Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community

N

nntp@microsoft.com

What is Happening?

This message is to inform you that Microsoft will soon begin discontinuing

newsgroups and transitioning users to Microsoft forums.



Why?

As you may know, newsgroups have existed for many years now however, the

traffic in the Microsoft newsgroups has been steadily decreasing for the

past several years while customers and participants are increasingly finding

solutions in the forums on Microsoft properties and third party sites. This

move will unify the customer experience, centralize content, make it easier

for active contributors to retain their influence, mitigate redundancies and

make the content easier to find by customers and search engines through

improved indexing. Additionally, forums offer a better user and spam

management platform that will improve customer satisfaction by encouraging a

healthy discussion in a clean community space. To this end, Microsoft will

begin to progressively shift available resources to the forums technology

and discontinue support for newsgroups.



In addition to offering a compelling online browser experience, for those

users who prefer to use an NNTP (newsgroup) reader to participate in the

newsgroups community, we have developed a solution called the NNTP Bridge

which allows a user to connect a variety of supported NNTP readers to the

forums they would like to participate in and continue having the NTTP reader

functionality. You can find instructions on how to download and set up the

NNTP Bridge here: http://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums/



Which Newsgroups Are Affected by this Shutdown?

All public newsgroups will eventually be closed between June 1, 2010 and

October 1, 2010. Microsoft will be closing newsgroups in a phased approach,

starting with the least active newsgroups and moving eventually to more

active ones throughout the course of the next six months.



When will this Happen?

Effective June 1, 2010 this newsgroup will be closed.



Where Should I go with the Closure of this Newsgroup?

Microsoft has a large selection of forums, many of which cover either the

same or closely related technologies to the ones found in the newsgroups.

The forums have seen amazing growth and are an excellent place to continue

the discussion. We recommend that you start with

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/windowsserver



Should you want to visit the other Microsoft Forums, please go to

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/forums/default.mspx



Who Should I Contact with any Questions?

Send any questions about the process, recommended forums and timing to

NNTP@microsoft.com
 
S

Sid Elbow

nntp@microsoft.com wrote:



> When will this Happen?

> Effective June 1, 2010 this newsgroup will be closed.




It'll be interesting to see whether this happens as far as the rest of

Usenet is concerned. There are still groups around that were formally

killed 10 years and more ago but are still around because individual

servers didn't delete them and still accept messages.
 
S

someone watching

"Sid Elbow" wrote in message

news:4bf3e7eb$0$10549$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...

> nntp@microsoft.com wrote:

>

> > When will this Happen?

> > Effective June 1, 2010 this newsgroup will be closed.


>

> It'll be interesting to see whether this happens as far as the rest of

> Usenet is concerned. There are still groups around that were formally

> killed 10 years and more ago but are still around because individual

> servers didn't delete them and still accept messages.




I personally hope servers will continue with MS groups ... don't like the

web based forums for their lack of speed. Usenet is just so fast and easy to

use. Don't understand why people prefer web based forums for sooo many

topics!
 
S

Sid Elbow

someone watching wrote:



> I personally hope servers will continue with MS groups ... don't like the

> web based forums for their lack of speed. Usenet is just so fast and easy to

> use. Don't understand why people prefer web based forums for sooo many

> topics!




Probably because such a small proportion of them are even aware of

Usenet these days.



It also leads to the catch-22 situation where ISP's are dropping Usenet

access because it's too much trouble and expense for so few of their

customers. That means that anyone who does want Usenet access has to

find a private server (and potentially pay for a reliable one). This

reduces Usenet users (and Usenet awareness) still further so more ISP's

drop out.



In addition, many web-based forums are moderated and some people prefer

that to unmoderated Usenet groups with their complement of trolls etc

(such as we have seen here recently).
 
S

Space Cowboy

Sid Elbow wrote in

news:4bf41bb8$0$5245$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com:



> someone watching wrote:

>

>

>

> Probably because such a small proportion of them are even aware of

> Usenet these days.

>

> It also leads to the catch-22 situation where ISP's are dropping

> Usenet access because it's too much trouble and expense for so few

> of their customers. That means that anyone who does want Usenet

> access has to find a private server (and potentially pay for a

> reliable one). This reduces Usenet users (and Usenet awareness)

> still further so more ISP's drop out.

>

> In addition, many web-based forums are moderated and some people

> prefer that to unmoderated Usenet groups with their complement of

> trolls etc (such as we have seen here recently).

>




Yep Sid,

Its education, people can't believe that i once used university/college

accounts to get NGs. Local sysops with their limited newsgroups and one

hour time limits[but you only needed a few minutes to upload/download]

then get off the line so someone else can use it.300 baud.....9600baud

Sinclair ZX, Atari ST etc etc.



--

Origin: "Battle Beyond The Stars"[1980,George Peppard,actor.Roger

Corman,producer,low budget but fun to watch]

Must See: "The Magnificent Seven" & "The Seven Samurai"

Starfleet in both Prime(TOS) & Abrams`verses & Browncoat in another

`verse!
 

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