Yes, but Colin if any of us were running that interface it'd be fixed
immediately.
You may know and understand aspects of "Community" at MSFT, groups and their
innerworkings, what technology or attention server wise or program wise it
takes to put up the various MSFT groups and chats, but how hard could it be?
My take and I value yours is:
1) That the features in the NNTP newsreaders are far supperior but in order
for their to be a web link for searches, ect. the web html interface
exists. It is often very slow to load, and I've realized this by trying to
help people get to them on chats in particular who just can't seem to use
the wizard. Some of them have been MSDN members--and this defies logic. I
often used google with the name of the group using google groups to get a
google web link for them so they could post the problem in the subspecialty
group if some of us couldn't give them an answer in an area/topic that was
out of our regular scope.
2) One of the features I appreciate in Vista Win Mail is that with a single
click the user can access and download the newsgroups by clicking MSFT Help
Groups now, and search has always made it easy to locate the groups of
interest--ayk the names of some of the groups aren't as intuitive and
certainly not as uniform as they could be.
3) From comments I've read or gotten to posts from the tireless, excellent
invaluable OE MVPs on different Betas in the past couple years--the regulars
who are pillars of support on the OE newsgroups (day in day out--Win Mail in
Vista) like Steve Cochran, Jim Pickering, Frank Saunders, Robert Dyer (PA
Bear), Bruce Hagen, Vincenzo Di Russo, and many others I didn't name I have
gotten the sense that many people have lobbied for years to improve the NNTP
newsreading interface and it has been an uphill battle but they won some
improvements with Win Mail.
I know the names of some people at MSFT involved directly with the
newsgroups, and I'm going to email them and ask them why they are neglecting
the web interface. I don't expect much in the way of a response however,
because MSFT maintains a systemic ostrich with its head in the sand arms
length posture towards the public. It's very "let them eat cake as long as
they consume our products so we can get our toys."
CH
