------
    When you encounter a problem, if the solution isn't readily evident go back to the start and check your assumptions.
    --------------------------------------
    It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.
    What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?
    You ask a glass of water. -- Douglas Adams

  • I rarely have time to read blogs, but surveys are fun to answer and easy to see a bar-graph of results. Maybe a daily or weekly one-question Q&A survey would be fun and informative. It's nice to see what other people are doing.

  • I'll also echo Gail's suggestion on better searching capabilities. Maybe a section that has top 100 articles recommended by people who's points are above 3000 or some other number.

    Along with better organization maybe something like a book index. One of the reasons I still buy books is to be able to quickly go to the back, use the index and find what I'm looking for. I'm not sure how you'd do that but online stuff misses that.

    One thing I like about this site is being able to interact with MVP's, Authors and people who are seasoned SQL professionals. Anyway to enhance this or lure more people like that here would be great. Maybe along these lines would be something like a section or link on the article to where someone could write a recommendation or peer review on the article. I think this would help newer authors trying to break in. Besides how cool would it be to have your article peer reviewed by highly respected known people. This does happen somewhat in the discussions.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    Use Full Links:
    KB Article from Microsoft on how to ask a question on a Forum

  • Trey Staker (5/14/2010)


    One thing I like about this site is being able to interact with MVP's, Authors and people who are seasoned SQL professionals. Anyway to enhance this or lure more people like that here would be great. Maybe along these lines would be something like a section or link on the article to where someone could write a recommendation or peer review on the article. I think this would help newer authors trying to break in. Besides how cool would it be to have your article peer reviewed by highly respected known people. This does happen somewhat in the discussions.

    I like that idea. I think the peer review would need to be submitted along the same lines as the original article.

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
    I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
    Learn Extended Events

  • The two things I would like to see are:

    1) Lock old (after defining "old") threads from being resurrected, or, a "warning" to the new poster that this thread is old, and may be better to open a new thread, perhaps quoting the old thread. I have noticed new users replying to threads that are 1+ years old.

    2) Perhaps, I am sure this will get opposition from the others, but have the "Active Threads" page update similar to Facebook. 🙂

    -- Cory

Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 78 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply