On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:19:36 -0800, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

Microsoft is evidently disaconnecting some of their servers from the
USENET and telling the people that post in those groups that they will
have to migrate to their new forums as the current groups are being
shut down. How ridiculous ! As if eve MS could shut down a grap !

Where did you hear that? I just checked microsoft.public.excel.misc,
which is still "on the air" and has up-to-the-minute posts on it. Which
groups did you hear were going to be taken down?

By the way, in case people don't know, these newsgroups that Microsoft
maintains are (surprisingly) *excellent* sources of information and help
with their software. They're on news.microsoft.com.

Perhaps I should have said "at least one of their groups" however
knowing Micosoft and companies like them, they usually enact policies
that effect broader ranges than just one group. Here's something I
posted to the Expression Web group which is the newsgroup for
Microsofts Expression Web editor. The subject (Subject: Newsgroup
continuation) is somewhat explanatory and this thread was a second
response to a post by one of the MVP's that stated

"Hi folks,

Most of you already know that Microsoft has created a new community
forum
center for the Expression programs he

http://forums.expression.microsoft.com/en-us/Forums/

As a result our newsgroup will be closing in roughly a week from now.

The forums are very nice but I'm going to miss our newsgroup!
--
Annie"

And of course one of my responses was :

Path:
bigbe1.bellsouth.net!bigmid2.bellsouth.net!bignumb er.bellsouth.net!news.bellsouth.net!bignews6.bells outh.net.POSTED!06963923!not-for-mail
From: John
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.expression.webdesigner
Subject: Newsgroup continuation
NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:06:47 EST
Organization: BellSouth Internet Group
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:07:11 -0600
Xref: bigfeed.bellsouth.net
microsoft.public.expression.webdesigner:40682

On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:11:06 -0500, "Steve Easton"
wrote:

I understand that MSFT doesn't control Usenet, but if MSFT deletes
microsoft.public.expression.webdesigner from it's servers it will cease to be accessible by Usenet.

While my previous reply was somewhat insightful (inciteful ? ;) I
could have answered a little better. I'll take this by each conjecture
:
I understand that MSFT doesn't control Usenet

Thank God ! The last think the USENET needs is Microsoft steering it
around by the nose and deleting information and posts willy-nilly !

but if MSFT deletes
microsoft.public.expression.webdesigner from it's servers it will cease to be accessible by Usenet.

It's a two way street as with any server. We won't be able to access
their group from a NNTP access and they won't have access to the
millions of servers that make up the USENET. So who do you think is
going to loose more ?

Finally, I'd like to take a quick moment to address a few niggling
reasons I won't bother with a web-based forum if there is an
alternative I can access from my workstation.

Web-based forums exist soley at the behest of their host. This means
that Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, et. al. can (and have !) pull the plug on
the server at any time and there will be no public record of the
information that was recorded in said forum.

Web-based forums are generally moderated and such moderation is
invariablty discriminatory. Of course this can be both good and bad
but I tend to look upon it as unnecessary at best and destructive at
worst. Just speaking from my experiences.

Web-based forums are rarely durable. For instance one motorcycling
forum I regularly attend had their database so corrupted by a server
problem that they had to delete about half the information in it just
to get it working again. Of course they attempted to reload from
backups but all efforts were less than 100% successful and took nearly
8 weeks for some semblence of functionality to return.

Web-based forums are rarely easy to search through. Heck, for a good
example of Microsofts capabilities in this area, just look at MSN.com
! But with a NNTP client such as Forte Agent I can run a query on my
local system and copy results out to a file or respond to the forum or
channel of my choosing.

Finally, I find it somewhat surprising and very disconcerting that
Microsoft is even considering pulling the NNTP access for the web
forum. I'm not one for conspiracy theories however I can't help but
believe that they have some agenda in doing so and that this agenda is
not in the least concerned with the interest of the consumer.

JD