>First off, I am not going to engage anybody in a debate on this. I am using this platform to express an opinion that needs to be expressed.

I am going to hold you to this.

>the PUTM needs to shell out $125CDN.

This is nothing. I would imagine you can make this in two hours John.

>of performance is UNACCEPTABLE.

Untrue. Compare a query speed of the UT vs Yahoo or vs any foxpro website. Same.

>Why should anybody get a free ride here?? Who said it should be free forever??

This is their business model. We can't argue with that. Michel managed to beat compuserve in 1 or 2 years of operation.

> Folks that don't pay a dime get value up here. They should pay for it.

Finally we agree John. Let's toast this moment at the Miami Devcon. I don't think they should be forced to pay, but if they are getting $125 worth of value out of it, it makes sense.

Just some parting comments/facts on the UT:

- the Universal Thread speed is as good as other commercial sites like Yahoo
- the UT is as fast as other foxpro websites
- the Universal Thread has an amazing uptime
- the cost at $125 is still reasonable. I get far more value out of the UT than that. If someone answers one question that saves 2 hours of time. You have paid for the UT for an entire year.
- the UT is the best technical support for Visual Foxpro (number of messages, number of MVPs, number of participants,most features)
- the UT is the most sophisticated and useful support that I have found on the internet.
- a PUTM is the most bang for your buck for learning VFP (more than a subscription to a journal, more than a book, more than Devcon)
- UT is spam free
- UT allows criticism of itself by its own members. Not too many websites or services would allow that

P.S. I am not a consultant, but I pay for the UT out of my own pocket since it is an incredible professional development tool for me.