Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community

Microsoft Office Evolves Community as Part of Office 2010 Launch:
As you know, this is a big year for Microsoft as we are launching the latest
version of Office. Office 2010 is all about making it easy for you to get
and use Office on your terms. Office 2010 lets you work from the office,
from home, or at school across the PC, the Phone, and the Browser. You
can purchase Office 2010 from retail, from our OEM manufactures when you
purchase a new PC, or get it direct from Microsoft, faster than ever via a
new software delivery mechanism called Click-To-Run.

And, we're working hard to provide you the customer support you want, when
you want it. We are offering 1-year of technical support included in our
Office Professional 2010 SKU. We are expanding and improving our community
to provide free, 24/7 support. The details of this evolution are outlined
below, but suffice it to say, we're really excited about this as it aligns
with our Office 2010 vision of Office on your terms

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 he http://connect.microsoft.com/MicrosoftForums/


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.answers.microsoft.com/...elform/threads

Should you want to visit the other Microsoft Forums, please go to
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...s/default.mspx

Who Should I Contact with any Questions?
Send any questions about the process, recommended forums and timing to

Effective June 1, 2010 this newsgroup will be closed

No more new posts/responses, I'd understand. But does it also mean I'd no
longer be able to browse/search this newsgroup for the past wealth of
knowledge that it contains? This feature should be left intact as a public
service.

Max,

The Google Groups archives should still be there.

Do you intend to move to the Answers forums when MS pulls the plug on these
ngs?

I'm curious to know if/how MS will acknowledge your past contributions. In
the current ng environment you have obtained a positive reputation as a
knowledgeable contributor as is evidenced by the gold medal awarded to you
at the current MS web forum.

So, if you move to the new Answers forum does this mean you have to "start
over" as far as building your reputation once again? It takes years of your
time and effort to establish yourself as a knowledgeable contributor. How
many years and replies did it take to get the gold medal? And now you have
to start over simply because MS is starting a "new" forum?

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Max" wrote in message
...
Effective June 1, 2010 this newsgroup will be closed

No more new posts/responses, I'd understand. But does it also mean I'd no
longer be able to browse/search this newsgroup for the past wealth of
knowledge that it contains? This feature should be left intact as a public
service.

The Google Groups archives should still be there
Hope so. Did some recent trial retrieves in Google, experienced patchy
results

Do you intend to move to the Answers forums when MS pulls the plug on
these ngs?
I'd guess so. But probably more likely to ask/lurk around, rather than
answer. Been there a couple of times of late.
Looks like posts/queries in the new forums are very well attended to by
quite a number of MVP/expert responders

Reading from your comments, it looks inevitable that all MS newsgroups would
simply vanish after the end of this month?

Reading from your comments, it looks inevitable
that all MS newsgroups would simply vanish after
the end of this month?

I don't know what/how it will end up but there's been a lot of discussion
about this in other ngs.

There is some debate as to whether or not this is what will happen:

Even though MS might "turn off" their ng server those ngs will still be
"alive" just that they'll exist on other parties servers and to access then
you'd just access the other parties server.

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Max" wrote in message
...
The Google Groups archives should still be there
Hope so. Did some recent trial retrieves in Google, experienced patchy
results

Do you intend to move to the Answers forums when MS pulls the plug on
these ngs?
I'd guess so. But probably more likely to ask/lurk around, rather than
answer. Been there a couple of times of late.
Looks like posts/queries in the new forums are very well attended to by
quite a number of MVP/expert responders

Reading from your comments, it looks inevitable that all MS newsgroups
would simply vanish after the end of this month?

I don't know what/how it will end up but there's been a lot of discussion
about this in other ngs.
Links?

--
Don Guillett
Microsoft MVP Excel
SalesAid Software

"T. Valko" wrote in message
...
Reading from your comments, it looks inevitable
that all MS newsgroups would simply vanish after
the end of this month?

I don't know what/how it will end up but there's been a lot of discussion
about this in other ngs.

There is some debate as to whether or not this is what will happen:

Even though MS might "turn off" their ng server those ngs will still be
"alive" just that they'll exist on other parties servers and to access
then you'd just access the other parties server.

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Max" wrote in message
...
The Google Groups archives should still be there
Hope so. Did some recent trial retrieves in Google, experienced patchy
results

Do you intend to move to the Answers forums when MS pulls the plug on
these ngs?
I'd guess so. But probably more likely to ask/lurk around, rather than
answer. Been there a couple of times of late.
Looks like posts/queries in the new forums are very well attended to by
quite a number of MVP/expert responders

Reading from your comments, it looks inevitable that all MS newsgroups
would simply vanish after the end of this month?

Links?

They're in the private MVP ngs.

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Don Guillett" wrote in message
...
I don't know what/how it will end up but there's been a lot of discussion
about this in other ngs.
Links?

--
Don Guillett
Microsoft MVP Excel
SalesAid Software

"T. Valko" wrote in message
...
Reading from your comments, it looks inevitable
that all MS newsgroups would simply vanish after
the end of this month?

I don't know what/how it will end up but there's been a lot of discussion
about this in other ngs.

There is some debate as to whether or not this is what will happen:

Even though MS might "turn off" their ng server those ngs will still be
"alive" just that they'll exist on other parties servers and to access
then you'd just access the other parties server.

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Max" wrote in message
...
The Google Groups archives should still be there
Hope so. Did some recent trial retrieves in Google, experienced patchy
results

Do you intend to move to the Answers forums when MS pulls the plug on
these ngs?
I'd guess so. But probably more likely to ask/lurk around, rather than
answer. Been there a couple of times of late.
Looks like posts/queries in the new forums are very well attended to by
quite a number of MVP/expert responders

Reading from your comments, it looks inevitable that all MS newsgroups
would simply vanish after the end of this month?