[universal[_26_]]

Hello All,

I wondered if anyone knew of a forum that came close to being as
friendly and knowledgable as this one, but for AccessVB?

I'm just started and have got myself stuck on stLinkCriteria....

Many Thanks
Ed


---
Message posted from http://www.ExcelForum.com/

[Hank Scorpio]

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 02:26:37 -0600, universal
wrote:

I wondered if anyone knew of a forum that came close to being as
friendly and knowledgable as this one, but for AccessVB?

Hmmm... it depends on what you mean by "this forum". I've noticed a
lot of posts with footers stating that the message was "posted from
http://www.ExcelForum.com/" recently, though I'd never seen that
site. I just took a look at it.

Really, I'm not sure how I feel about this. "Founded in March 2003 by
Joseph Rubin, ExcelTip.com has become the leading source of Microsoft
Excel tips, tricks and information on the web." Oh really? There y'go,
I did not know that. I guess Microsoft can close the KnowledgeBase
now.

Although the relevant page DOES mention that the "Forum" is an
interface to Usenet groups, IMHO it doesn't make it clear enough that
ExcelForum.com isn't the true source of that content. Most of the
answers that you'll see, the overwhelming proportion, in fact, are
from people who are NOT posting through or are in any way connected
with that site. As far as the part about "You can now reach the many
thousands of usenet users without having to grapple with complicated
news software and with the need to pay for a newsfeed" goes, first, if
you can run an e-mail program then you can run a newsreader, second if
you have an ISP account then you can connect to the Microsoft news
server directly for free, and third Microsoft has provided a web
interface to its groups for yonks as I'll come back to in a moment.
Granted, there seems to be OTHER locally produced content on the site
in terms of tips and tricks, but... well, it's not what you asked
about.

My recommendation would be to get a newsreader, which will allow you
to download all or any of the newsgroup content directly. But if you
still prefer a web interface, Microsoft provides one as well; one
which interfaces not just to Excel groups, but to all of the Microsoft
groups including Access ones. You'll find it he
http://support.microsoft.com/newsgroups/

I'm just started and have got myself stuck on stLinkCriteria....


---------------------------------------------------------
Hank Scorpio
scorpionet who hates spam is at iprimus.com.au (You know what to do.)
* Please keep all replies in this Newsgroup. Thanks! *

[JE McGimpsey[_2_]]

Take a look at this newsgroup:

microsoft.public.access.macros


In article ,
universal wrote:

I wondered if anyone knew of a forum that came close to being as
friendly and knowledgable as this one, but for AccessVB?

I'm just started and have got myself stuck on stLinkCriteria....

[JE McGimpsey[_2_]]

Hank -

From what I've seen, ExcelForum is a far more capable web interface than
Microsoft's. (Note: I don't use ExcelForum, and never have)

For one thing, it automatically spam-protects user's addresses, which
MS's doesn't.

It also sends an email to the OP when a reply has been posted, which MS
doesn't. Anyone can subscribe to a thread to see updates.

It's more standards compliant, and doesn't leave half the screen blank
when displaying a message list (in the Safari browser, at least, the
message "loading selected newsgroup" is displayed in the bottom half of
MS's interface even after the group is loaded).

It has more options for sorting and displaying messages than MS's.

It's just as free as Microsoft's news server or web portal.

I also find it a more attractive interface (while orange isn't my
favorite color, MS's institutional blue turns me off as cold).

ExcelForum started out a bit rocky (you can do a Google search to see
some previous comments), but Mr. Rubin and his organization have taken a
number of steps to fit in with the gestalt of the Excel newsgroups.

While I prefer a newsreader myself, for the infrequent poster or newbie,
I suspect it's far and away superior to having to learn a new technology
(i.e., a newsreader, newsservers, etc, which, for some, is a significant
hurdle).

In article ,
Hank Scorpio wrote:

My recommendation would be to get a newsreader, which will allow you
to download all or any of the newsgroup content directly. But if you
still prefer a web interface, Microsoft provides one as well; one
which interfaces not just to Excel groups, but to all of the Microsoft
groups including Access ones. You'll find it he
http://support.microsoft.com/newsgroups/

[Debra Dalgleish]

This Access forum interface looks like the Excel one you're using:

http://www.msaccessforum.com/forum/index.php?s=

Try 'Access Forms - Coding' or 'Microsoft Access Reports'

There's one named 'Access Macros / VBA' but it posts to the
microsoft.public.access.macros newsgroup. In Access, macros don't use
VBA, so you probably won't get much help there.

universal < wrote:
Hello All,

I wondered if anyone knew of a forum that came close to being as
friendly and knowledgable as this one, but for AccessVB?

