The thread locker: 
https://the.fmsoup.org/t/claris-asking-developers-for-feedback-on-communication/3541/22?u=torsten
wow I dont even get WHY that would be locked but …
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Just amazing how conversations are squashed by over moderation.
Make it not really worth posting anything.
Looking on that marketing and Forum handlings I am happy. Happy while I have a tool where I don’t have promises. I have functionality. I don’t have Plugin Vendors for much money. I have a complete ecosystem around. No functional leaks but a Software environment working on all platforms.
That is definitely the difference between Professional Tools and the Tools made for non professionals.
WHOA !
They actually asked why you didnt renew ?
Thats quite nice to see
Although I’m sure they HAD to expect some responses that weren’t all sunshine & rainbows
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It’s an email blast too. Not addressed to me directly. So it could have been from one of our clients.
We used to register our client’s FM software with the client’s info, but an email address that we managed like custname@campsoftware.com but later FileMaker demanded the actual client email.
FileMaker ended up marketing FM to OUR clients. That’s to a client that already used FileMaker. They’d get emails about FileMaker demos at the Apple Store from our competitors.
They do the same for upgrades. Instead of contacting the Developer of Record about upgrades they’d contact the client directly. This is all while being a member of the FileMaker Business Alliance or whatever it’s called today. It wasn’t an Alliance, but a one way street…
FileMaker just doesn’t seem to care about their Devs. It’s like like how Xojo is with their customers.
That they asked at all is … surprising !
how the F would they even know that wasnt it ???
Oh they care - enough to cut you out when they can because YOU might be the guy saying “yeah you dont need that upgrade” or “Yeah we should ue something else” 
They did the same here in Europe. Most developers have left the platform…
The thread was unlocked a few hours later by a more experienced moderator.
They executed an intransigent not-listening-and-no-discussion-with-developers policy for 10+ years. Without this feedback, disastrous license, pricing and product strategy decisions ensued. They first lost a lot of developers and couldn’t care less about it for years. Customers dropping the product followed and I suspect they experience a sharp decline in sales and very low adoption of their shiny new products nobody asked for. They had been warned but worked hard on not listening. I suspect a genius working there.
The company employed a scorched-earth strategy in their developer relationship management and totally destroyed their reputation as a trustworthy partner.
They’ll have a way to go if they want to rebuild a healthy developer base.
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Sounds like another company I know
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It’s just so bizarre how FM and Xojo both decided to stop doing what made them popular.
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To give you an idea of how depraved this company became:
About 3 years ago: I had a team license which was to be renewed in 4 weeks. Got an email from Claris informing me that the license is due to be renewed in a few weeks. And now the juicy bit: the next sentence informed me that in case of non-renewal I had to erase the software from all machines. In case of me not complying with this contractual obligation they will take measures that will render the software on my computers inoperable.
I canceled my subscription and erased all the software and sent them a confirmation. I did of course not renew as a consequence of their message and they never asked why.
This is just one example of how they performed customer scare.
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If that is the licence you purchased, the measures are expected and the message is just a fair warning about what was going to happend to avoid misunderstandings 
Most people will be thankfull to be reminded about the terms they accepted when this can cause something to stop working.
It is already written in the EULA and it was cristal clear that the software will stop functioning once the license expired. At this point in time I was a customer for over 5 years and never missed a renewal date. I took issue with the unspecified ‘measures’ they threatened to carry out on my computers.
No vendor threatens me with unspecified ‘measures’ they will carry out on my computers.
It is just the dumbest and most hostile way to ‘invite’ customers to a license renewal.
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Large corporations tend to become lawyer-heavy and the result is this kind of bondage and discipline.
When my previous client was acquired by a large multinational, some of the people who approved the purchase had the intent to shut it down within 12 months. But their lawyers had insisted, before greenlighting the purchase, that we have all our key customers sign new contracts – with a 3 year term, lol. And the buyer’s existing systems could not fulfill the contracts. So that combined with other issues that were also rooted in an almost comical aversion to any kind of risk, that meant we were still operating 4 years later. During that time I met other people who went through the same acquisition mill and it was the same with them – they were supposed to cease to exist but were still operating 20 years later. It is not easy to simply harvest customers and data, but they don’t seem to ever learn the lesson.
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@HalGumbert described how they tried to take over his clients. I heard this from several (former) Claris partners. It is good to see that this kind of unethical and disruptive business practice brings the most trouble to those who think they can get away with it. I agree with you, there seems to be no shortage of business leaders who think they can handle partners and customers this way.
I get it that i.e. SAP or IBM may talk to their corporate customers this way. Claris has about 150 employees and the larger part of their customer base was small developers and small shops (< 10 users). Their language and actions scared away many of their small customers.
Addendum: feedback they got from one of their remaining business partners: ‘Don’t scare away customers’