Updates to Autodesk Discussion Groups

[wrighte]

On June 4, Autodesk is upgrading the technology behind our discussion groups. The result is a significant improvement to posting & replying, navigation, search and other features. While we launch this upgrade, the discussion groups will be unavailable from 3pm (PDT) Thursday, June 3 and Friday June 4.

As part of the upgrade, Autodesk has taken the decision to discontinue the time-honored use of the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). This was a difficult and bittersweet decision, given the company’s past investments to maintain NNTP, but one necessary to continue providing the state-of-art web experience Autodesk customers have come to expect. For active NNTP users, we know this will change your workflow when using the forums. To help transition to the web-based forums, the new updates include a simpler, more intuitive interface to post and reply, bookmarking and e-mail notification features to track favorite posts, and more powerful search tools. While not a substitute for the NNTP experience, the streamlined capabilities of our RSS feeds also provide an enhanced and alternative offline forum reading experience.

Autodesk is excited about this change, and is confident that all the valued users of our discussion groups will quickly appreciate and benefit from the improvements to this web experience.


Eric Wright
Product Manager – Support & Learning
Web & eBusiness
Autodesk, Inc.

[Anonymous]

As someone who uses NNTP to view these forums 99% of the time, I guess
it's time for me to say goodbye for the most part then! I will only be
using the web interface if I really need some answers. I access the
newsgroup through my email software, which I have open all the time,
but I usually only have a browser open during my breaks, or the boss thinks
I am goofing off, and I don't really have the memory resources to have
both open and inventor at the same time! Bye bye forum, I wil hardly ever
see you anymore.

Bob S.

On 2010/05/26 9:26 PM, wrighte wrote:
> On June 4, Autodesk is upgrading the technology behind our discussion groups. The result is a significant improvement to posting& replying, navigation, search and other features. While we launch this upgrade, the discussion groups will be unavailable from 3pm (PDT) Thursday, June 3 and Friday June 4.
>
> As part of the upgrade, Autodesk has taken the decision to discontinue the time-honored use of the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). This was a difficult and bittersweet decision, given the company’s past investments to maintain NNTP, but one necessary to continue providing the state-of-art web experience Autodesk customers have come to expect. For active NNTP users, we know this will change your workflow when using the forums. To help transition to the web-based forums, the new updates include a simpler, more intuitive interface to post and reply, bookmarking and e-mail notification features to track favorite posts, and more powerful search tools. While not a substitute for the NNTP experience, the streamlined capabilities of our RSS feeds also provide an enhanced and alternative offline forum reading experience.
>
> Autodesk is excited about this change, and is confident that all the valued users of our discussion groups will quickly appreciate and benefit from the improvements to this web experience.
>
>
> Eric Wright
> Product Manager – Support& Learning
> Web& eBusiness
> Autodesk, Inc.

[Anonymous]

Loss of newsgroup support - noooo....

Not checked the html-side in a while, but hope the search and watched
topics work as well as you're advertising (remember many a concerned
post/comment over the effectiveness of the html search)

While this change happens, can we go back to different Inventor sections
for each release? It works with AutoCAD, with each version having its
own forum, so why can't it for us?

The recent Inventor releases have pretty different hardware requirements
(Dx over OpenGL), plus the introduction of ribbon with 2010 and 2011
uses the realistic-materials library... Each add complexity/features
that would confuse those looking for information for previous versions.
As such, it would help a LOT by either going to the AutoCAD-style
different forum for each release, or how I remember this one with
"present Inventor" and "legacy releases."

While talking about these forums... I've noticed the Mechanical Desktop
newsgroup has already gone - is this a suggestion the html-side will go
too? Know the product is not longer in development with 2009 being the
last release, but a lot of us Inventor users have old MDT data and might
need access to that forum once in a while.

oh well, cross fingers and bite my tongue...


