My Top 10 Things I Hate About SQL post has been an interesting social experiment, to say the least. I knew I was taking a risk by not clearly stating that it was intended as humor, but I thought it would be funny to just post it to see what kind of responses came back. I did categorize it as “humor” and I did indicate that a “guest blogger” composed the post, but those were definitely very subtle clues. I also tried to incorporate some sarcastic “anti-M$” stuff as well, but as anyone who reads SlashDot knows, those people are usually very serious and quite vocal in the community.
Needless to say, I have not been disappointed by the feedback. It's funny how people have responded:
- People who actually know SQL -- they get the joke and seem to enjoy it
- People who don't know SQL at all -- they agree with my points! (scary!)
- People who *think* they know SQL -- they think I am a moron because the sarcasm isn't obvious to them
Of course, there are other factors involved as well: having a sense of humor, being familiar with my other posts, whether or not you are just skimming the post or reading it carefully, etc. But overall, it seems people fall pretty neatly into one of those 3 categories.
What makes it complicated, I guess, is that every one of those top 10 items is something I've seen people ask for help on in the forums at SQLTeam. Every database design lampooned in my post actually exists and we've all seen them! I really didn't make any of them up, and it is indeed plausible that someone might legitimately create that very same top 10 list in all seriousness. Those who wrote in to tell me I am an idiot usually did so because they disagreed with some of the points, but not all of them!
Overall, my two favorites are the guy who called me a "retard", and the other who agreed with my list and complained that computers were not sufficiently advanced enough to figure out what we meant to tell it to do for us. (He also complained that we don't have flying cars yet!)
Thank you all for the great feedback, and happy new year!