I'm just started and have got myself stuck on stLinkCriteria....

--
Debra Dalgleish
Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html

[Hank Scorpio]

On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 09:08:12 -0700, JE McGimpsey
wrote:

Hank -

From what I've seen, ExcelForum is a far more capable web interface than
Microsoft's. (Note: I don't use ExcelForum, and never have)

JE,

I take all of your points below, but that ain't my grumble.

ExcelForum is clealy a very, VERY commercial site. (Find a page on the
site which ISN'T plastered with ads.) Usenet, on the other hand, is
very, VERY community oriented. When I answer someone's question (or
you do, or Dave does, or Norman does, or...) then the answer is NOT
"From Excel Tip.com" as the header of the browser window would
suggest. All ExcelTip.com is doing is repackaging content that comes
from elsewhere, and is provided by the likes of thee and me on a
non-commercial basis. And although they DO mention that the posts
"will be propogated to usenet", IMHO they're just not making it clear
enough that:
- Usenet is NOT brought to you by John Rubin's "leading source" of
Excel information and
- The "Forum" is just one way of getting posts into Usenet and
reading them from Usenet. It's NOT Excel Tip.com's own forum, just a
portal to something else which is quite independent of their site; and
the vast, OVERWHELMING, majority of the content has never been created
through that site.

Now that doesn't mean that I'm waving a red flag from the barricades
and chanting "No commercial content on Usenet!!!" or anything; far
from it. There are a lot of people (like, say, Chip or Stephen Bullen)
who put bread on their tables through Excel consulting work and their
sites (which are often pointed to in Usenet posts) obviously promote
their services. I also recall one thread in which a poster asked about
setting up their own consulting business; the poster asked how they
could establish a name for themselves. A reply suggested that posting
on Usenet was one way. I have no problem with this. The big
difference, the HUGE difference is that Chip and Stephen and whoever
else aren't packaging up other people's content (including mine) on
their sites and calling it their own "Forum". Click on my name in the
forum, and Excel Tip will advise that "This user has not registered".
That's right; because "This user" is NOT, in fact, an Excel Tip.com
user.

I'm not suggesting that Excel Tip.com is blatantly misrepresenting
anything, and the automatic notification when a reply comes in is
clearly a useful "value adding" service. (Spam protecting the address,
maybe not so much; the MS site does advise you of how to spam protect
your address, and it's not exactly rocket science or even pivot tables
come to that.) I DO, however, feel that they're sailing a little close
to the wind on this point and should be making it clearer that the
"Forum" is a portal (granted, with a few extra bells and whistles as
you list below) to EXTERNAL content, and (in CONTENT terms), very
little more than that. JMHO.

For one thing, it automatically spam-protects user's addresses, which
MS's doesn't.

It also sends an email to the OP when a reply has been posted, which MS
doesn't. Anyone can subscribe to a thread to see updates.

It's more standards compliant, and doesn't leave half the screen blank
when displaying a message list (in the Safari browser, at least, the
message "loading selected newsgroup" is displayed in the bottom half of
MS's interface even after the group is loaded).

It has more options for sorting and displaying messages than MS's.

It's just as free as Microsoft's news server or web portal.

I also find it a more attractive interface (while orange isn't my
favorite color, MS's institutional blue turns me off as cold).

ExcelForum started out a bit rocky (you can do a Google search to see
some previous comments), but Mr. Rubin and his organization have taken a
number of steps to fit in with the gestalt of the Excel newsgroups.

While I prefer a newsreader myself, for the infrequent poster or newbie,
I suspect it's far and away superior to having to learn a new technology
(i.e., a newsreader, newsservers, etc, which, for some, is a significant
hurdle).

In article ,
Hank Scorpio wrote:

My recommendation would be to get a newsreader, which will allow you
to download all or any of the newsgroup content directly. But if you
still prefer a web interface, Microsoft provides one as well; one
which interfaces not just to Excel groups, but to all of the Microsoft
groups including Access ones. You'll find it he
http://support.microsoft.com/newsgroups/


---------------------------------------------------------
Hank Scorpio
scorpionet who hates spam is at iprimus.com.au (You know what to do.)
* Please keep all replies in this Newsgroup. Thanks! *

[JE McGimpsey[_2_]]

Since this is OT, I've cross-posted and set follow-up to
microsoft.public.excel.misc

I probably thought more like you do a couple of months ago. Then, every
post from ExcelForum carried an ad in the footer, and, when looking at
the site, everyone who wasn't a member was listed as "Guest" and their
registration status was "Not Yet". The threading was also broken.

