SENIORS SIXTY AND OVER AGAIN

Important Announcement

The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More

I guess it`s official. MSN Groups will be closing February 2009.

It's true! All MSN Groups will be gone.

Although I've never met any of you, I feel as though I'm losing a close friend, and I will truly miss each and everyone of you!!

I am so sad about this. I will have to ease off like trying to break a habit.

Got this from another group. If I am understanding it correctly, not much will change in order for us to stay together as a group. I suppose it will require some work from you jokay and Ellen moving us over. If you recall they did migrate the adult groups some time ago I do not know what all the entailed as I did not belong to any adult groups. I am sure that nothing can keep us from staying together even if things are a bit different. Please everyone, lets just stay together.

RE: SRX1081706513ID - MSN Groups:Manage Group

From: MSN Groups Customer Support (NTWRK.GRUP.00.00.EN.SYK.MNL.TS.T02.SPT.00.EM@css.one.microsoft.com)

Sent:

Wed 10/15/08 7:45 PM

To:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx( name removed)

Hello xxxxxx,

Thank you for writing to MSN Groups Technical Support. This is regarding your inquiry if MSN will be moving MSN Groups. I realize the importance of this matter to you.

XXXXX, it is true that we are planning to close the MSN Groups service on February 21, 2009 and will offer you the opportunity to move your Group to our new partner service, Multiply. We want you to be able to keep your Group together, so we partnered with Multiply to create a migration process that moves your Group to their service to preserve your online community and its history.

The migration method that Multiply has built for you will be ready next week. Once the service is ready we'll send all of our users an email and will post notices within the MSN Groups site with more information, including instructions for beginning the migration process. In the meantime you can visit http://Multiply.com to get to know the service and see some of the thousands of groups they host already.

Many users are asking why we are closing MSN Groups. We want to provide our customers with the most current and user friendly technology available today and we made the difficult decision to close the MSN Groups service as part of our overall investment in updating and re-aligning our online services with Windows Live. In the long term we believe that closing the service is the best way to continue to offer innovative, best of breed services that help you stay in touch with the people you care about. It's very important to us that you still have access to your Group and its data and that is why we have partnered with Multiply, so you can keep your Group going into the future despite the closure of MSN Groups.

Between today and February 21, 2009 nothing will change about the MSN Groups service except that we will remove the option to add more storage to your group. Other features will remain until the service is shut down and you can use it the same way you do today until the date of closure. Watch the site and your email inbox over the next week as we will post updated information there, including a more detailed outline of your options and next steps.

We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for using MSN Groups.

Sincerely,

Dot

MSN Groups Technical Support

From what I have read, it will be like a Blog setup which does not interest me.

jokay/Ellen, this might be a good time to start collecting eveyone's email addresses so that you and Ellen can keep us together.

Just an idea, we can start posting them and as soon as you collect them, just delete each entry.

I really do not mind anyone in this group knowing mine.

I will just have to resign as Assistant Manager. I don't think I can handle this. I've been a member since 2000 or 2001, it's too hard to think it's all going down the drain.

Oh what horrible news.....I took the 'tour' and it doesn't seem like something I would be interested in .... at least here we were able to play our games and chat at leisure.

But we did have a long run of years with free forums with MSN even though it was a pain at times.

We have till Feb...maybe we can come up with another message board?

Let us all start searching/looking around for another similar forum. Where there is a will, there is a way...

Sounds good to me, Beth !!

Perhaps we should not panic, take a wait-and-see attitude. It may be possible to simply migrate the new server and have business as usual.

"Confirmed: Microsoft Gives Up On MSN Groups, Hands It Off To Multiply
Jason Kincaid
TechCrunch.com
Wednesday, October 15, 2008; 3:59 PM

We've received confirmation that Microsoft is handing over the reins to its MSN Groups property to the social network Multiply. Microsoft is planning to release a new service called Windows Live Groups in November, and apparently doesn't want to compete with itself. Oddly enough, Microsoft has chosen not to allow groups to transition between the two services, and instead is going to offer a migration tool that will allow users to take groups over to Multiply, which currently bills itself as the world's 8th largest social network.

The rumor was originally reported earlier today after a series of emails were posted to a MSN Discussion newsgroup, and has since been confirmed by both Multiply and Microsoft through a blog post.

Here's Microsoft's explanation for the shutdown:

The natural question to ask in this situation is why we are closing MSN Groups. It is our goal to provide our customers with the most current and user friendly technology available today. We made the difficult decision to close the MSN Groups service as part of an overall investment in updating and re-aligning our online services with Windows Live. In the long term we believe that closing the service is the best way to continue to offer innovative, best of breed services that help you stay in touch with the people you care about. It?s very important to us that you keep the data you created using MSN Groups and that is why we have partnered with Multiply, so you can keep your group going into the future despite the closure of MSN Groups.

The Microsoft post also states that users will have until February 21, 2009 to migrate their groups over to Multiply, after which point the site will cease to exist.

This just seems weird - why would Microsoft abandon a sizable (but dwindling) chunk of users to an entirely unrelated social network? It's nice that they aren't leaving their users out in the cold, but why not just cut off new signups to MSN Groups and allow the legacy users to continue on in peace? Microsoft may appear to have made the gesture in good faith, but it's likely that the company is hoping users will scoff at the idea of having to migrate, and just sign up on the new Live service when it launches.

Whatever Microsoft's intentions, Multiply is sure to be happy with the deal, as it has just been handed millions of new users (we're trying to contact Microsoft for the exact number). "

Eln, I saw your "MSN and Groups" thread first and had no clue what you were talking about. Now I know

. I looked at Yahoo and Google groups, and wasn't impressed. I'll keep looking but these forum type groups are so cold and bland. I guess we were spoiled with this groups format.

Just maybe a glimmer of hope?...This was taken from an article on CNET News, Oct 15---Not sure what it means---

Representatives from Multiply, which said earlier this month that it has reached 10 million registered users, confirmed the news. Microsoft representatives released a longer statement: "It is true that we are planning to close the MSN Groups service on February 21, 2009 and will offer you the opportunity to move your group to our new partner service, Multiply. We understand the importance of keeping your group together, so we partnered with Multiply to create a migration process that moves your group to their service to preserve your online community and its history.

"preserve your online community and its history."

Well if that be the case, we prob have nothing to worry about, no?

Keep your fingers crossed but I doubt it will look and act anything like this. I'll keep searching around for something like this but I'm not too optimistic....

It all looks very confusing to me. I understand some groups have gotten the notice that they are migrating.

Important Announcement The MSN Groups service will close in February 2009. You can move your group to Multiply, MSN’s partner for online groups. Learn More
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