Microsoft have announced major changes to their Windows Media Center community site TheGreenButton.com, Microsoft acquired TheGreenButton.com just over two years ago and while the community has continued to grow the site has not been upgraded for some time so this upgrade is well overdue. The changes are very significant, the whole site is being moved to a home on the Windows Experts Community site which is a new site for Windows enthusiast to connect. The Green Button will be a sub community as a part of Experts site and thegreenbutton.com url will be no more as it will redirects to the new site.
Going forward I am sure the new site will be a significant upgrade from the current one but I can’t help feeling a little sad at the lost of thegreenbutton.com URL. My first interaction with the Media Center community was at TGB as I am sure if was for most Media Center users.
The changes are going to happen over the next month and the old posts should be carried over to the new site. It will be interesting to see how the site looks, I know how big of a job it is moving over to a new site having moved to a new platform this week.
At its heart, the Windows Experts Community is a collection of online forums geared for advanced users, enthusiasts, experts and so on – those that are doing fantastic and amazing things with their Windows PCs and other ecosystem devices.
The community is comprised of three main areas of interest:
– Personalizing, Configuring and Using Windows
– Communicating, Sharing and Synchronizing with Windows Live
– Windows Entertainment and Connected Home
It is this latter subcommunity – Windows Entertainment and Connected Home – which will house many of the forums, threads, posts and content found today on The Green Button, and TheGreenButton.com URL will send users directly into the new community.
I really think this was the best Microsoft could do given the issues the existing site’s platform has. Having said that change is always difficult and I do feel that the loss of TGBs uniqueness could be a little hard for some people to swallow.
I hadn’t visited the GreenButton for a while and just found out. I’m sad to say that the new forum platform leaves a lot to be desired. I thought they would have used the same platform as technet.microsoft.com or msdn.microsoft.com. But, nope this looks like someone’s high school project (sorry just my opinion). Oh well, that’s software for you.
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This could be a great upgrade to arguably one of the best Media Center focused forums.
I hope that the changes mean that there will be a bigger input from Microsoft on issues such as guide data from now on.
It will be a shame though if TGB loses it’s identity and is allowed to fade away into a larger, more generalised support site.
I think it will all come down to the number of members who continue to hang out there (when they’re not on the all new TDL site of course 🙂
I really think this was the best Microsoft could do given the issues the existing site’s platform has. Having said that change is always difficult and I do feel that the loss of TGBs uniqueness could be a little hard for some people to swallow.
I hadn’t visited the GreenButton for a while and just found out. I’m sad to say that the new forum platform leaves a lot to be desired. I thought they would have used the same platform as technet.microsoft.com or msdn.microsoft.com. But, nope this looks like someone’s high school project (sorry just my opinion). Oh well, that’s software for you.
RIP GreenButton, you will be missed!
For me the change is unwelcomed and unnecesary, but as long as the knowledge is still there I am ok.