I don't think EI should have left, but it is their decision, not mine. Any person that posts with a corporate identity has the dissadvantage of being involved in any particular conversation as an individual or as a company depending on whether the forum members want to or not, at their whim. There are many other manufacturers who have members who post on such forums as Remote Central. I generally notice that they post once or twice to address specific questions. They generally post comparative statements with respect to their own hardware, but when dealing with competitors, just say things like "you will be happy" or "this will work for you" rather than addressing specific perceived deficiencies or feature sets. The manufacturer also seems to make a few posts at the beginning of a thread, but usually stays out of the feeding frenzies that can continue afterwards.

jshod and emma are bueing shut down from their corporate management. so as individuals, we can't rightfully speculate anything about the employees or their willingness to participate as individuals.

i don't think anyone should use this thread specifically as the determining factor of whether they are going to investigate lifeware or not... or at least not the fact that lifeware pulled out, but perhaps the technical content of the thread. i don't think that lifeware fits my biz or my partners, but i'm willing to investigate it to confirm with a sound technical backing that this is true.