Prev: nntp bridge (xpost)
From: nntp on 28 May 2010 16:37

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.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tabletandtouch/threads

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(a)microsoft.com
From: Michael Moser on 2 Jun 2010 06:25
I installed the NTTP bridge suggested at the provided URL but Oonly
one of the about 20 forums I used to monitor seem available via that
mechanism.

I hate reading forums via a browser! No matter, what browser one uses,
that kind of access is always slower and more cumbersome than with any
decent news reader... I really don't get, why MS had to change that!

Michael
From: Rainald Taesler on 2 Jun 2010 12:54
Michael Moser wrote:
> I installed the NTTP bridge suggested at the provided URL but Oonly
> one of the about 20 forums I used to monitor seem available via that
> mechanism.

There are *two* bridges from MS - one for the "Answers" forums [1] and
one for the rest (MSDN, Technet)[2].
Which one do you use?

And there is a third "bridge" created by the MVP J. Kalmbach [1]
This works with both forum areas.

I don't have problems with any of the three.

> I hate reading forums via a browser! No matter, what browser one uses,
> that kind of access is always slower and more cumbersome than with any
> decent news reader...

Me too!
It's too bad.

> I really don't get, why MS had to change that!

I do not like MS' decision at all.
AFAICS they just wanted to concentrate things.
And someway it's understandable: If we like it or not, NGs by the time
have become a yesterday's medium {siiigh}.

Rainald
[1] Microsoft Answers NNTP Bridge V1.zip
https://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums/Downloads
[2] MicrosoftForumsNNTPBridgeV1_1.zip
https://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums/Downloads
[3] http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/


 | 
Pages: 1
Prev: nntp bridge (xpost)