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Updates to Autodesk Discussion Groups

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Message 1 of 36
wrighte
1339 Views, 35 Replies

Updates to Autodesk Discussion Groups

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.


Eric Wright
Sr. Web Product Manager
Autodesk Knowledge Network
Autodesk, Inc.

35 REPLIES 35
Message 21 of 36
Anonymous
in reply to: wrighte

On Sat, 29 May 2010 22:12:36 -0700, R2011 wrote:

>called towing the corporate line...

Try toeing the corporate line 🙂
Message 22 of 36
BernardMadoff
in reply to: wrighte

judging by the crap that comes out of San Rafael these days i think most things are outsourced....or the clowns are smoking to much
Message 23 of 36
Anonymous
in reply to: wrighte

Not lose Autocad users - we have to get the work out with *something*. But
with the death of NNTP an era draws to a close for easy-to-use support.

Mark Evinger

"R2011" wrote in message
news:6400020@discussion.autodesk.com...
wrighte <> wrote in news:6398238@discussion.autodesk.com:


> As part of the upgrade, Autodesk has taken the decision to discontinue
> the time-honored use of the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP).



this is so wrong on so many levels...Autodesk will lose thousands of users
if they do this....
Message 24 of 36
Anonymous
in reply to: wrighte

On 6/1/2010 9:24 AM, Mark Evinger wrote:
> But with the death of NNTP an era draws to a close for easy-to-use support.

not the death of nntp, but Adesk's intention of not using it.
Message 25 of 36
Randy_Culp
in reply to: wrighte

> not the death of nntp, but Adesk's intention of not using it.
Well NNTP is starting to slide. With Microsoft moving away and now Autodesk it's only a mtter of time. Many sites like theSwamp.org already use PHP and similar OOS engines for their forums, so I think we may be witnessing the beginning of the demise of NNTP in general, however long it might take. I still think its a mistake, however, as it limits access to those that have web access and will leave out those that don't. Limiting input is always a bad idea.
Message 26 of 36
scottgensemer8984
in reply to: wrighte

OK. I am confused by all of this. Being new to these AutoCAD forums, I've only been aware of the web-based forums, so have only been able to post by logging in to Autodesk. What is this Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) of which you speak? And how does one get that?

Scott
Message 27 of 36
Anonymous
in reply to: wrighte

You configure a newsreader, such as Outlook Express (there are
many others) to read the messages. Since they are about to pull
the plug on NNTP, I wouldn't worry about it. No point in using
the preferred method to only have it taken away in a few days 😉


wrote in message news:6400996@discussion.autodesk.com...
OK. I am confused by all of this. Being new to these AutoCAD forums, I've only been aware of the web-based forums, so have only been
able to post by logging in to Autodesk. What is this Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) of which you speak? And how does one get
that?

Scott
Message 28 of 36
Anonymous
in reply to: wrighte

Personally, I prefer Thunderbird.
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

(it also comes in portable:
http://download.cnet.com/Mozilla-Thunderbird-Portable/3000-2367_4-10526818.html
)




Melanie Perry
***not all who wander are lost***
http://augi.com/autocad
http://MistressOfTheDorkness.blogspot.com

On 6/1/2010 3:37 PM, scottgensemer8984 wrote:
> OK. I am confused by all of this. Being new to these AutoCAD forums, I've only been aware of the web-based forums, so have only been able to post by logging in to Autodesk. What is this Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) of which you speak? And how does one get that?
>
> Scott
Message 29 of 36
Anonymous
in reply to: wrighte

On Tue, 1 Jun 2010 13:37:53 -0700, scottgensemer8984 <> wrote:

>OK. I am confused by all of this. Being new to these AutoCAD forums, I've only been aware of the web-based forums, so have only been able to post by logging in to Autodesk. What is this Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) of which you speak? And how does one get that?

Well, you see all of this started way before broadband. Then you had
to download the new messages and disconnect from the Internet. Now you
could work offline (freeing your telephone line for calls) and prepare
your replies giving things a little thought. Of course, you could (and
I have done) save messages and replies in forums so that you could
refer to them later. I have messages that I have kept going back to
before 2000 (that's the year), and that information is still valid.