On 27/05/2010 02:26, wrighte wrote:
> On June 4, Autodesk is upgrading the technology behind our discussion groups. The result is a significant improvement to posting& replying, navigation, search and other features. While we launch this upgrade, the discussion groups will be unavailable from 3pm (PDT) Thursday, June 3 and Friday June 4.
>
> As part of the upgrade, Autodesk has taken the decision to discontinue the time-honored use of the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). This was a difficult and bittersweet decision, given the company’s past investments to maintain NNTP, but one necessary to continue providing the state-of-art web experience Autodesk customers have come to expect. For active NNTP users, we know this will change your workflow when using the forums. To help transition to the web-based forums, the new updates include a simpler, more intuitive interface to post and reply, bookmarking and e-mail notification features to track favorite posts, and more powerful search tools. While not a substitute for the NNTP experience, the streamlined capabilities of our RSS feeds also provide an enhanced and alternative offline forum reading experience.
>
> Autodesk is excited about this change, and is confident that all the valued users of our discussion groups will quickly appreciate and benefit from the improvements to this web experience.
>
>
> Eric Wright
> Product Manager – Support& Learning
> Web& eBusiness
> Autodesk, Inc.

[stephengibson76]

'''''''''''On June 4, Autodesk is upgrading the technology behind our discussion groups. The result is a significant improvement to posting & replying, navigation, search and other features'''''''

wont hold my breath, everytime this site gets improved it becomes that little bit more unusable... logging on 20 times a day with Upper/lower case letters and numbers as if im bothered if somebody hacks my account for example

[Anonymous]

How about everyone boycotts the forums starting june 4th until they re-instate
NNTP access?

On 2010/05/27 8:08 AM, stephengibson76@hotmail.com wrote:
> '''''''''''On June 4, Autodesk is upgrading the technology behind our discussion groups. The result is a significant improvement to posting& replying, navigation, search and other features'''''''
>
> wont hold my breath, everytime this site gets improved it becomes that little bit more unusable... logging on 20 times a day with Upper/lower case letters and numbers as if im bothered if somebody hacks my account for example

[mcgyvr]

Horray!! good bye POS forum software "jive" or whatever it is... What's NNTP access?
I really hope this transition will be MUCH smoother than the previous one...

[Anonymous]

chances are it'll crash and nobody will be able to login anyway - so
wouldn't notice any boycott (kinda a joke).

In some respects I'm surprised the nntp is being dropped - sure it might
seem "old" compared to the bells and whistles you can get with forums
(has a new manager/team-leader taken over and trying to make their
mark???) but it's beneficial to have, even if it's just a backup to
allow access to the forum if the html-side ever has problems. Ignore
the fact a number of us rely on it, but think of it as a data-access
redundancy measure...

tbh Bob, I'm in a similar boat with NNTP being more "work-friendly" -
whether right or wrong, have had the boss hovering around me when I've
been on html forums (Autodesk and Sean Dotson's) during the work-day but
because the nntp isn't through Internet Explorer, doesn't have fancy
colours and isn't a noticeable forum it somehow seems more
"professional" and work-related.



On 27/05/2010 13:14, Bob S. wrote:
> How about everyone boycotts the forums starting june 4th until they re-instate
> NNTP access?
>
> On 2010/05/27 8:08 AM, stephengibson76@hotmail.com wrote:
>> '''''''''''On June 4, Autodesk is upgrading the technology behind our discussion groups. The result is a significant improvement to posting& replying, navigation, search and other features'''''''
>>
>> wont hold my breath, everytime this site gets improved it becomes that little bit more unusable... logging on 20 times a day with Upper/lower case letters and numbers as if im bothered if somebody hacks my account for example

[Anonymous]

On 5/27/2010 7:14 AM, Bob S. wrote:
> How about everyone boycotts the forums starting june 4th until they re-instate

Probably just as effective if everybody boycotts BP right now.

I don't believe this was a "raise your hand if you use nntp and we will
consider whether or not to keep it"

More like, this is it, take it or leave it.

