My guess is that Microsoft will fix the problems and add new features, but just like Real Software, Microsoft really does have limited resources for any given project.  Just food for thought.

When I visit the forums I often hit the ‘view unanswered posts’ link to show me anything that hasn’t been answered. This seems to be the best way for me to help others. If the question hasn’t been answered then I’ll take a look at it. If a question goes unanswered for over a week I’ll respond to it even if I don’t know the answer just so it gets some activity and gets the attention of others who use the ‘view posts since last visit’ option. Trust me, it works.

The other reason why I like the forum over the NUG is that I don’t have to constantly shift through the garbage in my NUG mailbox.  Even with mailbox rules and digest mode I find myself ignoring the NUG more and more because my email is my To Do list.  I can’t stand having unread stuff anywhere in my email client so it’s a waste of my time.  Using the forum is easy because I get an email whenever a reply is posted to a thread that I’ve responded to – but at least it’s smart enough to only send one email even if dozens of responses has occurred since my last visit.  The NUG can’t touch that feature.

This is NOT to say that others can’t find the NUG useful because it is and there are a lot of very knowledgeable people that lurk on that list.  It’s a resource that I encourage everyone to use because it’s been around forever.  If all other resources have failed to answer your question, try the NUG.

The forum is easier to search than the NUG given that you can narrow it down into broad categories and date range.  I guess you could argue that the NUG posts can easily be searched using Spotlight on the Mac or using the NUG archives but it’s not quite the same thing.  Or maybe it’s just what makes sense to you.

I’m willing to bend on this one because I remember the furor that went up when REAL Software tried to shut down the NUG.  You’d have thought they were killing a baby seal or something and in the six or so years of reading the NUG I was amazed at the hatred that welled up from the community.  So REAL did the only reasonable thing they could do – keep it alive.

So I’m curious on what you think of the Forums vs. the NUG.  Which is more useful to you?  What do you love or hate about the forums and the NUG?