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/

Which Newsgroups Are Affected by this Shutdown?
All public newsgroups will eventually be closed between June 1, 2010 and
October 1, 2010. Microsoft will be closing newsgroups in a phased approach,
starting with the least active newsgroups and moving eventually to more
active ones throughout the course of the next six months.

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/...ory/officeword

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

[Dave Symes]

In article ,
wrote:

What is Happening? This message is to inform you that Microsoft will
soon begin discontinuing newsgroups and transitioning users to Microsoft
forums.

Grief... Forums are appalling and tedious places, and I only go there as a
very last resort, and from my experience over many years, not an evolution
but the opposite.

Dave

--

Dave Triffid

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Using the NNTP Bridge, as referred to in the article, to access the forums
from Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail, you would hardly
notice the fact that you were not accessing an NNTP newsgroup.

The real issue is the forums that have been nominated as the replacement in
the case of some newsgroups.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Dave Symes" wrote in message
...
In article ,
wrote:

What is Happening? This message is to inform you that Microsoft will
soon begin discontinuing newsgroups and transitioning users to Microsoft
forums.

Grief... Forums are appalling and tedious places, and I only go there as a
very last resort, and from my experience over many years, not an evolution
but the opposite.

Dave

--

Dave Triffid

[Yves Dhondt]

With the current status of the NNTP bridge, I wouldn't say "hardly notice".
Especially the plain text / HTML switch is annoying. I guess next to all
caps messages, we can now also expect all bold size 72 caps brightly pink
messages.

Next to the fact that the message contains plain lies (Microsoft is
currently not closing down localized newsgroups which are much less used
than the 'general' ones for example) I wonder if it is actually possible to
kill a newsgroup. The structure of NNTP doesn't define a hierarchy. Right
now, most local ISPs offer direct access to these newsgroups. In turn, they
probably connect to a major player like Giganews or Supernews. Pulling the
plug on Microsoft's side will only influence people directly connecting
through Microsoft. And they could easily migrate. Add to that the dozens of
sites already mirroring the groups through a forum
(http://www.tech-archive.net/, http://groups.google.com/,
http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/, http://www.officefrustration.com/, ...)
and I doubt it will be an easy takedown.

Yves

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message
...
Using the NNTP Bridge, as referred to in the article, to access the forums
from Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail, you would hardly
notice the fact that you were not accessing an NNTP newsgroup.

The real issue is the forums that have been nominated as the replacement
in the case of some newsgroups.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Dave Symes" wrote in message
...
In article ,
wrote:

What is Happening? This message is to inform you that Microsoft will
soon begin discontinuing newsgroups and transitioning users to Microsoft
forums.

Grief... Forums are appalling and tedious places, and I only go there as
a
very last resort, and from my experience over many years, not an
evolution
but the opposite.

Dave

--

Dave Triffid

[Graham Mayor]

For most users even with the availability of alternative servers, as far as
Office products are concerned they will die, as most people coming for help
will not be aware of the alternatives - nor for that matter of the whole
world of Usenet. They are coming here from the forums that Microsoft has
directed them to. It is primarily we, the respondents, who access the
servers directly.

The reason that "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."

is simply attributable to the fact that Microsoft has made no attempt to
publicise the presence of the NNTP server as a source of information. It
prefers to use the web forums - a triumph of presentation over content. By
killing off the connection to the NNTP server, they will effectively kill
off most of the traffic as users will not find their way here.

I do however agree with Doug that the bridge will (for those of us who
respond to questions) enable us to continue to participate. If this means a
break from plain text to html, I can live with that. The greater area of
concern is the nominated forums to take the place of the current
newsgroups - especially those related to vba.

I am now looking for a new server to continue supporting the newsgroups. One
thing is for certain, I won't be going to the web pages. Life is simply too
short.

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org




"Yves Dhondt" wrote in message
...
With the current status of the NNTP bridge, I wouldn't say "hardly
notice". Especially the plain text / HTML switch is annoying. I guess next
to all caps messages, we can now also expect all bold size 72 caps
brightly pink messages.

Next to the fact that the message contains plain lies (Microsoft is
currently not closing down localized newsgroups which are much less used
than the 'general' ones for example) I wonder if it is actually possible
to kill a newsgroup. The structure of NNTP doesn't define a hierarchy.
Right now, most local ISPs offer direct access to these newsgroups. In
turn, they probably connect to a major player like Giganews or Supernews.
Pulling the plug on Microsoft's side will only influence people directly
connecting through Microsoft. And they could easily migrate. Add to that
the dozens of sites already mirroring the groups through a forum
(http://www.tech-archive.net/, http://groups.google.com/,
http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/, http://www.officefrustration.com/, ...)
and I doubt it will be an easy takedown.

Yves

"Doug Robbins - Word MVP" wrote in message
...
Using the NNTP Bridge, as referred to in the article, to access the
forums from Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail, you would
hardly notice the fact that you were not accessing an NNTP newsgroup.

The real issue is the forums that have been nominated as the replacement
in the case of some newsgroups.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP, originally posted via msnews.microsoft.com

"Dave Symes" wrote in message
...
In article ,
wrote:

What is Happening? This message is to inform you that Microsoft will
soon begin discontinuing newsgroups and transitioning users to
Microsoft
forums.

Grief... Forums are appalling and tedious places, and I only go there as
a
very last resort, and from my experience over many years, not an
evolution
but the opposite.

Dave

--

Dave Triffid

[Dave Symes]

Mmnn! Unfortunately, if I read the situation correctly the NNTP Bridge
wouldn't help here.
While I Browse and use Word 2007 on a Win XP based PC, all my other
Networking, NNTP and Mail etc, is done on a machine that will not function
with anything MS installed on it. (Reasons).

So I guess in a month or so it will be goodbye and thanks for the party.

Dave

Yes it might be suggested I transfer the NNTP to the XP machine, again
unfortunately, for reasons... I cannot.


In article ,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP wrote:
Using the NNTP Bridge, as referred to in the article, to access the
forums from Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail, you
would hardly notice the fact that you were not accessing an NNTP
newsgroup.

The real issue is the forums that have been nominated as the replacement
in the case of some newsgroups.

--

Dave Triffid

[Yves Dhondt]

The NNTP bridge is a .Net component. It might (I haven't tested it) work
with Mono.

Alternatively, the NNTP bridge is a locally run NNTP server to which your
newsreader connects. I guess it might be possible to run the bridge on a
Windows machine and connect to it from another machine.

Yves

"Dave Symes" wrote in message
...
Mmnn! Unfortunately, if I read the situation correctly the NNTP Bridge
wouldn't help here.
While I Browse and use Word 2007 on a Win XP based PC, all my other
Networking, NNTP and Mail etc, is done on a machine that will not function
with anything MS installed on it. (Reasons).

So I guess in a month or so it will be goodbye and thanks for the party.

Dave

Yes it might be suggested I transfer the NNTP to the XP machine, again
unfortunately, for reasons... I cannot.


In article ,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP wrote:
Using the NNTP Bridge, as referred to in the article, to access the
forums from Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail, you
would hardly notice the fact that you were not accessing an NNTP
newsgroup.

The real issue is the forums that have been nominated as the replacement
in the case of some newsgroups.

--

Dave Triffid