MSN Groups To Multiply?

The news that Microsoft has decided to close its MSN Groups service has caused consternation among MSN group members, many of whom have been using the service regularly for years.

It seems that Microsoft is closing MSN Groups on 21 February, 2009 and opening its brand new Windows Live Groups on November 17.

With MSN Groups already having a large and active membership, you would think that Microsoft would be doing all they could to attract them to their new service.

However it seems that the process of transitioning MSN Groups to Windows live is too difficult, so instead they have partnered with Multiply.com, a social networking site.

Multiply has just hit the 10 million users mark, and must be delighted at the thought of boosting their membership even further with an influx of MSN Group members.

MSN Groups is opening its migration process to Multiply next week, and groups will be given instructions on how to begin the migration process.

Whether many of the groups will make this step is questionable.

The group managers are, after all, volunteers, so it’s likely that some will decide that the transitioning process is all too much hassle.

Many of the larger, well established groups have already set up partner groups on sites such as Facebook and MySpace, so may well decide to make these their main group.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing for MSN Groups. Their open nature has presented a ready home for ‘trolls’ – members who posts controversial messages purely to upset genuine members and provoke arguments.

There has also been an ongoing problem with groups simply disappearing after one of MSN’s updates.

This has led many groups to set up their own private sites, using free forum software such as phpBB, although of course someone still has to fork out for the domain name and web hosting fee.

The closure of MSN Groups presents a great opportunity for some of these spin-off sites to boost their own membership.

One important factor that will support the transition to Multiply is the large amount of data that is stored on MSN Groups. This will be a big incentive for groups to make the effort to move over to Multiply.

Over the 13 years that MSN Groups have been in operation many groups have built up a treasure trove of data on their particular topic, and would not want this to be lost.

One of the main advantages of MSN Groups has been their user-friendliness.

It is simply a clear and easy to use message board, whereas Multiply offers a host of social networking features.

For the more internet savvy types this could be an attraction, although it’s questionable how many people will really want all the extra options.

At the end of the day, it could well be the transition process itself that determines how many MSN Groups actually make the jump to Multiply.

If it is too complicated many MSN Groups could simply disappear in the ether, which would be a great shame.

Story link: MSN Groups To Multiply?