I'm an administrator in groups on several of the new formats to host groups once MSN is gone and have been playing around with a few of the possible alternatives for hosting groups that are currently out there and so far haven't found anything as atractive as Multiply ... once you realize that "blog" means "message" then all seems to fall into place ... yes it takes a few visits to figure out where things are and what can and cannot be done there but all in all it's crisp, clear, navigation is easy and it comes with your very own site for you to customize any way you like - the overall presentation of Multiply is very professional looking ... one of the more inviting features in Multiply is the live direct posting in the "blogs/message" section - every post is visible right away without having to refresh the page and as a result it allows for what amounts to a live chatroom - could be the resurgence of chat (keep your fingers crossed) ... there are some new wrinkles with Multiply that we're not familiar with at first but the transition period is minimal

 

Kitten is correct in that if the object is to keep everyone together after MSN is closed then we all need to stay with one service ... they are all different in some way and require new learning in order to use each ... one I was in yesterday only allowed an individual to post once every 60 seconds so chat was not a possibility there ...

 

again, I think the biggest fear and what's causing so much grief at the moment is the thought of change ... at our age we don't like change and would prefer the status quo but that's not possible as MSN has decided to throw us all the the side and focus only on things that bring in revenue ... but that's ok though - moving to Multiply, in my opinion, is moving several steps up from MSN Groups ( no more white pages, or "we can't find that page" messages or waiting for MSN to decide if it will allow us to do what we asked it to when we clicked the mouse ) ... as you can tell my suggestion at this point is to give it a chance - the benefits far outweigh the the little bit of inconvenience of having to learn how Multiply works