SpringSource has created a new site, TomcatExpert dedicated to "improving the adoption of tomcat in the enterprise". Apparently, they must have noticed the wild success of this blog and were inspired to create their own web site dedicated to stealing my "tens" of weekly visitors tomcat in production. And I can't say I blame them. Outside of this blog, there aren't that many sites out there where an administrator can go to find information on how to disable ciphers in tomcat, change ports in jboss, or connecting IIS with tomcat.
Many of you reading this post might be thinking, "Well, Chris, these tomcat posts are OK but when I visit techstacks.com, the combination of 'tomcat' and 'expert' doesn't occur in my mind. You're a bit full of yourself, eh?" Although my near-perfect bounce rates and low average time on site values seem to confirm this, let's compare this blog to the new TomcatExpert site:
- Both blog.techstacks.com and www.tomcatexpert.com are filled with posts containing questionable grammar and edits.
- Both blog.techstacks.com and www.tomcatexpert.com really like SpringSource.
- Both sites talk about how great tomcat is while simultaneously running on platforms that do not utilize tomcat. (techstacks == TypePad, tomcatexpert == Drupal).
- Both TomcatExpert and my sister-site Techstacks Tools currently contain "coming soon" submit feedback "links". ( Theirs. (just above the "The Blog" link) Mine. (last paragraph) )
See? We are not so different!
So, now I am at a bit of a crossroads. What to do? I realize it's an uphill battle. Take a look again at their fetching design. So clean! So easy to read! Mere hours after official launch, TomcatExpert has 5 times as many followers on twitter. I'm #106! (editor's note: D'oh!). (However, I do wonder how many of the SpringSource employees following TomcatExpert on Twitter were "encouraged" by email from "The Management" to do so.) If anyone from SpringSource is reading this, I triple dare you to follow me!
Yes, I could pull a RedHat and come out with a retaliatory series of 'one' blog post on how I plan on dealing with SpringSource encroaching on my turf but for now I'll simply watch and wait and plan for a blistering counter-attack. You're on notice, SpringSource!