What Biff said was, here's another link to the forums. I didn't sense
any negative tone to his post. I don't know why he reacted so strongly,
but I don't know the history of your interactions.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://peltiertech.com/


On 5/5/2010 7:15 PM, Joe User wrote:
"T. Valko" wrote:
I will never again reply to any of your posts and I
will not acknowledge any of your replies to my posts.


Talk about overreaction!


Not sure if you are calling me a liar...

What? Where are you getting all this negative crap?

You wrote: "I have no idea if that link mentions the location".

You wrote that in response to my comment which quotes exactly what that
link mentions. So how can you have "no idea"?

Ergo, your comment seems to dismiss or question the correction of my
statement.

I did suspect that you meant to write: "I have not looked at the link
myself". But who am I to put words into your mouth?

And even so, there is no reason for you not to take my word for it,
since I provided a direct quote.

(If I had not directly quoted from the link, it would have been
reasonable for you not to take my word for it.)


All I said was I didn't read the link you provided and
here's a link that I'm aware of to the new Excel forums.

And if you had expressed yourself exactly that way, I would have had no
issue with it.


----- original message -----

"T. Valko" wrote in message
...
Maybe you should be before you cast aspersions on someone else.

What? Who's casting aspersions?

Not sure if you are calling me a liar...

What? Where are you getting all this negative crap?

All I said was I didn't read the link you provided and here's a link
that I'm aware of to the new Excel forums.

You seem to fly off the handle quite easily and often for reasons that
I don't understand.

So, to eliminate any further misunderstanding of any comments I may
make I will no longer interact with you.

I will never again reply to any of your posts and I will not
acknowledge any of your replies to my posts.

Good grief!

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Joe User" <joeu2004 wrote in message
...
"T. Valko" wrote:
I didn't go to this link to read about the replacement forum:
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...s/default.mspx

Maybe you should be before you cast aspersions on someone else.


So I have no idea if that link mentions the location of the new forums.

Not sure if you are calling me a liar, or you think I am incapable of
copy-and-pasting, or you simply cannot read. I quoted what that link
mentions. I wrote:

In the Q&A the
"Q: Where can I access these forums from?
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/forums/default.mspx"



The new Excel forums are located at:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

Yes, that is another way to get the same new Excel forums, apparently.

But the two top-level web sites are very different, at least in
appearance. I cannot explain to you why Microsoft has two different
ways to go to the same place. But that does not make you right and me
wrong.

It is not the first time that Microsoft has maintained two different
ways to access the same forums. Jerry Lewis made me aware of two ways
to access (some of) the "Discussion Groups":
www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us, which I have always
used, and http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...s/default.mspx,
which Jerry was using recently. But in fact, the web site I used has
a more complete list of Excel "Discussion Groups" than the web site
that Jerry used.

Caveat emptor.


The UI is completely different but it's still
a web based forum!

There is nothing inherently wrong with a web interface. Google Groups
is a web interface, and I find it reasonably adequate.

I was commenting on Microsoft's historical failure to maintain a
reliable interface, web or otherwise. (Not to say that GG is
perfect.) Also, Microsoft's historical poor support of the interfaces
that they provide. Even with the new Excel forums, I do not see any
way to report problems to Microsoft. (But that might be my oversight.
I just looked for the obvious "contact us" link on one web page.)

I also raised concerns (along with compliments) about how that
moderator process might work. This is based on two decades of
experience with moderated NGs. Perhaps MVP Ron Coderre can offer some
insight. Apparently he is the moderator (or one of them) of some of
the new Excel forums.

Lastly, my chief concern is that there will no longer be an
alternative if/when posting problems arise with the new Excel forum.
And I will no longer be able to troubleshoot and explain those
problems, like deleted postings. You have personally benefitted from
that just recently.

Oh well, it's a done deal. I am not trying to complain. I am merely
trying to set expectations.


----- original message -----

"T. Valko" wrote in message
...
I didn't go to this link to read about the replacement forum:

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...s/default.mspx

So I have no idea if that link mentions the location of the new forums.

The new Excel forums are located at:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

I've started posting there. The UI is completely different but it's
still a web based forum!

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Joe User" <joeu2004 wrote in message
...
wrote:
Starting in early summer 2010, Microsoft will begin
progressively closing down the Microsoft public newsgroups
to enrich conversations in the rapidly-growing forum
platform.

Translation: Microsoft will force people to use the web interface
that they have maintained so poorly for years and that is the least
reliable and least feature-rich interface for these "forums" that I
am aware of.

Confirmation of that fact comes from the official Microsoft
Newsgroup website
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...s/default.mspx. In
the Q&A the

"Q: Where can I access these forums from?
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/forums/default.mspx"

The only potentially good thing to come out of this....

"Q: What should newsgroup users prepare for that will be different?
[....]
Additionally, Microsoft newsgroups are not moderated, while the
forums will be."

But the operative word is "potentially".

First, Microsoft has demonstrated complete ineptitude in managing
"forums". Their tools do not work. MS does not respond to problem
reports. In fact, they do not even provide an effective way to
report problems with "forums".

Second, moderating a group is either highly labor-intensive or
useless (just a pass-thru).

But if the moderation is real (and effective), that will mean that
postings will incur delays.

Moreover, I have never heard of moderation done on a scale this
large. Consider the traffic in the m.p.excel newsgroups alone.
Well, perhaps Microsoft will depend on MVPs to be moderators.

Oh well....


----- original message -----

wrote in message
...
Date 5/4/2010
Starting in early summer 2010, Microsoft will begin progressively
closing down the Microsoft public newsgroups to enrich
conversations in the rapidly-growing forum platform. This decision
is in response to worldwide market trends and evolving customer
needs.

Microsoft continues to invest in forums to reduce customer effort,
consolidate community venues and make it easier for active
contributors to retain their influence. Forums provide a healthy
community environment with less spam and make answers easier to
find by customers and search engines. Additionally, forums offer a
better user and off-topic management platform that will improve
customer satisfaction by facilitating discussions in a clean space.

We understand that some newsgroups are still active, and important
to the community. In the coming days and weeks, we will be rolling
out tools and resources to minimize disruption to the community
discussions.

We are working diligently on providing additional resources and
information in local languages later this week. In the meantime,
please refer to the official Microsoft Newsgroup website
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...s/default.mspx
concerning this issue. The Microsoft Newsgroup website will be
made available in additional languages in the next few days.