With a web based forum, you have to be online to use it. You cannot
prepare replies, give it some consideration and then post the replies
days later. You cannot save only the replies that you want. If you
want to find a message from the past in a web based forum, you have to
know what you are searching for and use the web service to search for
it. In the interests of storage, those managing the web service can
easily discard messages using whatever criteria that they want. In the
case of Autodesk, they could easily decide to remove forums or
messages that refer to retired versions of their programs, thereby
coercing users to upgrade as there would be little or no source of
support otherwise.

This is why there is disquiet.

To top it off, the forum software that Autodesk has decided to stick
with is probably one of the least user-friendly products around. There
are plenty of other forum applications around, but they are too
flexible for Autodesk.

I have not been a fan of Gmane in the past, but this might well be a
situation where they can "harvest" the postings on the web based
forums and make them available via their NNTP forums.

--

Regards,

Ian A. White, CPEng.

| /| / WAI Engineering
| /_| / Sydney 2000
|/ |/ Australia

www.wai.com.au

mailto:ianwhite@wai.com.au

callto://waiwhite on Skype
Message 30 of 36
Anonymous
in reply to: wrighte

and the latest being the F'ing ribbon concept. Really nice for MS Word
where I frequently access maybe a dozen functions, not so nice in CAD where
I frequently access maybe 2 or 300 commands. Stupid.

"Terry W. Dotson" wrote in message
news:6398884@discussion.autodesk.com...
> On 5/27/2010 2:16 PM, Jason Piercey wrote:
>
>> Because Autodesk does what Microsoft does.
>
> The earliest instance being .DWT to match .DOT?
>
> Terry
Message 31 of 36
Anonymous
in reply to: wrighte

Management, upper management, and executives are not known to make the wisest of
decisions, or for that matter commenting on them.

e.g. "I want my life back"

--

Patrick Hughes

Engineered Design Solutions
CadTempo: Time Logging for CAD
visit http://www.Cadtempo.com
_____________________________
Message 32 of 36
dgorsman
in reply to: wrighte

We aren't on the bleeding edge of AutoDesk software, so with that in mind I think passing off support of legacy software to other places is a good idea. It lets the AutoDesk staff focus on the more recent releases. After all, at some point you have throw things away or you end up like an electronic version of the recent spate of hoarding documentaries.
----------------------------------
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 33 of 36
Randy_Culp
in reply to: Anonymous


*Ian A. White wrote:
On Tue, 1 Jun 2010 13:37:53 -0700, scottgensemer8984 <> wrote:
With a web based forum, you have to be online to use it. You cannot
prepare replies, give it some consideration and then post the replies
days later.

...

You cannot save only the replies that you want.

...


Sure you can, been doing both for a long time, just not within Outlook.

Message 34 of 36
J.A.Mounteer
in reply to: Anonymous

It makes sense to begin to discontintue using NNTP if you considerthe amount of people who even know what nntp even is is rapidly diminishing.  Then factor in that many ISPs are stopping, or stopped, offering access to a server years ago because of the lack of use, or because nntp groups are mostly overwhelmed with spam, warez and pirated programs anymore.

 

Plus the web-only access allows Autodesk to control who has access a lot more stringently and offers the potential for ad space. 

Message 35 of 36
ampster402
in reply to: J.A.Mounteer

you obviously know nothing of NNTP.  The fact of ISP's discontinuing access is because of their desire to no longer maintain NNTP servers, which costs them alot of cash apparently.  So much for the "unlimited access" I had when I first received broadband connections yrs ago.

 

So just because the number of people who know about NNTP is supposedly diminishing (like there's alot of people who know nothing about the fact that the Internet has more than just "http" and "smtp"...) isn't a good enough reason to abandon it...more like if Mother Software wants to include a Ribbon interface, then so shall we.  If Mother Software wants to abandon NNTP so shall we.

 

NNTP provides login capabilities ***and*** doesn't include ads.  At least Adesk didn't inlcude ads, but it's their fault for not incorporating NNTP login requirements.

 

People, or rather, customers who have bought Autodesk products (thus have already paid, and should not have to put up with ads attempting to sell anything) come here to seek free support from other like-minded customers. 

 

What used to be a great place to come and search for answers is now just a bunch of fluff that is not friendly on the eyes so to speak when trying to browse for answers.

Message 36 of 36
Popz
in reply to: ampster402

I came... I looked around... tried a few knobs and switches... not impressed or pleased with new internet format only...

see y'all later on an nntp site...

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