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From: p byers on 2 Aug 2010 01:00
Larsen the pest I mean
Pete (Northolt UK)

From: Mayayana on 2 Aug 2010 09:12
| Larsen the pest I mean

I think Microsoft is gone by now. Most of the
newsgroups have already been shut down on
the MS server. Have you not seen the notices
posted here? The msnews.microsoft.com NNTP
server is closing down. Microsoft wants to control
the discussion of their products. They've set up
[unusable] web forums where people are required
to get a LiveID "tracking collar, and Microsoft
employees are in charge of directing and deleting
the discussion as they see fit. (Some of the groups,
like VB programming, are just being dumped altogether.
I'm not sure if there's a group specifically for VBS
in the new forums.)

The groups still exist on most servers because
Usenet is decentralized, but people going through
msnews must switch to another server. I'm using
eternal-september.org, which is continuing to carry
Microsoft groups. Many ISPs still continue to carry
them. (It looks like you're going through your ISP
and probably won't have to worry about it.)

I think we just have to count our blessings. We may
be stuck with the Kenneth A Larsens of the world,
but at least we're free to discuss.

Come to think of it, maybe "Kenneth A Larsen" is an
attempt by MS lackeys to make the newsgroups unpleasant.
On the bright side, he doesn't post anything of relevance
so there's no need to check his posts at all.


From: Al Dunbar on 2 Aug 2010 19:19


"Mayayana" <mayayana(a)invalid.nospam> wrote in message
news:i36g3u$c3l$1(a)news.eternal-september.org...
> | Larsen the pest I mean

LOL

> I think Microsoft is gone by now. Most of the
> newsgroups have already been shut down on
> the MS server. Have you not seen the notices
> posted here? The msnews.microsoft.com NNTP
> server is closing down. Microsoft wants to control
> the discussion of their products. They've set up
> [unusable] web forums where people are required
> to get a LiveID "tracking collar, and Microsoft
> employees are in charge of directing and deleting
> the discussion as they see fit. (Some of the groups,
> like VB programming, are just being dumped altogether.
> I'm not sure if there's a group specifically for VBS
> in the new forums.)

I've looked and can find nothing that slices up the discussion-space along
the lines of the good old newsgroups. Since there is no vbscript forum, or
even a scripting forum, vbscript related questions are likely to be asked
anywhere.

> The groups still exist on most servers because
> Usenet is decentralized, but people going through
> msnews must switch to another server. I'm using
> eternal-september.org, which is continuing to carry
> Microsoft groups. Many ISPs still continue to carry
> them. (It looks like you're going through your ISP
> and probably won't have to worry about it.)

I'm still going directly to news.microsoft.com, however, it could be that
the whole thing is being cached out there somewhere.

Truth be told, when this last vestige of the good old days dies, I will
probably just hang up my "trying to help people on the internet" spurs and
look for adventures elsewhere. Sad, as I will miss the old regulars that I
seem to hear from less and less often, including mayayana, Richard Mueller,
Pegasus, Ekkehard Horner, Mathias Tacke, Paul Randall, Todd Vargo, Tom
Lavedas. And even Dr. John Stockton and Dave "Crash" Dummy. Even, in a kind
of twisted way, "asdf" and "name"!

The list was much longer years ago, so my apologies to any names I have
missed.

> I think we just have to count our blessings. We may
> be stuck with the Kenneth A Larsens of the world,
> but at least we're free to discuss.

Yeah, it'd be worse if he actually argued with us. Once you get used to the
idea that he never responds to comments directed at him specifically (but
only to those directed at others), it becomes easier to ignore him. ;-)

> Come to think of it, maybe "Kenneth A Larsen" is an
> attempt by MS lackeys to make the newsgroups unpleasant.
> On the bright side, he doesn't post anything of relevance
> so there's no need to check his posts at all.

That's true enough. But at least the signal to noise ratio here is
reasonable. Over at "microsoft.public.adsi.general" there is perhaps a few
active directory related posts a week, interspersed with nonsense that seems
to be posted by texters trying to hook up with each other.

It's enough to cause the serious ng poster to leave, but I don't think this
is MS' doing. Their name is still on the newsgroup, and this makes them look
as stupid as those people sending microsoft lottery winning notifications or
personal messages from Bill Gates offering money to anyone wanting to beta
test his email tracking system.

/Al


From: Mayayana on 3 Aug 2010 00:02

|
| I'm still going directly to news.microsoft.com, however, it could be that
| the whole thing is being cached out there somewhere.
|

If you're getting it they must not have closed down
the VBS group yet. For some reason they're spreading
it out from June to October. The VB6 group is still up,
but not the VB.Net group. They seem to be killing the
unused groups first. Then the ones that have a replacement.


| Truth be told, when this last vestige of the good old days dies, I will
| probably just hang up my "trying to help people on the internet" spurs and
| look for adventures elsewhere.

"The best lacked all conviction while the
worst were full of shopping intensity... and Hulu
download queues."

I like to be helpful to people who want to do
things for themselves, and it looks like these groups
will be here indefinitely. But things sure have
changed. No one says "information superhighway"
anymore. It's a shopping mall, and the hardware
end is transforming into an array of shopping
appliances.


From: "Dave "Crash" Dummy" on 3 Aug 2010 06:52
Mayayana wrote:
> | | I'm still going directly to news.microsoft.com, however, it could
> be that | the whole thing is being cached out there somewhere. |
>
> If you're getting it they must not have closed down the VBS group
> yet. For some reason they're spreading it out from June to October.
> The VB6 group is still up, but not the VB.Net group. They seem to be
> killing the unused groups first. Then the ones that have a
> replacement.

I am still using the MS server for this group and for
microsoft.public.scripting.wsh, which is not active, at all. Both groups
are also mirrored on my ISP's Usenet server, so I hope they will
continue even if MS drops them.

--
Crash

Ignorance is curable. Stupidity is refusing treatment.
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