social.microsoft.com integration

Question

It's great having all these places, but there is no way to get to any other place from where you are.

Will the situation change?

Answer 1

Probably not. MS seems wedded to these forums, despite comments to the contrary. I'd personally prefer using NNTP as I have a good NNTP client. But it looks like the future is the web, despite a large number (TM) of users who disagree. Sorry if that is not the answer you wanted.

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Thomas Lee - [e-mail]

Answer 2

One of the critical features of the forums is that they are monitored by Microsoft. The newsgroups get a lot of rude and offensive people, and that is rare in the forums. I assume the reason the newsgroups are not managed in that manner is because the technology is old.

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Sam Hobbs; see my SimpleSamples.Info

Answer 3

It's great having all these places, but there is no way to get to any other place from where you are.

Will the situation change?

Are you saying we can't get there from from where you are? What is "there" and what is "from where you are"? If you could make your comment using words and concepts that Microsoft could implement, then they might do that, but I doubt anyone understands what you are saying. People will of course have their own interpretation, but that might be toally different from what you meant.

If you were a writer, you might be successful by writing a story or a song or a poem that is general and interpreted differently by every person, but the Microsoft social forums are not for social things such as that.

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Sam Hobbs; see my SimpleSamples.Info

Answer 4

The newsgroups can be that way too - it's not hard to run a reliable spool. And as to monitoring newsgroups - using a decent NNTP newsreader is a lot faster and a lot more productive than using these forums where there is huge amounts of bloat due to pictures, etc. For those of use on lower bandwidth pipes or where we ay bper byte, this is a huge difference.

The web is a really great tool for the occasional question asker - but for the question answer, they are less efficient. I can answer all the questions in the newsgroups I monitor in less time than it takes me here. AND, I do not have to be online to help - I can work offline (eg in the hotel, or in the plane) and then upload. With the web, you have to be online. As someone who has volunteered in the newsgroups for over 15 years, I have experience with this.

What I'd like to see is a bridge (much like MS has implemented for MCTs) that would enable me to use my newsreader but for others to use the web. We can each choose the best tools that way, and not be forces to use things we don't want.

My .02 euro!

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Thomas Lee - [e-mail]