For those keeping score at home...
March 25 2008
Yes, earlier today, TechTarget managed to send a fourth e-mail to SearchDomino subscribers advertising how a particular vendor can help you migrate off Lotus Notes to "modern platforms", claiming
migration off Lotus Notes applications improves ROI, speeds application deployment, and minimizes disruption to users - while preserving software investments.My e-mail to executive editor Christine Herbert bounced -- apparently, she is no longer with TechTarget. My e-mail to site editor Matt Gervais drew a response, though. Matt forwarded an e-mail from the TechTarget publisher, Jon Brown. In the short e-mail, Jon apologizes for the mistake and indicates that it will be fixed in any "subsequent promotion" to "more accurately reflect the needs" of SearchDomino readers.
Unfortunately, that's what Christine said the last time. Given that they are at least apologizing reactively to those who contact them about this, I wrote to Gervais and Brown, suggesting once again that they should be e-mailing that apology out to the entire mailing list that got the fourth offensive e-mail. Eight hours later, no response to that. I am disappointed that they seem to have an organizational impediment to doing the right thing, especially after promising to do exactly that the last time.
Oh, and if you thought by title that this blog post was going to be about a different topic going around the Lotus blogosphere today, I'm going to pass on that. (Update: Ok, I couldn't pass, not when I saw the discussion on Nathan's site). Sometimes we all are reminded of our humanity, emotion, and desire to be part of something that is "good", though these are not always shared beliefs in business.
Post a Comment
- 2
Michael | 3/26/2008 2:39:04 AM
I've unsubscribed. The latest news letter was the final straw.
The email subject alone forced me to read it and I find comments like this;
- Moving Lotus Notes to a modern enterprise platform can be a difficult process.
- Modernizing Lotus Notes applications is fraught with difficulties, complex decisions, and considerable expense. But, with the right approach, migration off Lotus Notes applications improves ROI, speeds application deployment, and minimizes disruption to users - while preserving software investments.
I still wondering what "while preserving software investments." means.
- 3
Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 3/26/2008 4:01:29 AM
One is drawn to wonder if Christine Herbert jumped or was pushed off the plank.
- 4
Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 3/26/2008 5:13:33 AM
Thoughts...
1) How does migrating off something preserve software investments?
2) What's a modern platform? Exchange? It should be modern, they pull it apart and make sweeping changes every release.
- 5
Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 3/26/2008 5:21:12 AM
@3 according to the mail from Matt Gervais, she left for another job opportunity. I should have said this originally...
- 6
Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 3/26/2008 5:55:56 AM
I'm still struggling to get unsubscribed since the last time Ed blogged about it. I still get techtarget stuff and maybe I've read 5% of them over the last several years.
- 7
Ian Scott | 3/26/2008 6:44:39 AM
@4 - (2) I offer Eclipse as a modern platform. 8-)
- 8
Ben Langhinrichs http://www.GeniiSoft.com/showcase.nsf/GeniiBlog | 3/26/2008 6:58:46 AM
As you know, Ed, I have defended TechTarget's right to sell advertising to those who promote migration tools, but I have to agree that they have more than stepped over the line with these repeated e-mails disparaging Notes/Domino, despite being informed of the community's reaction and promising, then reneging, not to do so again. I have seriously considered advertising with TechTarget prior to this, and have even been in discussions with their ad salespeople, but I won't cooperate with an organization that behaves this way.
- 9
Dennis Ellison | 3/26/2008 8:33:53 AM
No problem - unsubsribed all channels.
- 10
Danny Lawrence | 3/26/2008 9:25:22 AM
@5 Ed, that still doesn't answer the "did she jump or was she pushed" question. The "other opportunity" might have been found as a result of much "urging" by her superiors.
- 11
Kevin | 3/26/2008 9:39:08 AM
I would say the nut of it is that the vendor has paid for that advert space so they can't just yank it.
Poor decision on their part but I have noticed that quite a bit with TechTarget pubs. Too bad, some of the Search x sites were decent awhile ago.
The money all spends the same though and I suspect they simply aren't all that concerned about it.
Keep in mind that under their Windows and Distributed Computing" topic, Domino is the only non MSFT product in the mix of sites.
I suggest some Domino consultancies should buy ads on the SearchExchange email. ; )
K.
- 12
Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 3/26/2008 10:10:58 AM
I had started to blog about it and dissect the Unify proposal, then decided I did not have all day to do so.
Now read this which is what you see after you click on the link from the email:
"Moving from Lotus Notes to Microsoft's .NET platform can be a difficult and time-consuming process. It inevitably requires retiring or replacing a large number of applications and converting the rest. In order to minimize the retraining of users and performance lags, it is importance to migrate the suitable applications as quickly and efficiently as possible."
In order to minimize performance lags? So migrating off Domino makes your apps slower? At least they admit upfront there will be a long lead time to migrate apps, if ever, because there is no easy way to take something designed to share and stick it into something which has no interest in sharing(see the list of products required to get an app to run under Microsoft).
- 13
Debbie Farley | 3/26/2008 12:55:32 PM
I have unsubscribed and written to Matt Gervais to let him know of my displeasure.
And the others are right. There are many more sources for Notes/Lotus/Domino help and tips.
I'm personally using bleedyellow.com frequently to find tips and tricks.)
- 14
Lars Olufsen http://www.olufsphere.com | 3/26/2008 1:46:40 PM
I took part in one of their webinars. That was branded as "Migrating from Notes to SOA", but in reality it was "Migrating from Notes to .NET", with no clue whatsoever about SOA.
Even simple SOA questions quickly went "unnoticed" despite there only being 3 attendees.
It was a farce. And it's sad that anybody tries to push it on customers.
Thing is, almost nobody I know in the Domino world actualy subscribes to SearchDomino any more. I unsubbed some time ago after the last round of "junk that old Domino crap" spams.