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Demise Of The Premier .NET community site
Seems like something has horribly gone wrong at ASPFriends.com. The site is being closed as a result of a break down in negotiations with Microsoft over support for funding this developer community forum which has over 73000 members who post over 12 million messages a month regarding MS development. The primary reason for this break down seems to be do with the contract that had to be signed to receive funding. I'm no lawyer and I've not seen the entire contract but it seems like it contains clauses which basically state "at our discretion, with 30 days notice we can terminate this contract and take ownership of your site".
Good products are only a part of the overall make up of a good company. It is just too bad that this guy had to learn the hard way that, despite their public party line, Microsoft is only happy when they're in full control, running the show.
If you step out of line or play even one note off key, they kick you out of the orchestra and confiscate your instrument. Never mind that you paid for it yourself. They own it now.
I'm glad he didn't sign that contract, but I'm sad that he has to loose not only his years of work, but the motivation to support his community.
Even if it is a Microsoft community. Maybe some day he'll get into a better community with a company that will nurture his zeal.
Kalen D'arrie
First, he is ethical. Which is at the root of the free software movement.
I guess he could not see the kind of redmond actions his site is suffering right now because he must have blinded himself due to his total devotion and defense to MS products. Being the one to be hurt always make things easier to understand.
Yet, as he points out, he could go and get bought, or he could go on and continue to support his site that way, but prefers to shut it down due to ethical reason. Good man.
Second. He has built a serious community site through a lot of efforts which is also the core of the free software efforts. Apparently, redmond can cope with this kind of behavior (too independant for them, probably) despite recent speeches about community spirit.
Third, such a fine man, could be very usefull in helping some projects in getting what they lack, the kind of features that made this man stick to redmond so long. There must be something real in his praises of their products and too often, unix cultured people dont get that kind of "things".
But he still links to asp.net forums despite all they just did to him.
Well, he probably dreams in a "deus ex machina" Gates, coming down from his tower and putting things together, because he is "Doing the right thing and letting Ms know when its own employees hurt it's reputation is vital.". Yes, it must be "some employee", it can't be the compagny as a whole.
That is his flaw probably. He still dont get that what is happening to him is the spirit of redmond activity and has been the key to their success since the beginning.
Repeat after me:"extend and embrace; or strangle to death."
So we might see a redmond move to correct this situation, but it will be a one time pr move. The kind of "redmond make a deal with peru government" move.