[Anonymous]

Be leaving it then. Just another nail in the coffin, since my
boss quit paying our subscription fee when we were on IV2009.

On 2010/05/27 9:21 AM, Rowland wrote:
> On 5/27/2010 7:14 AM, Bob S. wrote:
>> How about everyone boycotts the forums starting june 4th until they re-instate
>
> Probably just as effective if everybody boycotts BP right now.
>
> I don't believe this was a "raise your hand if you use nntp and we will
> consider whether or not to keep it"
>
> More like, this is it, take it or leave it.

[Anonymous]

not happy about it either....


so what....

[zma1013]

This kind of reminds me of when people are reluctant to move from AutoCAD into a new 3D package software. I often hear people complain about having to use or learn or *gasp* change the way they do something, even if it may turn out better in the end.

I'm the type of user who has grown to use standard message boards for years and I'm glad to hear they may actually be turning this into a real, full-fledged message board with features that are standard in pretty much every other message board. Hopefully it turns out good.

[kellings]

You guys could use Outlook to get an RSS feed of the forum like was mentioned in the first post. I haven't ever done this, but I know it can be done.

[~master]

But you don't understand. This is the new and improved Jive Community Software.

Let me guess:
further password complexity requirements;
they will make you change your password, say every 3 months;
search will be improved but we won't be able to find anything useful;
tags, we will see everywhere else, but not here.

Low expectations Adesk!

[Anonymous]

but this is basically "text" based coomunications.

We don't need no stinking fancy web-based html formatting to get our
message out.

And using M$ LookOut Express as suggested, yeah go ahead and do that if
you so desire.

Never used the RSS feeds here, but can you reply to them thru that?

[zma1013]

There are things on other message boards that make conversing with other people alot easier and make it alot easier to track what threads you are interested in and keep posts in order and whatnot. It's an interface, and if the interface isn't easy to use, then it becomes a problem.

Obviously though, it all depends on how well they do this update. Could be bad, could be good. Hoepfully it's good. Also, I really hope they don't make passwords and logins more strict. I already hate, with a passion, HATE that this message board logs you out automatically after 30 minutes or whatever. And sometimes it just randomly decides to reset my password. It's stupid.

[Anonymous]

I've already indicated that I will probably be gone as well.
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

Subscribe to the free "The Creative Inventor Magazine now available at:
http://teknigroup.com/CI-Subscribe-Login.asp

[Anonymous]

I hope the web interface makes it easy to jump to new messages similar
to how I've grown accustom to nntp software over the years.

Depends on how the new web-interface software works whether or not I'll
use it. Right now I avoid the web interface, not only for the password
issue, but it's just so cumbersome to get to the message/info you're
seeking.

[Anonymous]

I agree totally. Actually, developing the NNTP interface is child's
play compared to developing a good web interface to the data.

There are literally thousands on NNTP groups out in the Ethernet.

This decision is being forced down our throats by some subcontractor to
Autodesk.

Maybe Autodesk needs to choose a different subcontractor for the groups.
--
Dennis Jeffrey, Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

Subscribe to the free "The Creative Inventor Magazine now available at:
http://teknigroup.com/CI-Subscribe-Login.asp

[zma1013]

Well that's kinda the whole point and it may be why so many people use the nntp here. The interface not being the well made and having login hassles has made you hate it, and so now they say they are getting rid of nntp and you fear you are going to be forced to use this poor web interface.

But hopefully the update will improve it to function like other, actually well made message boards.

[Anonymous]

Most other "well made" message boards, many of them open source or
public domain, come with optional modules for doing mail lists and
nntp access already built in. Unfortunately, autodesk does not
believe in open source and public domain software, it seems!

On 2010/05/27 10:42 AM, zma1013 wrote:
> Well that's kinda the whole point and it may be why so many people use the nntp here. The interface not being the well made and having login hassles has made you hate it, and so now they say they are getting rid of nntp and you fear you are going to be forced to use this poor web interface.
>
> But hopefully the update will improve it to function like other, actually well made message boards.