That makes perfect sense, but to sacrifice what you have started and what is now a huge success in the global market to push your new brand is a very bold move.   I understand the importance, but you now have the community worried about the future of DNN because you have shoved the DNN Platform into a dark corner.  The community is worried and you have made it harder for new people searching for DNN to find details from the source. 

In the DNN corporate office I'm sure it looks like a great move because your focused on the future of Evoke, but from the outside it looks like your walking away from DNN.

I look forward to the day the platform takes priority again on the home page.  Right now I'm seeing a downtrend for DNN.

Hi Shaun I would like to come up with a suggestion - how about you put the forum link on the home page, instead of nested under a couple of menus that don't have dropdowns, but you have to try and navigate through the site.  I think that could help people think there is more to the site than just the commercial products. 

I have had several emails from people anxious about what's happening with DNN, sales have dropped, developers are dropping out of the eco system, developers are being employed by DNN who were once contributors to the project at an open source level, but now sadly they have been gobbled up by DNN and I can see why - they are quite talented people, and all I can think of, excuse me being cynical is that it's incredibly clever and almost stroke of brilliance to whittle away at those 'annoying freeloaders' who expect something for nothing, given that many of the contributors are employed by DNN so it sort of pays them back for the their efforts.  

I honestly can't see the reason that DNN would want to even keep the open source project going - it doesn't make commercial sense, given that they've bought up, bought out, sold out, sold off, split up, dropped modules and developers and employed so many now.  

I mean lets face it at 11k per year for the software that's an amount I can't quantify with 'value' for the community project.   It's poles apart. And if you don't have people like myself or others in the forums here who have posted concerns, there is a larger market to DNNCorp who now have the infrastructure and staff to handle it - so in plain English, the community is more like a liability because we do not tend to bring a value proposition to the table.  I know some developers who say straight out that they will not commit code to the project any more on the basis that they don't want to 'fund' the commercial project because that is the sentiment - right or wrong - that is the feeling of many.

I read your blogs, and I try so hard to not to be suspicious or cynical, really I do because I've been as close this project now for a decade, but I can see that there is no competition, even for a store, there are people who ask me about modules and what they should use and if 'that developer is going to sell out to DNN and they can't get the module any more' and developers who are seeing incredible drops in sales and I have no idea what to say - it's not as if I'm privvy to anything special, but when I come to the website now, for all intent purposes, this does not look like an open source project, nor does it feel like one any more and it's being turned into something like stackoverflow. 

I saw some push back when DNN bought snowcovered, but when Active forums got sold, and then word that it was being split for the commercial project, and nothing done on Active Forums after people had invested thousands of dollars on the modules, people get suspicious because you are in fact affecting their business model by taking their market away, whether its by developer and module acquisition or lack of confidence in the product now where developers abandon DNN because there are better projects to support.

Actions do speak louder than words you are correct, and alas, we're reading alot of words and nothing else.

I do not expect a favourable response to this given that I know your feelings towards me in the past, but this project is very important to me as well - I, along with many others have invested a decade of commitment in our own ways  and the credibility of DNN and it's words is somewhat fractured with the primary support and voices coming from 'within DNN'  but not a lot of positive feeling from elsewhere, unless of course you are a 'partner' who has sold your products because us 'freeloaders  opensource users' don't count or come across as having any value at all.  I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be one high value open source solutions experts with 10 years experience and done thousands of projects to not even quality to apply for 'partner' level because I use the open source project - I'll leave that discussion for another day!!

I thought I should share some of the sentiment of many others who feel insecure about their business decisions module development wise, and members of the public who wonder if, firstly the community project really is coming to a halt, and secondly, will the developers still be there because it's not giving the public that warm and fuzzy feeling.

Then there is also the question to be asked - why do you care Shaun? Why do you see the need to have the open source project anyway?  The focus of DNN is now "Show me the money" so where, in the big picture does the open source community come into it?  I'm really trying to understand where open source has any benefit except for Microsoft to be able to pitch against open source php.    I can only think it's some arrangement, paid perhaps, I can't work it out as to why the project remains open source except for being 'token open source project' to give someone the warm and fuzzies - I guess I'll never know.  From the actions and behaviour, the concept of 'doing for the good of the world' is not going down with the outsiders.

I think you'll find my questions are on the lips of quite a few people because there is this incredible gap between how DNN presents itself now, to possibly what is discussed in the boardroom about your own 'perception'  - you know  - sometimes you can get shopblind looking inward all the time and discussing with yourselves on what others think of you (by that I mean DNN - not personally you Shaun).

And the site looks fantastic but it's hell to navigate - so confusing - but it looks really smart - I think visually it's one of the best and I love looking at it.

Anyway - Shaun - there are some of my questions to you - I would love have something I could tell those who contact me looking for answers because I am unsure what to reply.  Any positive feedback or response would be much appreciated but sure as hell not expected - and this is said tongue in cheek because I have really said my piece today and this thread has upset me because I know many of the names and some have been here for years.

Nina