"Is anybody from Microsoft reading this?" you ask?

"Is anybody from Microsoft reading this?"

Well ... actually .... no .... welll ... maybe if you're really lucky. Let
me explain ...

My name is Clemens Vasters and I am a Program Manager on the Connected Framework
team here at Microsoft. Our team owns ASP.NET Web Services, .NET Remoting,
WSE, the Windows Workflow Foundation and the Windows Communication Foundation.
We are deeply committed to help you with any problems you may have with these
products, but we can't be looking for questions everywhere.

While we know that many of you love the NNTP newsgroups, they are one place
too many for us to keep an eye on. Therefore we're focusing our online help
efforts on the MSDN forums (which isn't meaning to say that the newsgroups
are going away).

If you need an answer from the product team, the MSDN forums are the place
to ask questions. If you want to get on our radar to, for instance, become
an MVP based on your online participation, the forums are where we're looking
most closely.

The forums for the products that we own are:

--- ASP.NET Web Services and XML Serialization ---
Discussion on writing ASP.NET Web Services using the .NET Framework and on
using the XML Serialization technology.
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...ID=46&SiteID=1

--- Windows Communication Foundation ("Indigo") ---
for questions about WCF, including DataContract Serialization
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...D=118&SiteID=1

--- .NET Remoting and Runtime Serialization ---
Discussion on using the .NET Remoting technology as well as Runtime Serialization
(including Binary and Soap serialization).
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...ID=41&SiteID=1

--- Windows Workflow Foundation ---
Discuss how to develop .NET applications using workflow functionality provided
by Windows Workflow Foundation.
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...D=122&SiteID=1

We're dedicated to get your questions answered on these forums and have the
Developers, Testers, and Program Managers on our servicing loop look at them
each day. We are interested in your experiences and we are interested in
your ideas and suggestions for how to improve these products. Thank you for
your understanding; we look forward to meet you on the MSDN forums.

Thank you
Clemens Vasters

Program Manager, Connected Framework Team, Microsoft Corporation

On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 23:18:53 +0000 (UTC), Clemens Vasters
<clemensv@online.microsoft.com> wrote:

>
>"Is anybody from Microsoft reading this?"
[snip]
>
>While we know that many of you love the NNTP newsgroups, they are one place
>too many for us to keep an eye on. Therefore we're focusing our online help
>efforts on the MSDN forums (which isn't meaning to say that the newsgroups
>are going away).
>
>If you need an answer from the product team, the MSDN forums are the place
>to ask questions. If you want to get on our radar to, for instance, become
>an MVP based on your online participation, the forums are where we're looking
>most closely.
[snip]

One reason that people go to the NNTP newsgroups is because Microsoft
promises a 48-hour turnaround time for replies on the MSDN Managed
newsgroups, a list of certain newsgroups that are monitored by MS
personnel. You have to be an MSDN subscriber and register an email
alias on the website in order for their filters to recognize you for
the 48-hour window to apply.

I recognize that the MSDN Forums are new and the upcoming thing, but I
haven't seen anything on the MSDN site that says the 48-hour
turnaround time will apply there. Also, there are lots of topics that
have a newsgroup but no forum (Office apps, operating systems, servers
(other than SQL Server)).

One minor question specifically about some of the .NET 3.0 forums: Why
were the WCF (Indigo) and WPF (Avalon) forums moved under the Visual
Studio Orcas group? Those technologies are RTM now. Shouldn't they
be under the .NET Framework group?

Thanks,
Chuck