Tester said:
Google has old messages for old products upto Windows XP. Google is not
allowed to archive Microsoft's Forums and the only way to access
Microsoft Forums is by going to Microsoft Website (your log in details
are required for this). You can search using Google but the link will
always take you to Microsoft Website.
Since when did Google need anyone's permission to archive anything from
Usenet? It was *Microsoft* that chose to peer their newsgroups to other
NNTP servers to participate in the worldwide mesh network of Usenet.
Microsoft could have kept their newsgroups private by not peering with
and to other NNTP servers; i.e., they could have made their NNTP server
publicly accessible but not peer its posts elsewhere and not peer posts
from elsewhere. Instead they peered.
There was some joker that went around claiming to be a Microsoft rep (he
wasn't) and was going to issue a remove command for all the
microsoft.public.* newsgroups. All he did was prove he was an idiot.
No one has to honor control messages. Giganews, several free NNTP
providers, AND Google stated they would not honor the remove group
control message and they would continue carrying the groups.
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.outlook.general/topics?lnk=srg
or pick another from
http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?sel=usenet=microsoft.public
So if Google stopped supporting the microsoft.public.* newsgroups, why
is it showing posts up until yesterday? Yes, Google is slow to archive
posts. If you post through their webnews-for-dummies interface, it
could take 4 hours before your post shows up.
Microsoft dropped THIER servers. No one else went away. Because of the
peering, everyone else still has the microsoft.public.* newsgroups
unless they chose to drop them and not because Microsoft ordered them.
Those newsgroups are still available on the non-Microsoft NNTP servers
and Google has its peering relationships which means they still carry
those newsgroups, too.
Microsoft's NNTP server for their private microsoft.private.* newsgroups
(publicly accessible but required login credentials and did not peer to
other NNTP servers) aren't carried elsewhere. They disappeared when
Microsoft killed their NNTP server. So the spyware group on that
non-peered NNTP server did disappear and isn't available elsewhere. No
one had to kowtow to some decree from Microsoft to drop the private
newsgroups simply because Microsoft didn't peer those private groups to
other NNTP servers.
Also the odd thing is if people are prepared to use Google Forums for
Microsoft Products then why do these people refuse to use Microsoft
Forums for Windows 7 and other new products? I can't see any logic in this.
There are private Google Groups "groups" that you have to log into and
use their web-based interface. This is akin to the Yahoo Groups which
are forums and nothing to do with Usenet. Then there are the Google
Groups "public" newsgroups that are an archive for Usenet. So "Google
Groups" is confusing because you don't know if you're talking about the
private or public groups.
I don't see your evidence that Google Groupers (using the webnews-for-
dummies interface at Google Groups' site to post or read) are unwilling
to use yet another webnews-for-dummies interface aka Microsoft's Answers
forums. The only argument for using Google Groups (the public groups
which are part of Usenet and not Google's private forum groups) and not
using Microsoft's Answers forums is that Google Groups is participating
in Usenet whereas Microsoft is just running a private forum. Some folks
want to discuss in Usenet versus in a private forum, or they may do both
to shotgun their discussion as many places as possible trying to gain as
wide an audience as possible.
) It seems to be their specialty ... confusion.