Microsoft PowerShell Forums Wiki

Over the last two years, I have collected a list of (rss) links to PowerShell related blogs in my Google Reader. These blogs and subscription to daily PowerShell tips from PowerShell.com are helpful. I also check PowerShell newsgroup time to time, which used to be a very active group with hundreds of messages each month. 


When I wanted to check out what's been happening on the Usenetgroup today, I noticed that there was virtually no activity in the last few months. Looking at the messages from last busy month, I found out that Microsoft posted a notice telling people they were stopping NNTP support as they were seeing less usage of them and more activity in the (Microsoft) forums. Here is part of the explanation:

What is Happening?
This message is to inform you that Microsoft will soon begin discontinuing
newsgroups and transitioning users to Microsoft forums. 

Why?
As you may know, newsgroups have existed for many years now; however, the
traffic in the Microsoft newsgroups has been steadily decreasing for the
past several years while customers and participants are increasingly finding
solutions in the forums on Microsoft properties and third party sites.  This
move will unify the customer experience, centralize content, make it easier
for active contributors to retain their influence, mitigate redundancies and
make the content easier to find by customers and search engines through
improved indexing.  Additionally, forums offer a better user and spam
management platform that will improve customer satisfaction by encouraging a
healthy discussion in a clean community space.  To this end, Microsoft will
begin to progressively shift available resources to the forums technology
and discontinue support for newsgroups. 

Most people today are not really using NNTP clients but access such Usenet groups via Google groups. MS Forums have 'social' features and I am guessing that's one of the reasons Microsoft actually want people to use them. Whatever the reason, forums are the way forward if you would like to post (PowerShell) questions, although there is some effort to continue NNTP via CommunityBridge.


Lastly, while checking the forums, I came across a great resource: [Ultimate] PowerShell Wiki, called PowerShell Survival Guide (name reminded me Addon Survival Guides WoWInterface used to publish after each Warcraft upgrades). It's a pretty comprehensive with tons of links to other sites, learning materials and resources. Check them out!