After a complaint about those items, Mr. Rubin removed the advertising
and worked to fix the threading. He also changed to forum so that it's
clear when posts are made to the newsgroup rather than the forum (and it
would be a dull user indeed who couldn't tell that most of the forum
posts are questions, while the answers are mainly posted directly to the
groups). It's also clear that those of us posting via other means aren't
just hanging back from registering.

Could they make it a bit clearer? Probably, but it's very clear to me
from the web pages that I would be posting to or reading from a usenet
forum (which is defined in the header) rather than to something that was
produced by ExcelForum.

You could just as easily make the statement that MS's web portal is
misleading because the tips don't come from MS - and MS doesn't even
have any disclaimers. In fact, it seems to me that MS is worse, since it
purports, at least by implication, that these newsgroups are part of
"Microsoft Communities". While it's true that many of us use the msnews
newsservers, these groups no more "belong" to MS than any other
newsgroup does. To use your analogy, all the MS web portal does is
repackage EXTERNAL content from others and present it as if it were an
MS service. The only service is the use of the msnews servers - and
while that's a substantial server farm, it's also a very shrewd part of
cutting the overall cost of customer service. The groups themselves
would continue to exist even if MS shut down the farm.

To me, it's not a matter of commercial content on usenet. If you don't
want to read via a web browser, you don't have to see any of the
adverts. Likewise, people can read your posts commercial free via
newsreaders, or by using a portal that contains adverts to support it.
In either case, your altruism is noted (and emphasized on the Forum -
with newsreaders it's merely assumed.

I agree that the site is too commercial. That's why I'd never use it (in
addition to all the other shortcomings vis-a-vis reading news with a
newsreader).


In article ,
Hank Scorpio wrote:

I take all of your points below, but that ain't my grumble.

ExcelForum is clealy a very, VERY commercial site. (Find a page on the
site which ISN'T plastered with ads.) Usenet, on the other hand, is
very, VERY community oriented. When I answer someone's question (or
you do, or Dave does, or Norman does, or...) then the answer is NOT
"From Excel Tip.com" as the header of the browser window would
suggest. All ExcelTip.com is doing is repackaging content that comes
from elsewhere, and is provided by the likes of thee and me on a
non-commercial basis. And although they DO mention that the posts
"will be propogated to usenet", IMHO they're just not making it clear
enough that:
- Usenet is NOT brought to you by John Rubin's "leading source" of
Excel information and
- The "Forum" is just one way of getting posts into Usenet and
reading them from Usenet. It's NOT Excel Tip.com's own forum, just a
portal to something else which is quite independent of their site; and
the vast, OVERWHELMING, majority of the content has never been created
through that site.

Now that doesn't mean that I'm waving a red flag from the barricades
and chanting "No commercial content on Usenet!!!" or anything; far
from it. There are a lot of people (like, say, Chip or Stephen Bullen)
who put bread on their tables through Excel consulting work and their
sites (which are often pointed to in Usenet posts) obviously promote
their services. I also recall one thread in which a poster asked about
setting up their own consulting business; the poster asked how they
could establish a name for themselves. A reply suggested that posting
on Usenet was one way. I have no problem with this. The big
difference, the HUGE difference is that Chip and Stephen and whoever
else aren't packaging up other people's content (including mine) on
their sites and calling it their own "Forum". Click on my name in the
forum, and Excel Tip will advise that "This user has not registered".
That's right; because "This user" is NOT, in fact, an Excel Tip.com
user.

I'm not suggesting that Excel Tip.com is blatantly misrepresenting
anything, and the automatic notification when a reply comes in is
clearly a useful "value adding" service. (Spam protecting the address,
maybe not so much; the MS site does advise you of how to spam protect
your address, and it's not exactly rocket science or even pivot tables
come to that.) I DO, however, feel that they're sailing a little close
to the wind on this point and should be making it clearer that the
"Forum" is a portal (granted, with a few extra bells and whistles as
you list below) to EXTERNAL content, and (in CONTENT terms), very
little more than that. JMHO.