Final Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community




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/

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.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-us/category/visualbasic/

Where to post your VB 6 questions
Microsoft forums support current releases of Visual Basic as well as help on migration to the .NET platform through the following forums:
• Visual Basic Interop and Upgrade(Update VB6 code to .NET): http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbinterop/threads/ • Visual Basic General (General VB.NET questions): http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/threads • Visual Basic Power Packs (controls, components, samples and tools that are part of the VB Power Packs): http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbpowerpacks/threads • Visual Basic Language (VB.NET language -- compiler, runtime, language keywords): http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vblanguage/threads • Visual Basic IDE (IntelliSense, debugging, ErrorCorrect, code snippets, colorization, smart tags, etc.): http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbide/threads

These forums do not support Visual Basic 6, however there are many third-party support sites that do. If you have a VB6-related question please visit these popular forums:
• VB Forums: http://www.vbforums.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1 • VB City: http://vbcity.com/forums/26.aspx

There are also many other technical resources and sites for Visual Basic 6 developers like:
• Essential Training Videos for VB 6 developers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/cc297223.aspx • Visual Basic 6.0 on MSDN Library: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kehz1dz1(VS.90).aspx • MSDN Visual Basic 6.0 Resource Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic/ms788229.aspx • VB-Helper: http://vb-helper.com/ • CodeGuru: http://www.codeguru.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=540fe8a60a6d965cb7f0c0349a1f3582&f=4 • Code Project: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb-interop/ • Planet Source Code: http://www.planetsourcecode.com/vb/default.asp?lngWId=1


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
NNTP@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.



Relevant Pages

  • Re: Final Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community
    ... Microsoft Office Evolves Community as Part of Office 2010 Launch: ... And, we're working hard to provide you the customer support you want, ... As you may know, newsgroups have existed for many years now; ... solutions in the forums on Microsoft properties and third party sites. ...
    (microsoft.public.access.gettingstarted)
  • Re: Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community
    ... Microsoft let it go merrily on, and it finally showed up in their product development with the release of MSOffice 2007. ... We are offering 1-year of technical support included in our Office Professional 2010 SKU. ... As you may know, newsgroups have existed for many years now; ... solutions in the forums on Microsoft properties and third party sites. ...
    (microsoft.public.officeupdate)
  • Re: Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community
    ... At present I use Google Groups to track new postings and I use the Microsoft ... Also, with these new Answer Forums, with the old notification be working ... We are offering 1-year of technical support included in our ... As you may know, newsgroups have existed for many years now; ...
    (microsoft.public.word.formatting.longdocs)
  • Re: Final Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community
    ... One impression that I got from the LiveMeeting Wednesday was that the person who seems to be "in charge" has a strong background in NNTP and that the Answers team really want to foster a sense of community. ... 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. ... Microsoft Word MVP ... and doesn't "we're working hard to provide you the customer support you want" really mean ...
    (microsoft.public.word.newusers)
  • Re: Reminder - Microsoft Responds to the Evolution of Community
    ... this is a big year for Microsoft as we are launching the latest version of Office. ... We are offering 1-year of technical support included in our Office Professional 2010 SKU. ... As you may know, newsgroups have existed for many years now; ... solutions in the forums on Microsoft properties and third party sites. ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.programming)