> To be fair, almost all product PR teams do the same.
No, mongodb’s PR approach and results were largely uncommon at the time. They didn’t advertise directly but instead targeted and amplified dev communities - as detailed in the article linked earlier.
The result was that people not associated with mongodb talked about mongodb at various dev conferences and in blog posts. People didn’t want to listen to PR teams then too, but they followed their peers.
Again, I will stick to saying that if you use technology you have no experience with, the problems resulting from it are on you.
Testing out technology on important projects is reckless and is a risk a lot of people take but push away any responsibility for.
As a professional, before I suggest to use a technology at a project, at first at the very minimum I spend some time with it to learn the ins and outs. Every technology has cons. Just because you don't know them does not absolve you from responsibility for them.
The reality is that most applications are boringly similar once you define the problem in simple words. There is very rarely a need to use new technology. It is my experience that it is usually better to use technology that is not necessarily cutting edge but one that you know well and that you can easily hire people who know it well.
Because no technology is perfect, but it is much better to know the cons ahead of time and know you will have people who will know the problems and who can find reasonable solutions for.
I am personally sick and tired of people who first advocate for new technology to be added to the project, touting its supposed benefits, not knowing the cons, then don't want to take responsibility once we actually find the dead bodies.
No, mongodb’s PR approach and results were largely uncommon at the time. They didn’t advertise directly but instead targeted and amplified dev communities - as detailed in the article linked earlier.
The result was that people not associated with mongodb talked about mongodb at various dev conferences and in blog posts. People didn’t want to listen to PR teams then too, but they followed their peers.