For several years, Accel has sponsored two e-mail forums: one for users of the vintage P-CAD pc-board layout system (pcadusers@acceltech.com) and one for users of the current Accel EDA offering (eda_users@acceltech.com). The forums are uncensored, e-mail reflectors in which anything posted is bounced back to all participants. They have allowed users to discuss technical problems and solutions without interference, or even any involvement, from Accel.

But times are changing. Accel president Walt Foley wrote in a recent posting that the company is "seriously questioning the advisability of continuing the forum" and asked whether it will return to technical discussions or "continue as a platform for questioning the integrity, competence and business judgment of its sponsor." The tenor of users' "future participation in this forum," Foley wrote, will help him make "the correct decision as to whether it continues as an open forum, is restricted to users respectful of its intended purpose or is terminated completely."

Foley told me afterward that he hoped to "raise the level of discussion" in the forums and that no decisions have been made about whether to shut them down. What appears to have sparked his posting were user complaints about a recent release of Accel's Document Toolbox; missing Gerber output features had provoked strong criticism.

Before crying "censorship," consider this: Accel has gone far beyond most other EDA vendors in sponsoring such an open forum. Anyone can log on; indeed, competitors do so to gather information that they use against Accel. Since any forum of this kind will draw some negative comments, Accel is pioneering the concept at great risk to itself.

"How do you sponsor a user forum that is open without damaging your business because a vocal few want to say negative things? It's a difficult issue," said Jim Plymale, vice president of marketing at OrCAD (Beaverton, Ore.).

The best solution is moderated, online forums independent of vendor sponsorship. The best example in EDA is the E-Mail Synopsys User's Group. But ESNUG exists only because its founder, John Cooley, devotes unpaid time and effort to it.

The question thus remains: Who will sponsor the open, online forums that EDA users need to gather information, and how much control will those sponsors exert?