Alex,
If Mark were someone who only benefited from the UT by receiving answeres then I could probably see your point better. Looking over the his statistics shows he has posted over 400 times over the last 4 years. Some of them have been in response to others needing help. IMO, he has earned the right to post his message.

Regarding this Replies nonsense, I also think it isn't right to do this. PUTM should be for people that want the extra perks and niceties, not the essentials. I joined because I wanted better searching and reporting capabilites. I like this kind of stuff. Being able to mark a thread and post private messages are other PUTM features I like and use. But as I said, these are perks.

Reading replies to your messages is not a nicety. It is essential. It is even more essential now with the UT going down every few days. If you didn't get a chance to read your reply in the new message list in the top frame before you lose access, you're screwed. Once you can finally log back in, if the messages are readily available to you by clicking on the Replies icon, you have to do a search for messages addressed to yourself (if you can do that, I don't remeber if BUTM can do that). If not, then you have go through the Calendar for the last couple of days searching for it.

I too would like the hear the reasoning behind this. If it is a performance issue because there are over 30,000 members and the server can't handle it, that's one thing I can understand and respect. If it is a strong arm tactic to force BUTMs to switch to PUTMs then I am totally against it.

Just my $0.02.

>Hi Mark,
>
>You've been on the UT since 1996. What kind of incentive would it take for you to become a premium member?
>
>Still, even whith Michel removing freebies from the menu, he does allow access to everyone for free, especially including the ability to post messages, which by itself is a great value when you consider that you don't have to pay for that privilege and that it can yield positive results sometimes in a matter of minutes.
>
>I realize that Michel's running a business here and from his stand point he must at least break even in order to continue. To me, however, those $8 I spend here every month aren't but an investment to stay assured that the UT will not shut down and I will continue to have access to this fantastic resource.
>
>Please don't take this the wrong way, but your post doesn't seem reasonable from someone who's been using and obviously benefitting from the service for 4 years.
>
>Regards,
>
>Alex
>
>
>>Michel,
>>
>>I believe that adding more value to premium products is the right way to grow membership. I also believe that coercing people by removing features you've always provided at no charge is the wrong way to grow membership. It's especially inappropriate to do it with no warning and no grace period.