Re: Time to start the PR machine - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

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Okay, here is my first pass. I've got more comments that what I've said here,
but we'll start out easy. ;)

> ## November 2005:  The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announced today

What, no byline to argue over? Gainesville, FL okay with everyone? :)

s/announced today/announces/? or simply "announced"? "has announced"?
(I'm not liking the "today" part, obviously)

> the release of PostgreSQL 8.1.   The new version, containing many advanced
> database features as well as performance enhancements, makes PostgreSQL

Might be nice to have a few words about what PostgreSQL is: we don't say
anywhere that we are a RDBMS, that we are BSD-licensed, and that we are
the most powerful (open source) db.

> the reference platform for high-volume, high-peformance open source data
> centers.

s/peformance/performance/

Are we a "platform?" Is there a better word?

Do we need "open source" in that sentence?

> "This is our second major release in 2005," said _____, PostgreSQL major
> contributor, "It's very exciting.  Thanks to all of the new programmers
> and companies contributing to the project, as well as automated testing,
> development is faster than every before."

'This is the second major release' may sound better. (s/our/the/)

The second sentence is awkward. Put the main part first: "Development is
faster than ever, thanks to ...." Or it could stay. I'm not strong on this one.

> Among the many enhancements to PostgreSQL 8.1 are:

> Improved Multiprocessor (SMP) Performance:  the buffer manager for 8.1 has
> been enhanced to scale almost linearly with the number of processors,
> leading to significant performance gains on 8-way, 16-way and multicore
> servers.

Need a comma after "16-way"

Is "multicore" a commonly used word? We might want to tone down the technical
feel of the whole release a bit.

"has been enhanced" is too much of a passive voice, perhaps we can say something like
"..manager for 8.1 now scales almost linearly"

I'd put the word "CPU" in there somehow. Non-technical people will recognize
that more than SMP and "8-way"

> Two-Phase Commit (2PC): long in demand for WAN applications and
> heterogenous data centers using PostgreSQL, this feature allows
> ACID-compliant transactions across widely separated servers.

s/heterogenous/heterogeneous/

Insert "to be run" before "across"

> Bitmapscan:  Some indexes will be automatically converted to bitmaps in
> memory, giving up to 20x faster index performance on complex queries
> against very large tables.  Bitmapscan also greatly reduces the need for
> multi-column indexes.

I think bitmapscan should be two words, not one? And plural?

"will be" not quite right in lead sentence, change to "are now automatically converted"

s/20x/twenty times/

Is the above 20x figure backed up with data somewhere?

> Roles:  PostgreSQL now supports database roles, which simplify the
> management of large user bases with complex overlapping database rights.

Can we say "fully supports"? If we do, we should.

s/user bases/numbers of users/

> Shared Row Locking:  we have continued to improve on the "better than
> row-level locking" which Multi-version Concurrency Control (MVCC) provides
> by supporting shared locks for relational references.

This is the only place we use "we": consider making PG the subject.

s/shared locks/shared row locks/

Comma needed after "provides" so it doesn't read as "MVCC provides by" and
links "supporting" to "MVCC"

> Table Partitioning: in version 8.1, the query planner's ability to select
> the correct table partitions for each query (called Constraint Exclusion)
> is expanded, making PostgreSQL's table partitioning useful to a broader
> range of applications.

Do we need to give the technical name in parens? We're not really going
into details for any of these items, after all.

I'd move this item up higher on the list. 2PC up higher too.

> "Blah new features blah blah," remarked some high-profile postgresql
> contributor. "Blah coolest yet blah blah blah."

> There are numerous other enhancements, which are detailed on our 8.1
> release page <link here>.

s/our/the/

> Thanks to automated testing by a variety of sources, the PostgreSQL
> community has been able to have a shorter-than-ever beta period while
> increasing the reliability of the code.   This included Andrew Dunstan's
> pgbuildfarm, OSDL's Scalable Test Platform, SpikeSource's SpikeWatch, and
> Coverity Prevent.   As any developer knows, bugs caught early take far
> less time to resolve, and these tools have made that adage a reality for
> PostgreSQL.

"As any developer knows" is odd for a press release.

Replace "shorter-than-ever" with "has managed to significantly reduce the beta testing period."

s/Coverity Prevent/the Coverity Prevent tool/


Other stuff:

Mention something about the success of the Win32 version, e.g. how this is the second
major version with Win32, lots of downloads, no problems, everyone happy, etc.

Mention "hundreds of developers" as in the past?

Mention any companies by name?

Mention our high score in that bug-finder thing?

Mention the new options available (bizgres, enterprisedb, etc.) even if only generically?

Emphasize the freedom of the BDS license?

- --
Greg Sabino Mullane greg@turnstep.com
PGP Key: 0x14964AC8 200508281146
http://biglumber.com/x/web?pk=2529DF6AB8F79407E94445B4BC9B906714964AC8

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