for my job certification is not necessary. learning is. unfortunately, since Oracle has chosen marketing over robustness and reliability, more of my daily activities are driven by Oracle errors and snafus, rather than learning more about what I need to be doing. *soapbox on* Oracle had no business releasing version 11 until they ironed out more the problems with Oracle 10.2. I’ve had more issues with Oracle 10.2 in the past three months that I’ve had with 9.2 in the past three years. *soapbox off*

I am grateful to Howard Rogers for clarifying the current multiple meanings the ACE status has and that it COULD just be someone who posts alot. While I am not sure it will result in a better program, at least now I am warned.

If ACE is to mean something then everyone needs to agree on that meaning. Otherwise, it is becomes completely worthless. Perhaps it is just a question of the right word - like Oracle Advocate rather than Oracle ACE.

Like the cliche, we all need one version of the truth here.

Actually, it wasn’t an anti-ACE diatribe. It was an anti-what-have-they-done-to-the-ACE diatribe. Well, actually, it was a piece of carefully considered anti-what-have-they-done-to-the-ACE *criticism*, but I digress.

Point is, I am not against the ACE award per se, but against an ACE award being cheapened by letting just about anyone in solely on the grounds that they post a lot, without worrying about the *quality* or utility of what they post. However, it would seem that “appearances can be deceptive” on this score, and that this isn’t what is happening. See below.

I’m also against a 2-tier ACE program where one bunch of people automatically get promoted to Division 1 leaving everyone else, regardless of technical merit, in Division 2. That definitely has happened, but it was never the main point of my criticism.

In a more recent blog piece at <a href="http://www.dizwell.com/prod/node/977" title="http://www.dizwell.com/prod/node/977" target="_blank">http://www.dizwell.com/prod/node/977</a>, I have now retracted the ‘dumbing down’ criticism, in favour of a ‘please write your web pages more clearly’ one. As I say, I still have issues with the 2-division thing. Indeed, I still find that decision simply bizarre, but there you go: what’s done is done. The passage of time might help resolve that one, perhaps.

I’m sorry if that disappoints anyone. I know some people would like me to trudge off in high dudgeon, hurling ACE awards in all directions. Indeed, I suspect that some read the original piece as a fit of pique, though it was nothing of the kind. Instead of a nice black-and-white high contrast answer, however, I can only state that the point at issue is a lot subtler than that, and Oracle have made some moves to address some of the points I raised.

In short, it would be churlish to raise an issue, get someone to move to address it, and then stomp off without letting them complete their work. The saner approach I think is to sit tight and see what happens.

Thanks to Howard for raising these issues; we’ll all get a better program out of them!

I am no OCP, I did not write any book, nor do I have some brilliant blog. Apparently the OTN community (or at least one person of that community) did think I helped enough people to reward me this award. Next I tell that I am proud for getting this award. What part of the logic in this did you miss? Is getting proud because you receive appreciation something out of the ordinary? I am sure I did not get this award because of my blue eyes and blonde hair. Next to proud I am realistic though and I do not want to put myself on the same level as people like Jonathan Lewis, Thomas Kyte, etc. That would be plain arrogant.

and then…

“I am proud to have recieved this award though, and I am not sending it back.”

Er, you don’t know why you got one, but you are proud you did? The logic of that escapes me.

well, apparently having a blog listed at Oracle also means nothing. And then, we see blog entries like this one: <a href="http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-blog-has-been-added-in-oracle-blogs.html" title="http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-blog-has-been-added-in-oracle-blogs.html" target="_blank">http://sabdarsyed.blogspot.com/2007/09/m…</a>

Then Justin tells us that the ACE program is just a “peer” thing, with no other value. And Howard tells us it’s great for employment prospects.

Hmmmm… Me theenks a lot of folks aren’t reading off the same page. But the clown show must go on…

Just as an end note: how come only Fusion folks ended up as ACE “directors”?

“Jobs for the boys”?

more like : rats leaving a sinking ship, but I digress…

I agree with Jacco though, that although it may look good on the CV, perhaps it gives the more cynical or jealous an excuse to look for the slightest slip from perfection in order to judge you an attention-seeking self-publicising smartarse. (Which obviously I am.)

Any prospective employer will now have a pretty good chance of finding your anti-ACE diatribe and, I suspect, be at the very least puzzled that your ACE award features at all in any of your literature, or web pages. I know I would be.

I also agree with you that to do that sort of thing, it helps to have “some level of knowledge” about the products/tech stack. One would look pretty foolish offering help and advice on things one knew nothing about, after all.

But here’s the rub: the ACE program used to explicitly state that ‘proficiency’ or expertise WAS a requirement. But those words were removed from the latest description of the ACE program. On top of that, a new designation, ‘ACE Director’ was invented and it was *explicitly* stated that to be an ACE Director, you had to have qualities “above and beyond” what an ACE has to have: and one of those qualities was technical proficiency or expertise.

In plain language, it used to be a requirement to have technical proficiency to be an ACE, but that requirement has been dropped and transferred to the ACE Director level instead.

That is why I called my original piece ‘Devalued’. It’s got nothing to do with wanting to sneer at the peasants, look down my nose at people, etc etc. It’s just an observation that when I got my ACE it meant one thing and now it means something else.

Let us by all means have a program to recognise those who are advocates and who spend their time helping others, even without being top-notch technical geniuses. Let us even call that award ‘ACE’, if you like. I’m all in favour of such a thing and would welcome it.

But I was talking about a quite different program. One that used to exist to recognise other things than that, but which doesn’t any longer.

Or maybe it does, because Justin now says the technical proficiency requirement hasn’t gone away at all, it’s just a bad piece of writing on a website that seems to suggest otherwise… !