Some of new may have noticed something new today in some messages.

It integrates some technical content of the release news inside the support area. There are many advantages for that. This archives some technical articles inside the messages area, which then allows it visibility in the search engine as the title and a brief summary of the article is provided as is. This is done by a recognized tag on the site which formats automatically the news inside the related forum. So, if I enhance the layout, all previous related messages will benefit from it.

Having it inside the support area also allows member to exchange on the topic by participating in the thread. Those threads are linked to my account as there has to be a relation with every message created. This does not apply to all release news. This is done by a human verification and is placed in the Articles category of the related forum. The Articles category has been added today to SQL Server and .NET forum. Some others will follow. As this is related to a category, assuming someone wouldn't want to see those messages, they can filter the category out. But, I wouldn't see any justification for that as members participating in a forum would like to obtain the best value out of it.

The articles that are added to the News section are selected and not just a small tip. Most of them comes from Microsoft sites as well as reknowned sites across the net. And, of course, you can click Like when you like one. The appearance is a social approach as it gives an overview of the target site. This is as is on the News section since a few weeks now and has made its entry into other News section such as the user group meetings where the poster can add a related user group meeting picture of the event. The layout has been enhanced here and there. I hope you like this new option as, I for one, really like it as I use it every day now to lookup specific article directly from here. Note that someone can still access the News section as well as other related News sections from the main page. But, also integrated inside the support area is a great value added to the product. I welcome any suggestion on that. And, yes, some related content such as Jobs and User Group Meetings might also be automatically posted in the Jobs and User Group meetings category of the related forum. Right now, the poster has to double post those entries, thus one in the News section and another post here in the support area. This will no longer be needed shortly. After all, we try to make life easier for everyone while adding more power to the product.

Thanks