We all knew this was coming. MS to shut down news servers.

[Dave]

So how are they going to stop people like Aliass on Forums? If M$
staff are going to moderate them then why can't they do the same
on Newsgroups?

The reason they are moving to Forums is because they don't want
millions of people looking for Support free of charge. They want
to make as hard as possible for people to look for any help.

hth

It can be done on ng's, but is a lot harder to implement. I'm not sure what
the process is exactly, but one of the ng's I saw go under moved to from
alt.****.**** to rec.****.****
I think there is a cost to set up and maintain a site here, you have to have
a moderator, someone who is willing to donate their time to monitor posts
and weed out the trash before it gets posted. Very few people are willing to
do this on an extended basis without some type of pay or compensation, the
only way to do this is donations (good luck with that), advertising or
having the forum on your site so you can advertise your stuff. You could be
right in that MS might be looking for a way to compete with Yahoo, Google
and possibly others while promoting their stuff.
I think the primary reason they are doing this though is the s*** that's
being posted here is now affecting them and they want to damage control in
some way before it gets very much worse. I haven't done any scientific
analyzing, but I think the trash is approaching the 50% range so half the
bandwidth concerning MS is wasted. Also, think what impression a newbie gets
when they come here for advice or help and half of what they see is trash,
plus they consider MS to be the problem when, in reality, MS had nothing to
do with it. Now, with a forum site on their server, they can control all
that.
Just my 2 cents,
Dave

 

[Mark Blain]

Mark, that is what they are closing because they don't seem to be
able to control it anymore...

Yes, I realize that. I said that you *could* use their servers, meaning
up until this latest assault. I should have been clearer.

 

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

I got it to work, briefly...but it was a bit buggy and damn, those
forums were just insane to try and follow, hundreds of new posts a day
and so many asking the same questions. It was tough to follow. I got rid
of it.

It would have been a far better solution if Microsoft had used a
reliable package like MPNews. It provides unified Web forums,
newsgroups, RSS feeds, mailing lists, and blogs all from the same
source. http://www.messagepixels.com/mpnews/

I have used a NNTP service provided by MPNews for years and have never
known it to fail.

It's a great pity that Microsoft insist on reinventing the wheel every
few years.

Steve

 

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

[...]

They're doing it because most of their users don't even know what
Usenet is and most ISPs have discontinued Usenet access. It also
gives them more control. It has *nothing* to do with trolls like
Frank, Death and the Nymshifter.

Even if your ISP no longer runs a Usenet server, you could still use
Microsoft's server for *their* newsgroups (in fact, I preferred it).

I use msnews.microsoft.com and privatenews.microsoft.com directly so
the ISP is only needed for a connection. My ISP still provides Usenet
but I don't depend on it.

Steve

 

[Stephen Wolstenholme]

I suspect they will
close down WindowsXP newsgroups if Windows 7 proves not to be
successful. Obviously, they want people to move to Windows 7 but
if people continue using XP then they will have to do something
about it to kill it off completely.

XP users do not need XP newsgroups so cutting them off will not kill
anything. XP will slowly fade away because Windows 7 is an improvement
and most new PCs have it pre installed.

Steve

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

On 05/04/2010 10:34 PM, milt wrote:
[...]
They're doing it because most of their users don't even know what
Usenet is and most ISPs have discontinued Usenet access. It also
gives them more control. It has *nothing* to do with trolls like
Frank, Death and the Nymshifter.

Even if your ISP no longer runs a Usenet server, you could still use
Microsoft's server for *their* newsgroups (in fact, I preferred it).

I use msnews.microsoft.com and privatenews.microsoft.com directly so
the ISP is only needed for a connection. My ISP still provides Usenet
but I don't depend on it.

Unfortunately, the MS news server doesn't host a Windows 7 group.

 

[milt]

Unfortunately, the MS news server doesn't host a Windows 7 group.

Nope, they do not and that was the first sign MS was going to get rid of
their news server. When they stopped making newsgroups for new products,
but made new forums for them.

 

[Gilgamesh]

It would have been a far better solution if Microsoft had used a
reliable package like MPNews. It provides unified Web forums,
newsgroups, RSS feeds, mailing lists, and blogs all from the same
source. http://www.messagepixels.com/mpnews/

I have used a NNTP service provided by MPNews for years and have never
known it to fail.

I use MPNews for my personal news group archive. Ever since Message Pixels
took over from Mutant Penguin support has fallen to the point that it is
non-existent. Last time I had a question (only a month or so ago) I
couldn't even post to their news groups or use their forums, and their web
site "contact us" was failing as well.

 

[Dan K.]

I understand. Another nail in the coffin was Microsoft's decision to stop
bundling a newsreader in Windows. As crappy as OE was, with it gone, less
people ever discover Usenet's existence.

Windows Live Mail can carry newsgroups.
Dan k.

 

[milt]

Here it is.
http://community.winsupersite.com/b...-transitioning-from-newsgroups-to-forums.aspx

Funny, a similar thread to this one on the MS servers on the Vista
newsgroup has been deleted. Go figure!

 

[Death]

They're doing it because most of their users don't even know what Usenet
is and most ISPs have discontinued Usenet access. It also gives them
more control. It has *nothing* to do with trolls like Frank, Death and
the Nymshifter.

Leave me out of your fantasies, you retard.
It does probably have a little to do with Death.
They can't have people called Death using their NGs.
Names like Death, Vlad-the-Impaler, Stroke-the-Monkey,
Alias-the-Ubuntard, etc create an image MS would likely want to
disassociate with.
I don't blame them.
I wouldn't hire someone with a nose-ring, facial tattoos, and a missing
eye to greet customers...though I'm sure that you would...for those
imaginary businesses you claim to run.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Close but not quite

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Al Smith]

They can't have people called Death using their NGs.
Names like Death, Vlad-the-Impaler, Stroke-the-Monkey,
Alias-the-Ubuntard, etc create an image MS would likely want to
disassociate with.
I don't blame them.

What's wrong with Vlad-the-Impaler? That's the name of my
mother-in-law.

-Al-

 

[Death]

What's wrong with Vlad-the-Impaler? That's the name of my mother-in-law.

LOL.

It's a good name.
We can't name our offspring like that anymore, though.

Robbie-the-TVwatcher.
Chris-the-OpenBookTesterStillOnlyGetsASixtyTwoer.
Danny-the-Dyslexic.