>SNIP
>>I think the emphasis on community is sincere, at least within the VFP
>>group.
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>I believe that it is too. But I didn't take that as either Michel's or Mike's points.
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>Rather, I take it as MS' .NET effort is a steamroller that is fundamentally changing the landscape as regards user groups and communities.
>Take Michel's example: Montreal has only a very small MS presence in terms of staff (and square footage, I presume). Whether by accident or by design, that limited staff is now so focused on .NET that it simply doesn't have time to maintain the other practises and procedures that were in place for MS' other product lines. That's the polite version.
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>Now let's describe a possible version: MS needs to make .NET a huge success, as soon as possible. Accordingly, any product line that is not in the .NET family is to be de-emphasized, receiving only marginal attention, only when absolutely necessary.
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>Add to this one MS' creation of an evangelism department in Oct of 2001. That this could be a way to integrate communities right into MS' business plans cannot be dismissed. And there is only one community that REALLY matters - the .NET community, which hardly existed at the time. that there may be efforts underway to diminish OTHER communities seems very plausible to me. Many, even here, would call that a "good business decision".
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Jim;

We all know successful companies make business plans and Microsoft has chosen .NET as a core business. When a division or product does not do well within a corporation it is often sold off or dissolved. There must be someone at Microsoft that likes VFP or it would have been gone a long time ago.

Tom