Doug, I believe you.

>>Have you seen the data on this???
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>Yes, Michel opened his financial books for me and we spent several hours painstakingly analyzing the data. The exact number was 241. (Just in case I'm not being clear, you can read that in a sarcastic tone of voice.)
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>Of course not. He told me this almost as an aside while we were talking about the UT at his office when it was still in Montreal.
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>>Do you actually believe the numbers?
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>First, we weren't specifically discussing JVP. I asked him about the membership of the UT: was it growing, staying stagnant, dropping, etc. He mentioned that in one year (I think it was 2004 but it could have been earlier), several hundred people sent him messages that they were not renewing their membership because they felt JVP had changed it into a much less friendly place. I didn't have any reason to doubt him; he wasn't staying it in a way to convince me, he just threw it out there.
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>Second, I was at an AccountMate reseller conference two years ago. (AccountMate is an accounting system written in VFP and available with source code so most resellers are either VFP developers or have VFP developers on staff). I started chatting with a group of people and one of them asked me what forums I frequented. I mentioned the UT and the guy made a face. He'd been a member but gave it up because he felt he was attacked for asking stupid questions and specifically named JVP. Two other people in the group agreed with him.
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>Now, I'm probably not the most cynical person around. I tend to believe that people are good and honest until they prove to me they aren't. The fact that I had observed what I considered to be abusive behavior and the fact that three people I'd never met before told me this just strengthened Michel's statement in my mind.
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>So, you can call BS if you want. I'm just telling you what I heard.
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>And for the record, my vote is no. I don't care if someone gets abusive in Chatter. Folks can choose to read messages here or not. What I hate to see is bullying in technical threads. It fractures the community and heavens knows we don't need any more of that.
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>Doug