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Old May 5th 10, 03:09 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsme.general
98 Guy
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 2,951
Default NNTP Newsgroups closing

Corday wrote:

On June 1, Microsoft will be progressively closing newsgroups


Yea - on their NNTP servers.

These microsoft.public groups are propagated world-wide. They will
continue to be propagated worldwide no matter what Microsoft does with
their own server.

Microsoft does not control these groups - nobody or no single server can
control a usenet newsgroup or a hirearchy of groups. A lot of people
don't realize or understand this fact.

Microsoft has already been removing newsgroups from their server. They
did it last year - and those groups still exist on the world-wide
usenet.

-----------------
Subject: Household in microsoft.* hierarchy
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:49:54 -0500
Newsgroups: news.admin.hierarchies

Julien ÉLIE wrote:

535 newsgroups have been removed this morning on
news.microsoft.com
------------------

This decision was made in an effort to provide the best community
and support resources and experience to our customers


This decision was made in an effort to cut costs and reduce admin staff
and operational headaches caused by hackers that constantly use
Microsoft servers to emit spam into the microsoft groups, as well reduce
the amount of information being made available to circumvent license
copying, copy protection and product-key sharing.

Microsoft announced a few months ago some new scheme for having MVP's
provide end-user support via some special web-forum or web-site they
were going to set up. I think it involved a way that payment or
renumeration could be funneled to MVP's from end users. I have heard
squat about so far.

It's funny how Microsoft first spun their usenet peering back in 1996:

----------------

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p.../nwsgrppr.mspx

Microsoft PressPass - Microsoft Announces Internet Newsgroups For
Peer-to-Peer Discussions on Microsoft Products

REDMOND, Wash., April 9, 1996 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the
addition of no-charge Microsoft-sponsored NNTP newsgroups on the
Internet to its family of Information Services offerings. This new
service boosts Microsoft's Internet presence and further addresses
customer demand for one-stop information and services over the Internet.
Microsoft is investing in the newsgroups to create a community in which
customers can share technical information about Microsoft® products and
technologies. Microsoft Newsgroups are scheduled to be live and
accessible to customers on April 15, 1996, via the Support area of the
Microsoft World Wide Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/support/).