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From: Bobby Johnson on 6 May 2010 07:02
On Fudzilla @ http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18711/38/

Microsoft kills 4,000 old-style newsgroups Print E-mail
Written by Nick Farrell
Wednesday, 05 May 2010 09:25


Go to new sites you dinosaurs

Microsoft is going to kill support for more than 4,000 old-style
newsgroups starting next month.

It said that it wants users to go to discussion forums such as those
found on the Microsoft Answers, TechNet, and MSDN sites. Microsoft said
that so-called NNTP newsgroups are past their time in terms of being
usable and secure.

In a statement Redmond said that the newsgroups run on an outdated and
discontinued platform that is no longer supported, making them
vulnerable to spam and other usability issues. The company said that its
forums get 15 million visits a month and have been growing, on average,
12 percent each month. Participation in the old newsgroups has dropped
nearly in half over the past year.

Forums are also moderated by Microsoft to ensure content is �accurate
and to encourage richer conversations�. So calling someone a nazi is
supposed to be a thing of the past. The newsgroups first appeared in
April 1996, replacing the Microsoft-sponsored discussion forums on
CompuServe.

From: Jeff Gaines on 6 May 2010 07:32
On 06/05/2010 in message <uEG0xuQ7KHA.5464(a)TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl> Bobby
Johnson wrote:

>In a statement Redmond said that the newsgroups run on an outdated and
>discontinued platform that is no longer supported

I can't believe they said something so inaccurate, although they have
never given much indication that they understand Usenet.

>The newsgroups first appeared in April 1996, replacing the
>Microsoft-sponsored discussion forums on CompuServe.

Usenet has been around since 1980, MSFT were rather late to the party.

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.
From: TOM7601 on 8 May 2010 19:39
TMA wrote:

Snips...

> And my questions are:
> What is M$ wanting? To discontinue online free qualified support to
> their users?
> What if these users decide to no longer support M$ and discontinue
> Windows platforms?

The idea must be to steer us toward paid support. One school of thought
is that if your OS trouble isn't bad enough to pay for help, then it
must not be a problem. However, some of us work and don't have time to
sit on hold for a couple of hours or maybe we have a simple question,
one of those nice to know type requests that, in real life, we can live
without.

I agree with the poster regarding alt.windows7.general, just set up
killfiles and forge ahead...
--
TOM - Vista, CA - USA
From: Charlie Russel - MVP on 10 May 2010 11:03
I'm not happy, but there will continue to be an NNTP solution. Either normal
Usenet groups (as opposed to microsoft. usenet groups), or the Forums via
the NNTP bridge. That's what I'll be using. No, I'm not happy about it. But
it is what it is, and I've pushed back and delayed it as long as I (and the
other MVPs who fought this fight) can.

--
Charlie.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/russel




"Bobby Johnson" <rjohnson(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:uEG0xuQ7KHA.5464(a)TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> On Fudzilla @ http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/18711/38/
>
> Microsoft kills 4,000 old-style newsgroups Print E-mail
> Written by Nick Farrell
> Wednesday, 05 May 2010 09:25
>
>
> Go to new sites you dinosaurs
>
> Microsoft is going to kill support for more than 4,000 old-style
> newsgroups starting next month.
>
> It said that it wants users to go to discussion forums such as those found
> on the Microsoft Answers, TechNet, and MSDN sites. Microsoft said that
> so-called NNTP newsgroups are past their time in terms of being usable and
> secure.
>
> In a statement Redmond said that the newsgroups run on an outdated and
> discontinued platform that is no longer supported, making them vulnerable
> to spam and other usability issues. The company said that its forums get
> 15 million visits a month and have been growing, on average, 12 percent
> each month. Participation in the old newsgroups has dropped nearly in half
> over the past year.
>
> Forums are also moderated by Microsoft to ensure content is �accurate and
> to encourage richer conversations�. So calling someone a nazi is supposed
> to be a thing of the past. The newsgroups first appeared in April 1996,
> replacing the Microsoft-sponsored discussion forums on CompuServe.
>

From: Charlie Russel - MVP on 10 May 2010 11:06
>
>>In a statement Redmond said that the newsgroups run on an outdated and
>>discontinued platform that is no longer supported
>
> I can't believe they said something so inaccurate, although they have
> never given much indication that they understand Usenet.
Actually, from a MS perspective, it's completely accurate. They run on
Windows, and Exchange. Both quite a bit older versions than current.

>
>>The newsgroups first appeared in April 1996, replacing the
>>Microsoft-sponsored discussion forums on CompuServe.
>
> Usenet has been around since 1980, MSFT were rather late to the party.
Yes, they were. And I lamented the day the moved off of CompuServe as well,
since it was a FAR superior platform for discussion groups to anything
Usenet. And Usenet is FAR, FAR superior to web forums. But there we are,
it's not anything we can change.

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