Sys-Con Drops ColdFusion for Silverlight

 
Sep 09, 2007

by Michael Dinowitz

Originally published in Blogoffusion

Sys-Con is a printing company. They are not interested in community support. They are not interested in language advancement. They are interested in money. They are interested in enough money to print a magazine, give it away to thousands and still make a profit. Looking over the number and cost of ads in their magazine, they must want a BIG profit. And those advertising dollars are partially guaranteed by Adobe's support.

According to Sys-Con:

After ColdFusion became part of the Adobe product line, Adobe recently decided to discontinue its support of the magazine.

Therefore, Sys-Con says, it is relaunching ColdFusion Developer's Journal as Silverlight Developer's Journal, with the premier issue of SLDJ coming out at the AJAXWORLD Conference and Expo 2007 West, on Sept. 23 - 27.

Now from what I saw in the last issue of CFDJ from months back, there were still Adobe ads. What exactly was the support that was being cut back? One less ad? Half of the ads? All of them? Or did Adobe give them direct cash above and beyond the ads for operations? We won't know till someone from Adobe responds.

But unless Adobe was funding the entire magazine, any cut in their support should not cause it to fold. The Fusion Authority Quarterly Update isn't folding and not only don't we get direct money from Adobe, we don't even have any Adobe ads in this (and probably the next) issue.

Of course, we care about the community quite a bit more than we do money. That's why we're not a media giant like Sys-Con. But we still have our souls. In the end, I think that's what matters most.

Note that one other thing is missing from this press release. They are not taking any responsibility for their own actions. The total lack of editorial quality, the 'borrowing' of content from other people's websites, their own website being so ad-filled that nothing can be found and those annoying auto-play video and popup ads. In the end, many of the big names in the community had left them and moved on to other journals or websites. This is just as telling as the removal of Adobe's support.

The biggest problem here is that it looks bad for ColdFusion. The first print magazine dedicated to it has left the building. Now rather than a ColdFusion magazine and a ColdFusion journal, there's only a journal. The very fact that they're moving the magazine from ColdFusion, an Adobe product to Silverlight, a Microsoft product, can and will be used against ColdFusion.

For those who want to get some quality printed ColdFusion and want to ignore Sys-Con, the following journal and books are available:

To be totally self serving, if you want to buy an ad in the only print ColdFusion journal around, we would be happy to sell you one. :)

Sys-Con Press Release: http://ajax.sys-con.com/read/426141.htm

Michael Dinowitz is a longtime ColdFusion expert (since early 1995) and is well known for his troubleshooting, experimentation, and ability to take complex topics and break them down into simple elements. He is President of House of Fusion, Publisher of Fusion Authority, and a founding member of Team Allaire/Macromedia/Adobe Community Experts.

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