Folks,
I'm sorry for acting like a smarty pants the other day. My point in doing that was to demonstrate that I really, really know what I'm taking about here. Next to my family, I probably devote the most attention in my life equally between systems design and BBQ. This is not just something I chose to spout off on, it's what I live every day, when not thinking about my next competition
Anyway, my real point here is that I agree with what others have said and then some. I mean no offense to any of them, but no one on The Board of Directors of the KCBS should be making database design decisions unless you have a university degree in that field or 5+ years experience doing it. I wouldn't expect the BOD to tell a health department what is and isn't safe, and I don't expect them to tell software designers what is and isn't a good database design. What I mean is that it really doesn't matter one bit whether you call it TOY or COY. It doesn't matter whether you want the internal ID of a team entity to be visible outside of the database or not. Sound database design says that a team is an entity here, and the BOD should let some one else, tell them that. Please consider what I wrote in the OP of this thread as an hour's worth of free consulting on how to design a database, and if you don't agree with it, ask five other professionals (at least three others have sounded off in this thread).
I honestly can't think of a single organization where its board of directors makes database design decisions. That is left to employees or consultants who know what they are doing. Why isn't that happening here? Enough rambling though. As was mentioned, it appears to be universally agreed by those who should know that the current plan of a database is not the best way to do it. I started this thread in the Board section hoping that some one on the board would read it and take it to heart, but since no one has commented, I guess that isn't going to happen. Rather than sitting on our thumbs and saying what should happen, how can this be taken to the BOD for hopeful action? Should it be eMailed, or should we start an online petition, or maybe should some one who is a professional on the matter speak to the board at the 12/14 meeting? This is important, and I'd rather not just get a bunch of ppl to agree and then do nothing.
Thoughts?
dmp