Comments on: Where’s Your Company’s #SQLHelp Resource?

By: Something for the Weekend - SQL Server Links 07/09/12

Something for the Weekend - SQL Server Links 07/09/12 — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:52:06 +0000

[...] Where’s Your Company’s #SQLHelp Resource? - An interesting idea from Brent Ozar (Blog|Twitter). I’m not sure how well received this would be in corporate environments, it requires the masses to actually think and put a little effort in [...]

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 16:02:36 +0000

I too have had great help from #sqlhelp

A fantastic resource. Thanks to the folks who respond.

By: Josh Feierman

Josh Feierman — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:26:05 +0000

Great idea Brent! We kind of have this at work, where we have an e-mail group of SQL Server gurus where folks can ask questions. We’re trying to crowd source some more help, but it’s difficult because of the generally low level of SQL related skills outiside the so-called SME (Subject Matter Expert) group (a.k.a who’s on that distribution list). Hopefully as time goes on we can develop some more folks to where we can really leverage community knowledge.

By: Justin Dearing

Justin Dearing — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:21:42 +0000

Mala,

I’ve found stackexchange very useful. Do you not get answers or are your questions closed? Would you mind sharing your stackexchange profile I’d like to see the answers you got to your questions.

By: Justin Dearing

Justin Dearing — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:44:28 +0000

Brent,

I really like the idea. Two points though.

First. it shouldn’t be a SQL centric thing. Helpdesk, Sysadmins, network admins and devs should all be invited to participate, especially in a small shop where everyone wears multiple hats. With yammer specifically you could setup a #sqlhelp, #devopsHelp #ciscoHelp etc groups (I forgot what yammer called them).

Second, I was a unix admin before becoming a .NET dev so IRC does hold a special place in my heart. However, something like yammer or salesforce, or an RT ticketing system creates something searchable so you can tell people to RTFM. In a place with poor documentation, this system will become your documentation. #sqlhelp works on twitter because there are eleventy bazillion blog articles out there, and BOL is continuously improving. #SQLHelp is usually more about pointing people in the right direction, the fundamental knowledge is already written down. For most orgs internal systems, this is not the case.

By: Mickey Stuewe

Mickey Stuewe — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:35:56 +0000

Thank you so much for this tip! I recently caved in and set up a Twitter account, but haven’t had much luck finding SQL content. This is exactly why I setup my Twitter account. Now I can participate in it.

Thank you also for the suggestion at work. I do ALL SQL code reviews for our team. I’ve recently started a weekly email with one tip each week to help get our developers up on formatting and writing better SQL. It has been a positive addition to our team for both the Developers and myself.

By: Mala

Mala — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:49:59 +0000

I love #sqlhelp although by nature of twitter, as you say, it as some disadvantages. Also use MSDN and SSC quite a bit. Not had much luck with StackExchange, although tried it a few times.