In the little less than a year we have been online the project has grown considerably and appears to have become a useful resource for many Help & Manual users. As it has grown it has also been taking up more and more of my own time and resources, as I like to make sure that everyone gets useful answers to the questions they ask -- even if that answer is, "Sorry, that problem can't be solved at the moment." But at least then you know where you are...
The people at EC Software have been following the project closely and providing a huge amount of useful input. Last month we decided that the Forum now appears to be approaching critical mass and we had a long discussion about the costs and time involved and where we need to go from here.
Basically, we decided that the forum is most useful in its present form, as an independent community that is linked to EC-Software only by the fact that their products are our subject matter. At the same time, it is clear that in the long term I am not going to be able to do all the work involved for free.
To solve this problem EC-Software has generously offered to pay a nominal monthly sum to help finance the operation of the forum, and I have accepted the offer. This means that I now do have a financial link to EC-Software, and I feel that it is important that the forum members know about this. At the same time I also want to emphasize that the forums are still independent and that there are no editorial strings attached. I can and will continue to provide my own comments, criticism and suggestions just as I have in the past.
The same applies to the support provided here. While I will continue to do my best to make sure that everyone gets useful answers to their questions, the Forum is still not an official EC-Software support channel. If you have seemingly insoluble problems with your EC-Software products you must still contact EC-Software directly at:
www.ec-software.com
support AT ec-software.com