Final Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community
nn...@microsoft.com
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 here: 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/Forums/en-US/category/officeword
Should you want to visit the other Microsoft Forums, please go to
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/forums/default.mspx
Who Should I Contact with any Questions?
Send any questions about the process, recommended forums and timing to
NN...@microsoft.com
Yves Dhondt
"we're working hard to provide you the customer support you want"
I hope they don't mean the "Microsoft support" currently given on the forum
because that's a bit of a let down. Links to KB articles which have nothing
to do with the subject and don't solve anything aren't support... MVP
support both here and at the forum is a lot better than anything Microsoft
support offers.
Yves
<nn...@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:OCvNSPo$KHA...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
Suzanne S. Barnhill
As more MVPs and other community members pile on, perhaps the contractors
will slack off a little.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
"Yves Dhondt" <yves....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:eSq5OIp$KHA....@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Stefan Blom
--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP
(Message posted via NNTP)
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbar...@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:uI1X9up$KHA....@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Graham Mayor
and doesn't "we're working hard to provide you the customer support you
want" really mean
"we're working hard to provide you the customer support we want you to use,
regardless of what you want"?
--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
"Stefan Blom" <Stefa...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:htp5mc$umq$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Stefan Blom
Or perhaps "we're working hard to convince you that we're giving you support
that you want"?
--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP
"Graham Mayor" <gma...@REMOVETHISmvps.org> wrote in message
news:htq9qj$hom$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
Suzanne S. Barnhill
who seems to be "in charge" (Tyler Welch) has a strong background in NNTP
and that the Answers team really want to foster a sense of community (which
won't necessarily include competition). They do want the forums to be
friendly and welcoming, and one of the reasons they reduced the number of
forums was to prevent overwhelming users with choices (and fear of making
the wrong choice). The idea is that the user thinks, "Oh, great! Here is
somewhere that I can ask my question about Word," rather than "Oh, great.
Here are twenty places to ask questions about Word, but I have no idea which
one to choose because I'm not really sure what my question is about."
The ability of moderators to move questions, disconcerting as it is to us
reading via NNTP, does ensure that the question is ultimately placed where
it is most likely to get an answer. The problem is that, before a moderator
gets around to moving it, it may have attracted several replies, some of
which may be answers, along with others telling the OP the question is OT
and directing him where else to post it. Still, if the contractors would
spend more time moving questions as needed and less time sending them to
irrelevant KB articles, it would help. What really infuriates me about the
KB references is that they never give the title of the article, so you would
have to follow the link to find out whether it is even appropriate or not.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
"Stefan Blom" <Stefa...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:ODq34dx$KHA....@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
Graham Mayor
seriously flawed.. These are not social networking sites. Most people come
along, maybe only once or twice, to resolve a particular issue that has been
bugging them. They get their response and disappear, in most cases without
so much as a word of thanks. The 'community' if there is one, is largely the
MVP community and a few other diehards who primarily respond to the
questions asked, and this whole process has done more to alienate that user
base rather than encourage it.
As most of that MVP community will be answering via the bridge - because
there are not enough hours in the day to do so via a web forum - they will
not be part of the 'community' experience. They too are faced with fewer
places to visit - which makes them unweildy to service, and in the case of
the Office programming forums, it is frequently difficult to determine which
product is being discussed (so let's hope they listen to the many requests
for them to be separated ... soon and before the plug is pulled on the
current system!).
Then we also have moderators moving the questions around, which doesn't make
much sense when accessing by the bridge.
Then there is the bridge itself. We started with one bridge, then some
bright spark thought it would be better to have two bridges, and it was left
to a programmer from the MVP community to design a better bridge that put
them back together again. That bridge, for those interested, can be
downloaded from http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/
This whole 'community' concept was thought up by someone who will not be
using the system but who thinks they know better than those who do use the
system what will work..
--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbar...@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%23MREyjz$KHA....@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Gordon
"Graham Mayor" <gma...@REMOVETHISmvps.org> wrote in message
>
> As most of that MVP community will be answering via the bridge -
Although I am not an MVP I have decided (at the moment) not to use the
bridge because it doesn't show "Replies to my posts" whereas the forums,
however else they are flawed at least has an option to display My
Threads....
Terry Farrell
provide, the easiest forum (in this case answersfeedback) becomes a dumping
ground for all and sundry (a slop bucket). This why we dumped word.general.
Microsoft seem to have seriously lost its way. This is clearly shown in the
halving in the value of the company.
Terry Farrell
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbar...@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:#MREyjz$KHA....@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Yves Dhondt
"Gordon" <gordon.bur...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:%23AH9eG0$KHA...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
Couldn't you just either flag or watch the threads in your newsreader you
are replying to? Or simply do a search for your name in your newsreader? The
latter should be similar to a "My Threads" view. Unless everyone is using
your name in the newsgroups.
Yves
Stefan Blom
As Yves has already explained, you can search for messages in your newsreader,
or you can flag them. You can also sort messages alphabetically to locate your
messages visually.
It's more problematic that a forum message may appear in the newsreader with no
context what-so-ever, if you haven't downloaded the entire thread and the poster
has neglected to quote the relevant parts of the message being replied to.
--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP
(Message posted via NNTP)
"Gordon" <gordon.bur...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:%23AH9eG0$KHA...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
Gordon
"Stefan Blom" <Stefa...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:en$Rrd1$KHA....@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> As Yves has already explained, you can search for messages in your
> newsreader,
But that only shows MY posts, not the thread they are posted IN....the
function "Show replies to my posts" in WLM shows the THREAD as well as just
my posts....
Stefan Blom
found a post, you can use the subject to locate the other posts in the same
thread. Or you can "flag" or "watch" threads where you are posting messages, so
that you can find them later.
But there is no such thing as a perfect method, of course. :-) Personally I use
both the web forum and Outlook Express, even though I prefer the latter.
--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP
(Message posted via NNTP)
"Gordon" <gordon.bur...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:eIy7ma2$KHA....@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
abrielle
Have given up on the Answers forum, my machine won't let me synchronize the
groups on WLM - even with the bridge. Doesn't seem to like the "120" rather
than "119". I get a message to say my AV/Firewall is preventing this but I
have wlmail.exe allowed as it tells me I should.
"Stefan Blom" <Stefa...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:u5lFwn2$KHA....@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
Stefan Blom
:-( When the time comes, I'll start using a free news server (though I don't
expect to see that many questions posted here when that time comes).
As far as the Answers forum is concerned, it's supposed to be the feature, so I
don't think we can give it up... :-)
My experience with the Answers NNTP Bridge is actually fairly good. I use it at
home (I can't install applications on my computer at work).
Did you install the correct one of the two NNTP Bridges? Or you could try the
communities bridge found here: http://communitybridge.codeplex.com/.
--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP
(Message posted via msnews.microsoft.com)
"abrielle" <abri...@newsgroup.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:51F9F66B-54AF-46D1...@microsoft.com...