It is funny. I just realized that my website is over 1 year in existence. I started it as my personal XMLDB notepad on the 9th of April 2007. I wanted the site to be anonymous, but Doug blew the whistle on me, after we had met during Hotsos 2007 and somehow he found the content interesting and added this site to his blog roll. From that moment on I stopped playing with “the idea”; cleaned the website up and started blogging.
Most of my reasons to start this site stand still today:
- I wanted an archive of some sort for my old articles on the AMIS Technology Blog site
- I wanted a better insight in how much this XMLDB material / functionality was used worldwide. The AMIS site would cloud this issue to much because most of the articles there were Java/BPEL/SOA/Oracle related.
- Somehow, I never can my find my tests, sql scripts etc. So therefore the “notepad” function.
- I wanted to be able to write about stuff that inspired me and/or was open for a rant 🙂
Looking back after 1 year, my hobby got a little out of hand (and indirectly contributed also to my Oracle ACE award). I am a little bit skeptical about Dan Norris article “You want to be an Oracle ACE?”. This skepticism is mostly driven by the verb “want“. I never “wanted” it, it just came over me, not realizing that all this fun stuff I was doing somehow contributed to the XMLDB community. If I would have “wanted it”, it would have been costing me to much energy and I would never have been able to keep it up.
Anyhow…
The Numbers
Probably the most interesting part is what are the most read posts on this website? Silly enough, one of the most read one is “SQL*Plus Command Line Options”. A post were I only printed the output while making a typo. Some of the figures indicated that XMLDB posts are gaining ground.
Most read posts
Top search keywords
| 01) cid adware | |
| 02) sqlplus command line | |
| 03) ora-24247 | |
| 04) dizwell | |
| 05) sc command | |
| 06) ora-24247: network access denied by access control list (acl) | |
| 07) xmlsequence | |
| 08) sqlplus command line options | |
| 09) oracle xmlexists example | |
| 10) oracle 10.2.0.4 | |
The “cid adware” keyword is probably found via a post were I described my troubles removing this trojan and apparently more and more people are using Oracle 11gR1 and encounter “ORA-24247” errors / problems with the TCP packages combined with the increased security settings in the new database 11g release.
The totals
Click picture to enlarge
- 31,551 Visits
- 24,980 Absolute Unique Visitors
- 46,612 Pageviews
- 1.48 Average Pageviews
- 00:01:16 Time on Site
- 80.34% Bounce Rate
- 79.22% New Visits
Geographic locations
Click picture to enlarge
Hmmm. So in all. Thanks, I feel honored.
😎
More details here: Google Analytics 2007, 2008
I agree–I never really “wanted” it either, but I know there are some that do “want” to join the ranks. I think it’s difficult to get “in” by trying or wanting. For some, like you, it’s just naturally something they’re already doing. Nonetheless, if someone wants to participate in the community (aka become an ACE), I want them to participate and Sheeri’s ideas are one way to promote easier participation or at least a starting point.
I experienced, also in my own company, that the issue is not the “wanting” part. You are only able to stimulate people who are open for stimulation. It is a matter of “state of mind”. You like to do it or not; Out of free will.
If you “want” to be it, it will cost you more than you have bargained for and you will not be able to keep up the paste. It has to do with character / mentality. You must be open to “give”, instead off to receive (aka “to want”). You like it or not. It is in someones nature.
If you “want” to join the ranks than, IMHO, already your first step towards it, is a wrong one. As I see it, I was honored by the community, for giving freely to the community. The community, aka my peers, should judge who is worthy or not. I still wonder about if I am worthy or not.
Don’t make it easier, let the community decide. The community will do the best job possible regarding it’s judgment.
I wanted the site to be anonymous, but Doug blew the whistle on me,
Oh, no! Here we go again 😉
Glad to still see you hear, a year on ….
(Oh, and I agree with your comment above, too, but I’m probably just being a grumpy old man, as usual ;-))
hear
here!
sigh …
Doug, I am glad you did what you did.
I was playing around for 2 years with the idea; playing with Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, and I don’t know what anymore. Because it became out in the open I had to finish up, clean up the site and just make a start with an idea I was playing with, too long.
Belated happy blogthday! 🙂
Funny, I missed my blogthday second year in a row – I remembered that only now that I read your post. I didn’t even think about it when I read email about domain auto-renewal (again).
Oh well, what was that you said give or give? 😉