Re: Microsoft ending newsgroup support
"Hector Santos" <sant9442@nospam.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:eDihewK7KHA.4508@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
I was able to finally login into the bridge (once I change my profile
settings at the web site)
To be fair, there were pretty clear instructions before downloading the
bridge that you needed to change your profile, so this hopefully will not be
a hindrance to others.
and was able create a MUA (Thunderbird) NNTP account to the local host
server. Slow as molasses
Yup, forum traffic is typically low so after the first download, you
typically won't wait long. Compared to how long and tedious navigating the
forums are in a browser, I'd rather let this go for a few hours and not be
bothered.
Man, Microsoft should of came to us to private single source gateway
software that support NNTP, WEB, NATIVE GUI and EVEN TELNET TEXT.
If they are going to dump the NNTP servers, then they need to OPEN UP THE
WEB SERVER/REST API.
It would be totally unfair to only allow exclusivity solely to a 3rd party
NNTP Bridge vendor. It really SUCKS that Microsoft is allowing this to
happen.
I'm going by what it says in the bridge login box:
You are logging into (Microsoft Forums NntpBridge) which is
not a Microsoft developed application.
I hadn't noticed that before and have asked MS for an explanation. Will get
back to you. I certainly got the idea that the bridge was developed
in-house at MS.
Finally, I don't see any merging of the existing NNTP forums with the MS
Web Forums. Was that suppose to be the case? I don't see it.
No, for example I listed the equivalent MFC forum for this newsgroup, no
attempt will be made to merge the content or community of this one.
If that was not the case, then I don't see any reason why they can
continue to sponsor NNTP servers with the current open NNTP newsgroups and
continue to allow it to be USER/MVP supported. If Microsoft doesn't want
to allow their employees to participate in the newsgroups anymore, then
fine, don't allow them. Its not like they are have any high participation
rate anyway. But that shouldn't be a reason to stop offering the long
time NNTP based microsoft newsgroups.
I hadn't heard the primary mover was stopping MS employees from
contributing. I had heard the current NNTP news servers had something to do
with some discontinued Exchange product, and while those could have been
replaced, there are other advantages to MS of moving to forums. First,
people who ask questions (as opposed to answering a ton of them) find the
web interface easier. (True enough, no need to deal with an NNTP client.)
Second, MS has clearer ownership of property and might leverage it on Bing
(and hide it from Google, or something). Third, NNTP doesn't support things
like ratings, moderators, marking answers, points, moving of threads, etc.
(The value of such things are debatable, but no denying NNTP doesn't support
them.)
People, if we really want this then we need to find out if Microsoft is
open to keeping the NNTP servers active but that might mean on proposing
how they be managed.
I don't believe they are, this has been a battle (with MVP's championing
NNTP) for several years, and it looks like we have lost.
But at least our cries have netted the NNTP Bridge, which I think everyone
will agree is small condolence but better than nothing.
I will miss this newsgroup. The equivalent forum is lacking in community
spirit (though that may improve as hopefully all of us migrate there).
-- David