“The MSN Groups service has closed

As we first announced on October 23 2008, the MSN Groups service has closed.

If you would like to create a new group, we have established a partnership with Multiply - an online group and media sharing service that is tailored to the needs of larger groups. If you would like to create a small group of less than 1000 members, please visit Windows Live Groups.”

Can’t say I’m bothered that much MSN did turn into tumbleweed when they clode Paid sub and Group chat. However i do hope you have all find a new a home, do tell us about it if you have and will do our best to support your sites.

I would just like to thank everyone for being a member of the huge groups I ran and thank you to the many people who helped.

It’s easy to say I am the best groups manager ever, better then Deusbreakers ftw!

Ben

Online Groups Logo

Well today I Googling MSN Groups and it came up with this site so i had a look it’s a rather interesting site its similar to MSN Groups and they are offering support for large MSN Groups to move to them however this seems rather silly as you can’t move posts or move members due to MSN’s tightness on where groups can move.

So anyway I’ve had a look round and gives the ability to create your own site on a SubDomain or with your own Domain and you will have the option to create up to 30 groups with custom names and e-mail addresses(Like MSN groups).

It may also interest people to know that it offers a free chat service as well, which is a simple in style and ease of use and seems to work in most browsers. If youre still looking for an MSN Group Alternative it’s worth having a look and giving it a shot.

It’s not really like MSN Groups in most senses, you can’t change styles, add pages, create much etc.. but it may be suitable for some groups.

My rating for this MSN Group alternative is.

1/5

The site itself is immensely well designed, easy to use and well coded and I would say for Idea, Innovation and purpose it gets.

5/5 from me.

http://www.onlinegroups.net

The MSN Groups Move to Multiply was a complete failure looking at peoples opinions and from what I can see…

I tried it myself and the layout at Multiply was absolutely useless and barely any of the same features were offered and its completely obvious MSN Group owners have shown distaste to the groups as well as the

Low Quality Group management - No to do stuff like e-mail all members?
No Custom Pages - Only The Whats New Page?
Blogs Instead Message Boards?
The fact that it’s nothing like an MSN Group - It’s just a lot of widgets
Assistant Manager accounts not being able to move groups - For example GrapevineEdge One of MSN’s Biggest Groups
Names of people who posted older messages that were transfered linking to wrong accounts. - Click any name like ascii ones takes you no where ..
Not inviting all the members of your group to join it. - Very stupid…

The key one being the fact that it’s nothing like a group especially having no forums… i personally wont be moving any of my large groups and suggest to people considering moving there groups their to look at alternatives for a place to move there group as in the long run you will be left with a service that yes has some of your content but is completely implausible for running a community.

If MSN or Multiply had thought about this decision I do believe they would of at least asked MSN Groups users what they thought about this decision. Most MSN Group’ers have stated they would like something that atleast offers the same service as MSN Groups which Multiply does not.

In My next blog on this issue I will discuss MSN Group alternatives.

Please leave your comments on this!