FAMILY TREE MAKER to be discontinued!

[DavidG02]

In hindsight, perhaps it would have been better if they'd sorted out this deal and then announced that MacKiev and RootsMagic were taking over that part of Ancestry, but as far as subscribers were concerned it wouldn't make much difference. By just announcing they were stopping FTM it has caused a people worry and probably lost them a lot of customers. Or have they been forced into this action by the response to the initial announcement?

Not sure but I would suggest the outcry surprised them and they had a look around. I do think the FTM is a loss for them and to defray costs through RM and Mackiev is a good business model which allows them to save face

[StevieSteve]

I think all Kendall Hust needed to add to his initial announcement was this line from his crisis recovery statement a day later and  there wouldn't' have been half the fuss

We are exploring possible relationships with other desktop software solutions that would make it possible for their products to integrate with Ancestry.

After all, it's taken less than 2 months to sort out a deal

[smudwhisk]

As Steve says, the December blog post did say they were exploring other possibilities.

I suspect the reason it wasn't organised before the original announcement may partly have been because to have put out feelers to other companies would have let the genie out the bag anyway and with the rumour mill perhaps they thought it better to be more open.  They did give over a years notice but unfortunately this is something that has been largely ignored by many in the hysteria that followed and their immediate attempts to find other programs to move too.

Whether the way they decided to do this was the best one or not, I suspect whichever way they decided they may have got the same reaction as many appear not to have read the details closely judging by the posts I have seen, even those relating to yesterday's announcement.

[KGarrad]

Or maybe RootsMagic and Kendall Hurst made the first moves to Ancestry?

Certainly the blog I read on RM implied that they were the instigators?
But then, who can trust a blog?!
It's written by Marketing people - akin to politicians and 2nd-hand car salesmen in my view!

[DavidG02]

Here is a link to the blog KGarrad mentioned

It certainly has more spin than my washing machine

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01h00/

[bugbear]

I hope the "buy the software and get discounted access to ancestry" deals continue

I've bought several copies of FTM.

My data is recorded in Gramps.   

 BugBear