I spent more than five hours reading threads in the Chatter section and I would like to tell you a story.

It is the story of the Universal Thread.

Eight years ago, I met Michel Fournier working for Bell Canada. At that time, he was in his first years on the Internet while still active on CIS. He then started his own technical support engine on the Internet. So, he was working more the seven hours per day for corporate clients and at night more then six hours on the Universal Thread.

After a while, he took the risk of getting a dedicated line at his girlfriend's apartment. He was still taking money out of is pocket to fund the Web site. He always listened to his members and did most of the requests he was asked for.

Now, the Universal Thread is big. An interesting fact is that if this site would be owned by a big corporation that needs services of a resource like him, it would probably not exist because it would cost far more to maintain than the revenues generated from it. The fact that he owns the Universal Thread, manages and does the development on the site makes it possible to have this site on the Web with a dedicated T1, which is expected to be completed within mid Jan. The telco company was at the location today to test the initial installation.

Today, the location has changed, there is more equipment, the bandwith has been doubled and will be multiplied by six in mid Jan, and overall the Universal Thread is still growing day after day.
So, what if he makes money of this site? I would say it might be normal because when he is monitoring the site he is not working for a client, the same goes for any consulting work done from any consultant on the Universal Thread. So, please get off is back. It's ridiculous. He has the right to make a living as any other of us here. I can also say that any decision he took was always justified. I remember when he started, the expenses were something like 125.00$ a month. Now, it's a few thousands. So, that can't be done for free anymore. Take our Montreal FoxPro user group for example. We do charge, as for most, if not all, other user groups, an annual membership. That helps us to pay our expenses. It's true that at first, the Universal Thread was free. But, this is when it was small as this is the case right now for some other support engines. He was sponsoring it from his own pocket. Now, it's big and this can't be offered for free anymore. It turned into a business and I'm happy of its success. However, I'm happy that he always considered two alternatives. I think the current formula is good. It offers a basic membership and an advanced one for PUTMs.

This is just to give some of my personal feelings on recent threads. I hope it won't generate into a giant thread. :)