Hi, Eric.
Sorry for the late response, but I just now came across your post...
3) Is vistaforums.com also run by Microsoft, or could they be allowing
some independant group to link to their newsgroups?
NO! Vistaforums.com - and many other such sites that use Vista or other
Microsoft-owned names so freely - has no more connection to Microsoft than
you probably do. That is, they use Microsoft products - and likely make
money with them. But they have no ownership except the licenses acquired by
buying the software packages.
These Microsoft newsgroups - just like the hundreds of thousands of other
newsgroups out there - are all a part of Usenet. It would take a lot of
words and time to explain Usenet, even if I were an expert on it, which I
certainly am not. Google or Bing can find lots of information about Usenet;
here's the article on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
....and from the "official" Usenet Information Center:
http://www.usenet.com/
The bottom line is that Usenet is essentially free to all, so anybody
anywhere in the world with an Internet connection can freely read - and post
to - any newsgroup. So my post - and YOURS! - may even now be stored in a
user's file in China or Australia, and it might remain there forever unless
that user, intentionally or not, deletes it.
So, it's not a matter of Microsoft "allowing" vistaforums.com to relay
messages to and from these newsgroups. It's simply the nature of the Usenet
beast, to coin a phrase. Those "forums" do provide a useful service in
providing focal points for users to find information on specific subjects,
and many true experts frequent those sites and give excellent expert advice.
I just WISH that such sites would make it clear to their users what is
actually happening. But those "forum" managers are happy to present the
illusion of exclusive access to "insider" information for their "members" -
when all they are really doing in most cases is relaying to/from the
Microsoft newsgroups, and collecting advertising revenue along the way. The
less those managers tell their users, the more ad revenue they are likely to
generate.
Enough of my rant for today. In summary, those "forums" perform a useful
service, but too many of them hide the true nature of the service they are
providing. Therefore, too few of their users understand what is really
happening to their questions and the true source of the help they
receive..while the forum owners pocket the ad revenue from advice freely
given by others.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8089.0726) in Win7 Ultimate x64
Eric said:
What a strange idea.
1) vistaforums.com has 4 sections. One of them is actually called "Vista
Newsgroups" and shows the name of the group under each. I would guess
only that section is relayed here.
2) This newbie apparently thought this was a general question, which could
be a common mistake since it's the first group listed. Everything is
general if you don't bother to look beyond the general to see if there's a
specific one which applies. On vista related groups, I'd list this
question under microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_assessment.
3) Is vistaforums.com also run by Microsoft, or could they be allowing
some independant group to link to their newsgroups?
R. C. White said:
Hi, Bill.
It wasn't Crunch's fault. He posted it to VistaForums. The "forum"
relayed it to THIS newsgroup on the Microsoft public news server -
apparently choosing the newsgroup at random. Crunch probably had no idea
his message would be relayed to ANY newsgroup.
It sure is frustrating having to deal with all these out-of-the-blue
bare-naked posts from various "forums" somewhere on the World Wide Web,
isn't it. :>(
And no matter how well or how many times we explain it, the next newbie
along hasn't gotten the word. And other readers in these newsgroups
don't understand how these frequent naked, off-topic posts get here. So
we try to give an intelligent, helpful response, that too often does no
good at all.
Just like this message, which I'm working so hard on. It will scroll off
in a day or two and nobody will remember it. :>(
Whose idea was it to let "forums" relay posts to the Usenet, anyhow?
RC
Bill Daggett said:
Crunch wrote:
Hey guys,
[snip]
Hey Crunch,
Not a Vista question. Find a hardware group for this.
