>>I agree totally. I think most PUTM members would feel that the annual membership to this site is likely one of the best investments that can be made.
>
>What about in countries where its not feasible to pay that much? The point is, you shouldn't make someone pay for a basic funtion that was free without any warning at all, its not right.

Bad argument, Mike; does that mean that Visual Studio should not cost them as much as it costs me? The value of the tool determines whether you buy it or not; I don't use some tools because the cost of the tool exceeds the marginal value gained from buying it. I don't charge my clients less money for my time because the rates for consultants in their local area is lower than the typical cost of consultants around where I'm located; they can pay what I ask, or can find someone else who's willing to take less money. Similarly, if the value of UT as a resource is less than the cost of PUTM membership, then they stay BUTM and live with the limits of BUTM.

OTOH, given the current policy, I'm probably going to be less willing to answer questions here on UT in the current state; given that most BUTM aren't willing to go dig around the FAQ and Files areas when a reference is made to them unless you give them an exact point of reference (something that I'm not really willing to do most of the time - the idea is that I should be able to say "It's in the FAQ" and have them go there, just like I do when I send someone to NTFAQ) I'm probably going to find that lots of people demand that they get replies by email to their private email, something I am not willing to do - the only people I generally respond to by private email regarding technical questions are either clients or close friends. I suspect that many of the people answer questions here are in the same boat. The idea of the FAQ itself is to reduce the number of times you have to respond to the same question, now, we're not just going to have to answer the question multiple times, we're going to be expected to reply to people by private email. I'm not willing to do that, so I'll probably go to a venue where I'm not forced to do this to be helpful to people.

From my POV, not only will this generate dissatisfaction among the BUTM, it's also going to be a disincentive on the part of people who're willing to help in the community environment. I have enough trouble sifting through email daily without this as an added burden...

Just my $0.02US