Microsoft has a long history of establishing newsgroups that channel users and issues into the newsgroup (NNTP) space where information is shared and problems can be addressed by the community.
Customers however, are turning online more and more for information and help. Microsoft is revamping its communities to make it easy for customers to find help and information when they need it. Using forums as the online support strategy will reduce the number of redundant resources and centralize content, making community contributions more broadly available and impactful.
Beginning in June 2010, Microsoft will begin closing newsgroups and migrating users to Microsoft forums that include Microsoft Answers, TechNet and MSDN. This move will centralize content, make it easier for contributors to retain their influence, reduce redundancies and make content easier to find. Overall, forums offer a better spam management platform that will improve customer satisfaction by encouraging a healthy discussion space.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has also been working on an interface called the Microsoft Forums NNTP Bridge.The NNTP Bridge application serves as a channel that enables access for NNTP newsreaders to read and write content to Microsoft Forums. The NNTP Bridge is a custom implementation that understands sufficient NNTP protocol commands from supported NNTP newsreaders. It is not to be treated as a fully functional NNTP server.
If you are looking for a Windows Forum to participate in, you might want to check out our TWC Forum.
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