Asking direct questions

I already thought about it before and decided to finally do it after I read the System Stats strategy blog post of Jonathan Lewis. He states: "I don’t tend to respond to individual questions - it’s not an effective use of my time - so there has to be a good reason for replying."

Tom Kyte also stated here: "If the question comes in email and is very very easy/quick to answer - sometimes I'll supply the quick answer along with my standard "please don't email me directly" quote I have saved as a signature. I cannot do it via email - I'd get nothing else done."

In the last weeks I get a lot of direct questions about APEX in my mailbox. I don't mind questions, I really like them! It also shows that APEX is getting more used and it feels nice to get the recognition.

But the problem begins when you end up only answering questions from your mail ;-)
If I answer a question through mail, only one person learns from it, if I answer questions in the forum everybody with the same problem can read my answer.

I really would like to encourage people to post their questions in the Oracle Forums. Not only I'm answering some questions, but there're a lot more APEX specialists to answer them or who add their thoughts to the threads.
If you believe I'm the only person who can help you (which I doubt), you can add "to Dimitri: ..." in the forum.

When can you contact me directly?
- When you need direct support, but then it's better to contact consult@apex-evangelists.com
- When you think it's a nice question to blog about... So the direct questions I get, will probably become a blog post ;-)
- For questions about the APEX SIG, APEX meet-ups, Apex Evangelists, my presentations or personal questions

Thanks for understanding...