The FM Cafe has now gone to a pay only site.

I do not doubt that it is for good reasons but none the less I am saddened that the cosy cafe where I first met(and was helped enormously by) LaRetta, Ray Cologon, queue, ender, Ugo et al can no longer be simply dropped in on as a passer by

Ah well......

Yes it is sad, and I got booted for writing and telling them that I thought it was a shame that they felt they needed to charge everyone, including the people who only drop in to help others.

I got this response back:

Thank you so much for all your contributions. Our database indicates a). you

performed searches on our forum 100's of times the past several years .

posted in single digits. c).Your membership has been cancelled d). your IP

Address has been blocked from accessing our database under any other name.

Since I rarely have a question, these so called searches have to be related to helping others. I usually search for post that haven't had responses, and to verify that a search will provide an answer from a previous post.

Lee

Just my two cents on this -

I'm under the impression that if I'm going to pay for something, I want CORRECT answers, not just people saying "try this..." without ever knowing if it solves the problem or not.

I think it's great that forums like this and Cafe exist, because you get a lot of people's opinions on things that you probably would never think of. But, you always have to keep in mind that most of it is just that - opinions. If you're putting work into a commercial software, take things with a grain of salt.

For the person that is new to FileMaker, these sites are invaluable.

It makes me wonder what has changed with Cafe that they charge money for now.

I understand the need to recoop some of the expense of providing a website. But I would rather see advertising (which can add even further value to our FM experience) than charging everyone. I have utilized many of the ads here on Forums and would on Cafe' (if they had them). They seem proud that they don't advertise and I have nothing against that either, but charging per question xor per membership seems a bit much when advertisements could offset much of the cost. In fact, if they asked for donations, I think they would be pleasantly surprised at the response and everyone could feel good about it.

If it were me, I think I would have included my Users in the decision and asked for their preferences. After all, a Forum wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the people who use it and it seems the respectful thing to do ...

L

I have found the hosts of FM Cafe extremely rude myself, and got kicked off just as Lee described. Good thing we have FM Forums here, which is a FREE resource that has had better responses in my experience.

- John

Edited June 28, 200619 yr by Guest

Lol yeh, but do we really need the giant banner at the front?

Definitely!

- John

Hey, that banner's great! I'm thinking about making it my background

It just brightens my day every time I come here.

..Well if it brighten's your day, i suppose it brighten's my day too Though not that i would go as for as to make it my desktop background - i already confuse this site with google more often than not - i.e. when i have a problem i will either google or come here, but half the time my fingers get confused which is which seeing as both are libraries full of knowledge, and in the case of FM Forums, also smart people .

Cheers for providing a great service guys, this is just a shout out and a thank you to our

Admin's - especially Ocean who dedicates a lot of his own time to this site - on the behalf of all the forum users (don't worry i'll donate soon )

Thanks again guys for keeping it free, i don't know where i'd be today if i didn't have these forums.

~Genx

Also i agree with LaRetta, the advertising is targeted and in this case pretty much always for FileMaker products so very appropriate, and it's not intrusive either.

~Genx

I almost like the advertisig here - very focused group. I've actually used them in past times.