Arne said:
[...]
So, after all is said and done, if Microsoft does not explicitly attempt
to remove the newsgroups, or if they do then for those ISPs that ignore
that, the newsgroups will remain accessible through those ISPs that
still carry the newsgroups.
And even those that did delete could potentially add the groups
back at popular demand.
That's true. But I doubt there would be the demand, nor enough interest
on the part of the news server admins to revisit the decision once they
removed the groups.
The fact is, anyone who started using a computer after the web browser
was invented is relatively unlikely to ever even consider expanding
their horizon much beyond that browser, no matter what benefits might be
present for them. The consequence is that relatively speaking, demand
for newsgroups is dwindling, and is likely to only drop further.
And for the admins' part, they are most likely to follow the same sort
of single-minded decision-making that has led to Microsoft's ill-advised
pursuit of their client-side-only "NNTP bridge" is likely to result in
any news server admin that does decide to remove the groups to strongly
resist any effort to add them back again, lest they admit any mistake on
their part.
