Let me explain why I was so frustrated.
Two things really drive me up the wall: 1) when people get what they ask for but still complain, and 2) when people state as fact something which is speculation, rather than seek an answer about whether their speculation is correct.
Re: 1, the most common forum complaints are it's difficult to find things, the search function sucks, useful posts fall off too fast if no one answers them, Cakewalk "ignores" the Features and Ideas forum (which is untrue, but that's a separate topic) and you have to go through a lot of posts to find the actual answers. Furthermore, some people don't feel a forum is the proper place for support, and don't want to go to a forum for support. Helpful, Best Answer, and [Solved] are "tags" that
assist the current system but have limited effectiveness.
Cakewalk is interested solely in keeping the existing user base happy, and attracting new users. Anything they do is to accomplish those twin goals. That doesn't mean they will always make the
right choices about what to do, but their motivation to do the right thing is beyond question. I
promise you that no one at Cakewalk sits around thinking "Hey, what can we do to get people really upset?"
They realized what people didn't like about the existing forum (as described above) could not be solved within its existing framework, so they started work on a Feedback Portal. How that would impact the existing forums is something no one could predict, but the Feedback Portal did address many of the complaints.
So Cakewalk tried to give people what they wanted, and got blasted for it - ironically, in a long, rambling, essentially unreadable "rant" thread that is the poster child for why the existing forum format is problematic if the goal is to provide meaningful solutions.
As to me, 1) why give up on the idea of HC hosting a forum after such a short period of time, and 2) conflicts of interest.
Regarding 1, the low-maintenance people here who have open minds, contribute, and are flexible will simply go with the flow, and make the most out of whatever the situation is because that's what they do. These are the same types of people who
didn't start threads about how the apocalypse would occur when Cakewalk needed help moderating the forum, and therefore facist moderators would ban everyone who disagreed with them. So they probably wouldn't come to a forum hosted elsewhere because they'll work within whatever framework exists.
When doing any kind of sampling, you want to ask a target group. For example you would not ask a drummer what kind of guitar he likes to play. The target group - people who would want to retain an existing forum structure, which HC has - were
very well represented in this thread. Yet no one responded favorably and if it was an idea that would be embraced by the target group, to be statistically worthwhile at least a
couple people would have needed to say something favorable from the gitgo. So if they're not interested, and a lot of people wouldn't bother to go to a different forum, it's not worth doing so it would make no sense to waste any more time on that possibility.
As to 2, are there POTENTIAL conflicts of interest? Of course. But there's a difference between a
potential conflict of interes and an
actual conflict of interest.
Actual conflict of interest: I go to Cakewalk and say "I want you get rid of your forum, move it to Harmony Central, and pay us lots of money to be hosted."
Not a conflict of interest: A bunch of people in the Cakewalk forums freak out about maybe not having a forum, I try to think of a solution, realize I'm in a position to actually do something about it, and offer a solution to Cakewalk and the forum.
Of course, the appropriate response to that is a personal attack
On a side note, I'm constantly amazed at how many people think they actually know what they're talking about and make statements based solely on their own theories. This would be a much better world if people listened more than talked, and asked questions to test assumptions instead of automatically assuming their assumptions are correct.
Wrong assumption: Doing the feedback portal means other SONAR updates won't happen.
Correct question: Does doing the feedback portal mean other SONAR updates won't happen?
Finally, the "hero" comment. After an attack essentially saying I acted to benefit a conflict of interest, I felt I had to point out that I don't personally benefit from what Cakewalk does or doesn't do (although if they're successful, then I get to keep using my favorite software). If there's no "interest," there's by definition no conflict of interest.
However, after 21 years of running what may be the longest-running community for musicians on the net, I know the importance of community better than most, and felt it was important to preserve this community if that ended up being necessary. To be sarcastically called out for self-aggrandizement for simply doing what I think is "the right thing to do" is beyond my comprehension. And if just trying to do the right thing makes someone a hero, all I can say is that the bar for heroism has been set really,
really low.