Re: Visit www.excelforums.com

From: Jim Gordon MVP (goldkey74_at_WarmerThanWarmMail.com)
Date: 08/29/04 

Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 10:18:30 -0400

Hi Frank, et al.,

In general I would agree with you concerning multiple postings. I bit my
tongue about it because I am aware of some flakiness in the the
newsgroups where occassionally (rarely) messages will duplicate
themselves spontaneously, or not appear in a reasonable time and then
magically appear later on, or never appear at all.

I'm willing to give the posting person the benefit of the doubt,
although I do have doubt about it (hey that rhymes!).

Fake questions/answers are hokey. I had a grade school teacher who did
that and it was not an effective teaching technique. I just quietly
smirked to myself whenever she did it.

-Jim 

-- 
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
MVP FAQ
<http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs>
Frank Kabel wrote:
> Hi Jim
> in general I agree with you. ONE announcement is totally o.k. and
> everybody can decide if he want to use this forum (and in some cases
> web based interfaces are the only way to access this NG if you're
> behind a firewall)
> 
> BUT there have been several postings and (at least IMHO) faked question
> postings. And this is what I would consider as spam (multiple
> announcements) or a little bit too much marketing. So for me the first
> posting was o.k but the following ones were a kind of spam :-)
> 
> --
> Regards
> Frank Kabel
> Frankfurt, Germany
> 
> "Jim Gordon MVP" <goldkey74@WarmerThanWarmMail.com> schrieb im
> Newsbeitrag news:O6kKW8SjEHA.3896@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> 
>>Unlike others here I don't consider this announcement spam at all.
>>
>>It is on topic, which is Excel, and the forums have specific
> 
> Macintosh
> 
>>Excel content, so to me the Balazs' posting fits right in.
>>
>>Now I would like to offer a quick review of Excelforums.com.
>>
>>I took a few minutes to visit the site and discovered that it is a
>>repackaging of the newsgroups by providing a web interface. I have no
>>objection to this at all. In essence every newsreading program out
> 
> there
> 
>>does the same thing. So if you like Entourage, Thunderbird,
> 
> NewsWatcher
> 
>>or whatever this is just another alternative. The forums uses a web
>>interface instead of a client application. To me that is a lot of
> 
> wasted
> 
>>overhead, but some people only know Netscape or a web browser and if
>>they stumble on the site and like it, who am I to criticize?
>>
>>I think the price/value equation is heavily stacked against
>>Excelforums.com. Compared to the program I am using right now,
>>Thunderbird (a free download from
>>http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/), the forums are
> 
> infintely
> 
>>more expensive. I prefer the way Thunderbird displays messages. I can
>>see a tree-structure showing message threads, I can mark messages and
>>future attention, and lots more. Thunderbird is a lot faster than a
> 
> web
> 
>>browser.
>>
>>Nevertheless, I find that the Forums offer an attractive looking
>>interface that might be less confusing to a new user, especially
> 
> someone
> 
>>new to the newsgroups. To some people, the price might be acceptable,
>>and I don't think it is a bad thing that they pay for a web interface
>>formatting service they find useful. Maybe later on they will
> 
> graduate
> 
>>to something more robust that's less expensive.
>>
>>I did find it interesting that the Forums offer Google search
>>capabilities at the bottom of the page. I would offer this Google
> 
> link
> 
>>as a point of comparison to the Forums
>><http://groups.google.com/groups?group=microsoft.public.mac.office>
>>
>>To conclude:  I think the Forums are attractive looking, but they are
> 
> a
> 
>>pricey way to do something that you can do for free from Google,
>>Mozilla, and other sources.
>>
>>I encourage anyone who has done some programming and wants to
> 
> announce
> 
>>it here in the newsgroups to feel welcome to do so, with the
>>understanding that it be on topic. To me, Excel Forums announcement
>>passes the "is it spam" test - the announcement is not spam.
>>
>>-Jim
>>
>>--
>>Jim Gordon
>>Mac MVP
>>MVP FAQ
>><http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs>
>>
>>
>>Balazs wrote:
>>
>>>Excelforums.com
>>>
>>>We are back up and running again after a few months down.  Most of
> 
> our
> 
>>>posts have been lost, but we're on a dedicated domain now and we're
>>>plugged into the microsoft.public.excel.* NewsGroups with a 90
> 
> second
> 
>>>turn-around.
>>>
>>>Come on by and check out our forums!
>>>
> 
>

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