Fix this Forum: How?

[Candace]

This is a continuation of a thread with Michael Stevens on the topic of "How
to get posters to do so through OE, rather than the CDO.

Here are my observations:

1. Most question posters are at their wits' end or in the middle of an
actual crisis. Even though it's easy to get OE running, it takes some time
to figure out how it works, like "search", "expand all", or going back and
making one's actual email address a fake one. Going through the OE setup (as
it currently configured) at that time would only compound people's
frustration/anguish/tears/anger.

2. In OE setup Wizard for newsgroups, there is no mention that one can and
should use a fake email address (and perhaps a fake last name as well).I was
under the faulty asumption that if I faked it, the program would "check"
against my Web settings or something, and reject it.
Most annoyingly, their is no mention of the "magic word:"
!*<<msnews.microsoft.com>>*!. How are people to figure this out? I certainly
hadn't a clue. My excellent manual said that the ISP would provide this
information. Deluded expectation, in this case.

3. In the CDO reader layout, there might/should be a link to information on
getting set up in OE. The link could present the MANY benefits of using OE,
as well as giving complete instructions for setting up OE and offering a
link to "how to use" information. As things are now, you have to be pretty
"hard core" to pursue the OE option.

4. This forum could use some improvement in order to better fulfill its
purpose, but at least it stays on topic. You should see some OTHER forums...

Would love to hear your feedback (and that of others) on this.

 

[Rob Schneider]

This is a continuation of a thread with Michael Stevens on the topic of "How
to get posters to do so through OE, rather than the CDO.

Here are my observations:

1. Most question posters are at their wits' end or in the middle of an
actual crisis. Even though it's easy to get OE running, it takes some time
to figure out how it works, like "search", "expand all", or going back and
making one's actual email address a fake one. Going through the OE setup (as
it currently configured) at that time would only compound people's
frustration/anguish/tears/anger.

Users should be informed (and I think they are!) to go to
http://support.microsoft.com/ as a first point of call.

People don't know that. Even if they know it, they don't want to know
(in general). On average people tend to prefer the easy way out by
calling a helpdesk, posting questions on newsgroups, etc.

From there they can make a *choice* about what support they want.
Newsgroups is not the right place for many people.

Somehow or another people are going to have to accept that they will
have to do some level of learning. At minimum, people have to know that
they must learn how to identify when you need help, and learn how to
effectively get it. After that, they can go the way they want to go and
will probably get there.

2. In OE setup Wizard for newsgroups, there is no mention that one can and
should use a fake email address (and perhaps a fake last name as well).I was
under the faulty asumption that if I faked it, the program would "check"
against my Web settings or something, and reject it.
Most annoyingly, their is no mention of the "magic word:"
!*<<msnews.microsoft.com>>*!. How are people to figure this out? I certainly
hadn't a clue. My excellent manual said that the ISP would provide this
information. Deluded expectation, in this case.

Outlook Express provides newsgroups features. msnews.microsoft.com just
is one of *thousands* of newsgroup servers and supporting thousands of
newsgroup. I personally don't think it's necessary to add further
confusion to users of Outlook Express by adding yet more "wizard"
information to the application itself. The vast majority of users won't
be using newsgroups anyway (and probably don't have any role in
configuring their computer anyway).

I don't think anyone, especially Microsoft, wants people to think that
Microsoft *is* the Usenet. In fact, Microsoft goes to great lengths to
distance themselves from the activities on msnews.microsoft.com.

It's prominently displayed on http://support.microsoft.com/ that the
Microsoft newsgroup server is available. Click on this link and one can
easily find a lot of information about Microsoft's support newsgroups
including the server names. This information is not secret. In fact,
for many users, it is advantageous for them to use their own ISP's
newsgroup servers instead of Microsoft's.

It's also worth noting that on http://support.microsoft.com/ that going
to the newsgroup is the 4th item down. The links above it are where
users should go *before* going to the newsgroup, in my opinon. (I think
Microsoft has forgotten to remind the user about Help on their computer.
Help on the computer should be inserted on http://support.microsoft.com/
above the newsgroup.

Microsoft could edit
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/directory/worldwide/en-gb/newsout.asp
to suggest the security risks of using real email addresses in
Microsoft's newsgroups. I note that this page hasn't been reviewed
since Feb 28, 2001. Maybe time to update it.

3. In the CDO reader layout, there might/should be a link to information on
getting set up in OE. The link could present the MANY benefits of using OE,
as well as giving complete instructions for setting up OE and offering a
link to "how to use" information. As things are now, you have to be pretty
"hard core" to pursue the OE option.

Need to recognized that Microsoft's CDO is just one of many web-based
newsgroup readers that people can use.

If Microsoft was going to do any development, I'd much rather they offer
more sosphisticated querying technology so that people can ask questions
and have the computer give betters answers. That being said, I know
they and a lot of other people are working on just that.

If the users would use Help on their own computer, they will notice that
when they query it for help (esp. when they query the Knowledge Base
also) the computer will always give other links to information that
might be useful.

 

[Candace]

Thanks for your views, Rob.

 

[Lem]

I don't use Outlook or Outlook Express. From what I've read, the use of
these programs makes it all too easy for users who are less than very
vigilant to become victims of viruses and other malware.

That said, I agree that users of newsgroups would be far better served
by using a newsreader than by attempting to use the pitiful web
interface provided by Microsoft. The newsreader that is part of
Netscape 7.1, for example, allows you to set up different "accounts" --
each with its own real or fake identity -- for each news server.
Netscape isn't the only one, there are plenty of other options out there.

As for how to find this (or other newsgroups), it would be very easy for
MS to have the proper links to newsgroups on its "newsgroups" page (at
least in addition to the web interface). For example (and I can't vouch
for how OE might work), you should be able to click on the following
link and get right to the Windows 98 version of this group:

news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.win98_gendiscussion

I invite you to click on that link and then post back explaining how
hard it was to set up OE to access that newsgroup.

And finally, I agree that a link (on that MS support page) to a page
with some how-to suggestions, including a suggestion to avoid using an
email address you want to preserve from inundation.