Watch out when you write about tech!
- Category: Copywriting
- Published on Sunday, 19 December 2010 19:14
- Written by Jas
When you put material on the web you just don't know who is going to read it - as a journalist I spoke to recently found out
We're on the phone to journalists every day and occasionally we come across some interesting stories.
I was talking to a technology journalist recently and he related a (true) story about someone complaining about one of his articles - four years after it was published!
The piece in question was a technical article that explained how you might migrate from one database platform to another using a migration tool (published on one of the top technology sites). It explained very clearly how the tool helped with the migration and, importantly, what didn't work.
Unfortunately, the reader having perused the (four-year-old) article decided it would be okay to undertake a database migration for his client - using the tool mentioned therein. When the tool didn't auto-magically migrate the database for him he contacted the author to complain that the article was misleading and following it's advice had caused him to get into some difficulty with his client! (The article isn't misleading, I've read it and it's very clear about the issues.)
It seems that when you put material on the web you just don't know who is going to read it and how they're going to use it. So let's be careful out there...
