The owner is none other than Mr. Excel, one of the first Microsoft MVP's recognized for outstanding efforts outside of the relatively limited world that Microsoft defined. If you don't know his name, then it's not too hard to find.
its a democracy surely...
Being under the impression that this is a democracy is misguided opinion, as it certainly is not. While the efforts to manage the board are purely voluntary by the moderators and administrators, and the board is a free resource for all of us, it is up to the owner to decide what limitations there should be. The funds to host the board come out of his pocket, not ours. Joe and several others have pointed out why we don't allow uploads here, and believe me, it is something that we listen to and discuss seriously, as we do with all legitimate suggestions (this is certainly one of those), and always come to the same conclusion: it is not to the overall benefit of the board for us to do so. Notwithstanding the fact that it can become a management nightmare, it also takes questions right off of the board, which flies against the face of our purpose as not only a Q&A forum, but one that is searchable as well. Have there been instances where a question probably couldn't have been resolved without members sharing workbooks? Absolutely, but in 10 years here I have run across very few scenarios where those situations outweighed the greater transparency allowed by not doing that.
there wouldn't be a forum without the users but it's certainly not in my nature that when someone says jump to ask how high.
That is absolutely true, and we are blessed to have one of the finest user bases in the world. On the other hand, no one is asking you to jump at all. If you'd care to go jump over to some other forums you'll find that while they might allow you to upload files, they are far more draconian, and you'll get your happy a$$ bounced out for the slighest "infraction", like not using a descriptive post title. We don't do that here, nor will we. Ever.
same as any business it's only run with the consent of the workers!
"[W]orkers" implies payment in kind, and you do not pay to participate here. In addition, this is not California, there is no union here and you have no voting rights, so there should be no favorable expectation to meet demands that the owner is not willing to make, unless they're deemed in the best interest of all the members. Fortunately, we have a pretty cool sponsor, who gives us all a lot more latitude than other sites. Is this a perfect world? No. So will you get what you want? No. But at least you have the right to ask and be respectfully declined. Is it better than other forums that do offer upload capability? I think so, but it's up to you to find out. As we'd say in Texas, don't let the door hit you in the *** on the way out.
) is reasonable. But if the request is denied, then the response should also be respected, even if you feel strongly that your idea is the best thing that could happen.
