ETA for the AskWoody Lounge: Sunday night

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UPDATE: We’re slowing down the pace, to make sure all of the “i”s are dotted and the “x”s crossed. Look for a gradual rollout over the coming couple o
[See the full post at: ETA for the AskWoody Lounge: Sunday night]

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Looking forward to it! Hope to be able to contribute the occasional useful tidbit too.

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This sounds great! and you will tell us where to register? (kinda lost here, need much direction LOL) Thanks Woody..

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I’ll be waiting for this. I really need help regarding my MSE problem, those guys at MS Comunity can only recomend basic stuff I already did

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I am guessing thats your time ?

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Can’t wait, but you might consider merging the two sites into one only to avoid confusion and too much work for you.
Or at least keep blogging, but allow comments in one place only.

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Woody, your comment “…If you’re willing to register, though, there are several distinct advantages to AskWoody Loungers”, I’m confused as I was under the impression even if you did register (which I did on 24/12) you firstly became a Participant (which is what I am classified at the moment) then approval was given to become a Lounger.
I haven’t commented in the Lounge forum as yet only registered.

So your comment above is not correct?? or has this changed in the past couple of weeks?

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It has changed. We now only have three roles – Da Boss, AskWoody MVP, AskWoody Lounger.

For Loungers (registered posters), the first post is moderated and, if accepted, all subsequent posts are not moderated.

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Yep, it’ll be all one site. And I’ll continue blogging per usual…

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Yep, but we may delay.

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Yep, it’ll all unfold in detail…

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I am looking forward to participating and contributing.

A note: I have never felt limited or controlled in making commentary that is critical of Microsoft in my work on the Answers Forum. I have always been kind of amazed that no one every stopped me or objected to the comments I have made. Some have been very critical.

I don’t know if it is just plain poor management, lack of interest or what. It is a site with a huge amount of traffic. I was told by one of the managers there that they get 1 million hits a day.

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@Woody:

How do we sign up for Ask Woody’s Lounge?

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It’s coming soon. I had hoped it would be here on Sunday night, but now it looks like we need more time to let things smooth out.

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It’ll be very nice to have discussions organized by topic. The comments on blog posts are helpful, but a lot of the same questions and answers pop up often. OTOH, sometimes important info is shared in comments on only one page. Folks can be stuck scanning a lot of comments on several posts to make sure they’ve got all the info they need. I expect that the new forum will help out a lot with that.

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It’s a very, very tough problem. I hope that we can put a dent in it with the new Lounge layout – but it’s going to take time.

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It may be that Answers forum is only hosted by Microsoft for the benefit of the customers, but not supported or attended by Microsoft staff, unless volunteering their time there.
I have seen something similar with Citrix Support Forum. The customers were helping each other in fact, while rarely some interested Citrix employee took part and provided their opionion, not always relevant. After a while, we would know whose opinions mattered among those provided by the Citrix employees.

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You are correct about the Answers Forum. Those of us who are on it a lot can recognize an answer from a Microsoftie in a blink of an eye. It always starts out with a Hi George and ends with a link to some Microsoft page.

The others of us, offer hands on direct answers and sometimes a link but then usually to another Answers page that was answered by one of us real experts. Many of my answers are step by step how to. I also offer more general advice about investment and effort and offer a lot of hardware answers too.

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+1

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Will you be migrating past posts as well or will you be starting from scratch?

There have been some good tech advise over the years that many readers benefited from and there was some really funny posts too, like that Microsoft as airliners. I hope this stuff got saved and gets ported.

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I’m going to try to bring across everything. Just under 40,000 comments and I dunno how many blog posts, dating back to July 14, 2004.

I’ll post a migration plan shortly, but the basic idea is to start slowly by replicating what we have here with a full-fledged bulletin board built into the back end, instead of the current comment system. It should feel familiar to everybody, but there’ll be some new twists. Then we’ll add pieces over time.

I really want to get important segments of comments migrated over to their own support Topics and AskKB articles, but that’s going to take a lot of effort.

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Is an AskWoody MVP a genuine MVP, or is that a legitimate hijack of the adversary’s honours system ?

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Good question. It’s a genuine AskWoody MVP. Microsoft isn’t an adversary, but they’ve completely redesigned the MVP program, so people who primarily give help to consumers aren’t as likely to be designated MVPs.

In my old, old Woody’s Lounge (which bifurcated into Eileen’s Lounge and the Windows Secrets Lounge), we had MVPs as well. Microsoft started the MVP program on CompuServe in 1993. If memory serves, I started the Woody’s Lounge MVP award the following year.

Major League Baseball has had an MVP award since 1931, US Football/NFL since 1957, and the US National Hockey League has had the Hart Memorial “MVP” award since 1945.

That said, the AskWoody MVP is a totally new award, not beholden to the past.

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I really look forward to this. I think this is such a great idea that will offer the ability to search for topics.

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HOPE IT’S NOT JUST ANOTHER BUNCH OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES ?
Celebrate the launch : maintain the momentum !
AK

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I like the idea of being a Lounger! Looking forward to what will, I’m sure, be a great update to the AskWoody experience.

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Plus, don’t say anything remotely critical of Windows or Microsoft over there or you’ll become just another A.User. It’s certainly attended by enough Microsoft people to quickly ban those who don’t spout (3D) flowers and light.

There are actually non-Microsoft forums that have sprouted up for A.Users frustrated with trying to speak the truth on Microsoft’s site.

-Noel

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Woody, I’m glad you referenced your old Woody’s Lounge!! That’s immediately what I thought of when you talked about creating an AskWoody Lounge. In the intervening 25 years or so, the tools and software for managing an electronic lounge should have evolved quite a bit. The original Woody’s Lounge was an incredible treasure trove of information but, over time, became difficult to navigate. With hundreds of topics and thousands of posts, I sometimes had trouble finding the info I wanted.

Very much looking forward to your new AskWoody Lounge!

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Got my fingers crossed.

Yep, the technology has improved enormously. Eileen Wharmby and Claude Almer basically wrote the original Woody’s Lounge from scratch. This time around, I’m going with bbPress – which isn’t the flashiest car on the street, but it certainly seems to be capable of handling much higher volumes than back-in-the-day.

Many pleasant surprises await, I think.

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Not true, Noel. At least in my case. I have been contributing on the Microsoft Answers forum for some years now. I speak my mind openly and without any holds. And, I am not a Microsoft supporter by any stretch of the imagination. I have never experienced or seen a case of Microsoft reaction to my views and statements. I must admit, I have often wondered why they did not react. All I get is kudos from many places and even awards.

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