Oh brother... Peter... Don't get any rumors started, please!!! You know how some love conspiracy theories and putting AVSIM in the middle of them. Next, I will hear that we actually own MS... :)

In my opinion, the primary reason is the MSFT Nasdaq stocks...When you are a public company, there are things you can no longer do with the customers / public in order to avoid any potential issue with the stock market. Have you ever read the famous "this is a forward declaration..." on many public companies press releases?Hope this helps!

I would certainly say there are a few of the FS team that post here under false names.But it is very nice to think that they do visit here, but on the other hand, sad when you see some of the rubbish that some people spout about FS.Dan.

>Oh brother... Peter... Don't get any rumors started,>please!!! You know how some love conspiracy theories and>putting AVSIM in the middle of them. Next, I will hear that we>actually own MS... :)That would certainly explain your massive budget ;)

>Next, I will hear that we actually own MS...

>Luis, that's a true statement. The MS Team even mentioned in>the recent video that we reported on that they visit AVSIM and>monitor the input from users here. The best indication of>their participation here is when you meet them at the AVSIM>Conference. They will readily state that they visit the>forums here daily to keep on top of what's happening in the>flight simming community. One of their graphics developers has>confessed that he loves the screen shot forum and visit there>frequently to get ideas. :)Hey, that's good enough for me! Maybe they really do care :)

If you attend an Avsim conference, you'll have the opportunity to chat one-on-one with the Microsft team members that are also attending.I can tell you from personal experience that they not only "care a lot", they have a lot of personal pride in this product and will engage with you in any "sensible" discussion. The biggest difference to smaller software companies is that you are not dealing with a 2-4 person development team, but something on the order of 60 or so, so you end up talking to "specialists" rather than "chief designer and main bottle washer" type entrepreneurs.

One factor to consider is the type of discussions you see here. Many relate to particular configurations or third-party add-ons. It would not make sense for Microsoft to engage in debate about how your machine or another company's product works. On the other hand, straightforward "where do I find this info?" or "how is this feature supposed to work?" questions would be fair game. In fact, it's likely some of the team does reply to posts where it's easy to give a complete answer that won't draw different opinions...