Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community

31 Aug 2010 6:34 PM

nntp

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 September 12, 2010 this newsgroup will be closed.

Where Should I go with the Closure of this Newsgroup?
In an effort to enhance and improve your experience, this newsgroup is scheduled for closure in the upcoming months and we would like to invite you to participate at http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/threads forum(s). An exact date will be posted in advance as plans are finalized.

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
N***@microsoft.com

10 Sep 2010 8:17 AM

John Malden

Where is everybody going to go?

I followed the very helpful MS link...

"Where Should I go with the Closure of this Newsgroup?
In an effort to enhance and improve your experience, this newsgroup is
scheduled for closure in the upcoming months and we would like to invite
you to participate at
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/threads forum(s)."

.... and if you follow the link the subtitle of that page says...

"Questions and discussions not covered in the other VB forums such as
Data and Setup. (NOT FOR VB6 QUESTIONS.)"

So that adds up to a very polite "F*ck Off" from MS. Is there a
recommended 3rd party forum?

Thanks for all your help in the past anyway

JM

10 Sep 2010 9:29 AM

ralph

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:17:13 +0100, John Malden
<johnmal***@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Where is everybody going to go?
>

There has already been quite a discussion about this, so if you can,
scan back about a month, and you will find five or six threads.

It isn't as bad as it sounds. So don't panic. <g>

Essentially what has happened is MS is discontinueing THEIR use of
this newsgroup and removing it from THEIR servers. They are also
requesting that other news servers do the same. However, several news
servers are going to continue hosting this group. So all you have to
do is use a different news server.

I happen to be using news.eternal-september.org (the price is right -
free) but there are others, and I'm sure folks will be along shortly
with other suggestions as well.

-ralph

10 Sep 2010 9:34 AM

ralph

On Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:29:57 -0500, ralph <nt_consultin***@yahoo.net>
wrote:

As for using another newsgroup:

comp.lang.basic.visual.misc

Seems the popular choice.