Microsoft should respond to all the suggestions

[Guest]

Microsoft should respond to all the suggestions. It will go a long way in
creating a goodwill and supprt base amonst the users. It should not be much
of a strain on MS time resources. The trade off is immense. At present MS
responds to only popular suggestions and questioins. I hardly see any
response of MS to the questions and suggestions posted by the users. It looks
that after hosting this group, MS is doing nothing.

Think seriously of my suggestion. When a user gets a response from MS about
his question or the suggestion, he generates a silent feeling of 'thank you'
towards MS and it goes a long way in increasing general 'well ness feeling'
in favour of MS.

Note : MS need not respond to questions which have been sufficiently
answered by other users. Only those 'orphans' which have gone unattended
should be attended by MS. There are many such cases.

I hope at least I get a response from MS to this suggestion.
--
Shrikant

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...f00464&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Graham Mayor]

Microsoft doesn't respond to *any* questions in these newsgroups. They are
peer groups.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Guest]

Thanks Graham. Are you from Microsoft ?
Does MS respond to the Suggestions ? I see an option 'Suggestions with
Microsoft Reply' in the scroll down button. What is it then ?
How to communicate my suggestion to MS directly ? Are they atleat watching
this site and know about what's going on here ?

 

[Amedee Van Gasse]

In <[email protected]>, Shrikant told
us an interesting story. My reply to this story is at the bottom of
this message.

Thanks Graham. Are you from Microsoft ?
Does MS respond to the Suggestions ? I see an option 'Suggestions
with Microsoft Reply' in the scroll down button. What is it then ?
How to communicate my suggestion to MS directly ? Are they atleat
watching this site and know about what's going on here ?

/Nobody/ on these usenet groups is from Microsoft. And if they are,
they won't tell you - they'll be answering on their own behalf anyway.

These so called suggestions are an artefact from the web interface
Microsoft has made for the newsgroups. Most of the people here just
ignore the "suggestions" footer as white noise. As far as I know, that
"suggestions" button is a leftover from some other thing Microsoft once
used and was ported to the newsgoups interface.

If you want to access the newsgroups in a normal way, install a
newsreader (see http://www.newsreaders.com for a choice). Outlook
Express would be the worst choice from the long list of newsreaders,
but still lightyears better than the web interface. At least it's
installed on every Windows pc so there is no excuse for not at least
trying it. You should use the web interface only if you have absolutely
no other choice at all.
The advantage of using a newsreader is that you can sort, filter,
search, archive,... all the messages as much as you like.

If you wish to communicate with Microsoft directly, write a letter to:

Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399

 

[Joe McGuire]

Oops, I have been using OL Express to access this and related forums. Much
better than the web access but still a little awkward. I didn't know there
were other better "readers. I took a look at newsreaders.com but got lost.
Can you recommend a good reader?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In the forums where the Suggestion option is provided (mostly the Office
Communities), Microsoft has made a commitment to look at and respond to the
suggestions that get sufficient votes. Since AFAICS very few people are
voting for them (mostly they're not seeing them but instead posting the same
suggestion independently), I suspect this will not happen anytime soon.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Amedee Van Gasse]

In <[email protected]>, Suzanne S. Barnhill told us
an interesting story. My reply to this story is at the bottom of this
message.

In the forums where the Suggestion option is provided (mostly the
Office Communities), Microsoft has made a commitment to look at and
respond to the suggestions that get sufficient votes. Since AFAICS
very few people are voting for them (mostly they're not seeing them
but instead posting the same suggestion independently), I suspect
this will not happen anytime soon.

Suzanne,

According to the ng stats for the last 2 weeks, 49% of the people here
don't use the web forum, and you know very well most of the "regulars"
don't use the web forum. With a normal newsreader the suggestions are
just white noise.
I think it would be the "regulars" that would be the people who would
best recognise the possible value of a suggestion. But it's exactly
these people that don't vote.

What would be an improvement, would be moderation like on phpBB boards,
and people like you would be moderators and could make interesting
suggestions "sticky" to avoid reduplication. I suspect this will not
happen anytime soon. It would break usenet anyway, and a lot of people
won't like that. Including me.

 

[Amedee Van Gasse]

In <[email protected]>, Joe McGuire told us an
interesting story. My reply to this story is at the bottom of this
message.

Oops, I have been using OL Express to access this and related forums.
Much better than the web access but still a little awkward. I didn't
know there were other better "readers. I took a look at
newsreaders.com but got lost. Can you recommend a good reader?

I can recommend one, see my sig below. I recommend you to subscribe to
xananews.support and xananews.wishlist on forums.talkto.net. The author
of this program is *very* responsive, and he's a really nice guy.

The nice thing about XanaNews is that it is so easy to work with
multiple servers. You can be subscribed to groups on the MS server, on
the Borland server, at your ISP,... and all of them are only one click
away.

Another very excellent newsreader is Mozilla Thunderbird. I have not
tried it myself but if it is as good as Mozilla Firefox (a free
alternative for IE with over 10% market share) you can't be wrong with
it.

But feel free to try other software. Don't bother with programs you
have to pay for, there are enough free alternatives.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

According to the ng stats for the last 2 weeks, 49% of the people here
don't use the web forum, and you know very well most of the "regulars"
don't use the web forum. With a normal newsreader the suggestions are
just white noise.

I think it would be the "regulars" that would be the people who would
best recognise the possible value of a suggestion. But it's exactly
these people that don't vote.

Hi Amedee--

I bet that's 49% of posts, rather than 49% of posters, from newsreaders?
Interesting either way.

Anyhow, I actually do go vote sometimes, when I see a good one worth
clicking on. Once signed into Passport, I usually stick around to see if
there is anything else I want to vote for. The portal that allows
suggestions also lets one browse by suggestion, so every so often I skim
them and vote for a few. (I suspect other MVPs do as well and it could only
be an advantage if more regulars here did the same, hint, hint).

The suggestion wizard also tries to make people search first.

But no, the execution isn't perfect. The hijacking of usenet for this
feedback purpose aggravates me as well, though I think the general concept
of receiving feedback via public discussion makes a lot of sense.

Daiya

PS. This is a new mechanism, rather than an artifact from an old mechanism,
and I think the intent is to broaden it, as right now it's just Office
groups. The "this is a suggestion" tagline is actually an improvement that
the MVPs pushed very hard for, as otherwise the plan had *zero* chance of
ever working.

PPS. See here, e.g.:

Start with this site‹click on Make a Suggestion wizard.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus.aspx?Sitename=3

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

But probably >90% of original posts (questions and suggestions) come from
various Web portals; the answers mostly come from the "regulars," who use
newsreaders. This is understandable. If you're going to try to read hundreds
of posts a day in dozens of NGs, you *have* to use a newsreader, but if you
just want to ask one question, you don't want to learn how to use a new app
(newsreader), then download thousands of messages in order to search for an
answer (ideally) and then, if necessary, post a question. Moreover, the Help
function in Office 2003 apps points users to the Communities.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Amedee Van Gasse]

In <[email protected]>, Suzanne S. Barnhill told us
an interesting story. My reply to this story is at the bottom of this
message.

Moreover, the Help function in Office 2003 apps points users to the
Communities.

That explains a lot.