LeeCC wrote:
> But I dont remember any announcements have been made on this change. The old
> page is still there, but no messages.
>
> It would be more user-friendly if MS could splash a message on the old page
> to inform users of this change.
In the newsgroups that Microsoft announced their withdrawl from Usenet,
there were posts titled "Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of
Community". Rather than copy such a post, you can read this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/default.mspx
"Communities" is Microsoft's forum-to-Usenet gateway to provide a
webnews-for-dummies interface to Usenet (aka newsgroups). Microsoft is
scrambling away from their 4-year experiment in trying to usurp the
30-year old Usenet nad over which they could exercise no control. They
are pulling back to providing just their web-based forums (for which
there is NOT a 1-to-1 correspondence of microsoft.public.* newsgroups to
their web-based forums; i.e., there are more newsgroups for which there
is no matching forum).
If you want to continue using Usenet, and because Microsoft is dropping
their Communities via their webnews-for-dummies gateway to Usenet and
will eventually kill off their NNTP server, you will need to use a
newsreader to connect to a non-Microsoft NNTP server, like Albasani,
Eternal-September, individual.net, Giganews or another NSP (newsgroups
service provider). The microsoft.public.* newsgroups will continue to
exist despite Microsoft leaving Usenet. Volume has decreased in the
newsgroups but that does not equate to dead newsgroups. A newsgroup
becomes dead when you don't get responses.
You will be forced to stop using the webnews-for-dummies interface to
Usenet since Microsoft is leaving Usenet. Don't bother connecting a
newsreader (e.g., Outlook Express, Thunderbird, MesNews, Xnews, 40tude
Dialog, Xananews, etc) to Microsoft's NNTP server because Microsoft is
going to kill it off. Connect a newsreader to someone else's NNTP
server. There are plenty to pick from. Otherwise, enjoy the inane and
crippled interface afforded by Microsoft's withdrawl to web-based
forums.
