I think the majority of .net developers do not attend user group meetings and do most of their research and learning online or in formal classes. Of all of the .net developers I know (well over one hundred or more), only 2 belong to user groups.


>My hopes were not that high on your reply. I don't get that UT bashing. I'm sure I'm not the only one to think that the UT over the years has been a really good place to get valuable information.
>
>I guess that based on your observations I can say that there not many developers that use .net in Montreal. At our monthly .net user's group meeting we're only 70 on average. So I guess that .net is not very popular here.
>
>I wonder where are those user's group meeting where there is more than 10000 people per meeting.
>
>There has to be because .net is very popular in the USA.
>
>>You have been around here for years Denis. You should be supporting yourself by now...
>>
>>>So enlighten us Jeff... where should we go? What's the hippest place to go for VFP support?
>>>
>>>>>>The funny thing is that of all the VFP developers we have, only two or three have ever HEARD of the UT. In fact, of the many dozens of VFP programmers I have worked with over the years, I estimate that roughly 10% have heard of the UT and maybe 2% are actually members. Can you blame them? Who wants to read these stupid "VFP Dead Threads". I have been in and out (out mostly) of the UT for many years and nothing has changed.
>>>>>
>>>>>I've seen this elsewhere, where I worked or was interviewed for a job - in a team of a dozen foxen, one or two would be here.
>>>>>
>>>>>I think the trouble with UT and fox-is-dead threads over the years was the high visibility of UT to Microsoft. Just open your environment manager in its out-of-the-box shape, and the first thing it does is to go web and pick the news from a few places, UT being among them. So the product itself contained a highly visible link to here. Many user groups were/are publishing their meetings here, most of the MVPs were/are regulars here... and this is where (certain circles in) Microsoft went when they tried to kidnap the community and convert it to dot net. Few hours of search of UT messages could prove this. I remember a case when an user group in Montreal (or Vancouver?...) was hijacked to become a dot net community, with full presence of M$ folks. The story was told here, along with many others.
>>>>>
>>>>>So the pressure to drop VFP and switch to dot net was felt here strongly, probably stronger than in other Fox fora, simply by place being more exposed, and by it being more densely populated with agents/proponents of the switch. Such is politics.
>>>>>
>>>>>I'm generally ignoring the "is dead" threads, it's just out of sheer laziness that I didn't mark this one to skip over.
>>>>
>>>>Yep. I'd venture to say that it's not VFP thats dead, but it's the UT that's dead. Always the SAME people talking to the SAME people about the SAME things - it's been that way for years now. It's pitifull, actually.