"To All Members-Windows 95 Forum Fate"

As you can see by the posting's, Windows 95 is dying a very slow death. As you know Microsoft pulled support some time ago but we (virtualdr) kept this forum open. We (moderators) had suggested closing it or merging it with another forum last summer. The owners opted to keep open as a service to the members who still run Windows 95.

It may be time to close it, but before we make a recommendation to the owners wanted to get the "Members Voice" as this board is "Yours" - if this is the voice they can still choose to keep it open.

These boards are owned by internet.com and obviously generate operating income by advertisements.

Many people still run Windows 95 - yes even Windows 3.X. There are many forums around that still support Windows 95. I for one have switched to Windows 2000 simply because of its stability and it meets my networking needs at home.

If this Windows 95 forum were to close, we would recommend that it actually be merged with Windows 98 - as support is still needed. There are many ways to do this. Windows 98 is not much different then "95", has a few features that "95" does not - particularly USB, better networking ect.

If you the member still want to maintain this board then will pass this on to the owners and I'm sure we will continue to support it.
Personally, will continue to drop by and help when it is needed - well that's my job as moderator.

I have posed this question to our gracious admin BJ, and he agreed lets ask the members before going forward with a recommendation.

I'm not going to put a voting board up, just ask that you comment as we respect the "Members Voice".

Thanks for reading......

FWIW, here are the number of new threads in our Operating Systems forums over the last 100 days, sorted by number of Threads, (descending order):

https://discussions.virtualdr.com/

IOW, the Windows 95 forum has been getting more than twice the number of new threads as Windows 3.1 & DOS and six times as many as the Mac forum.

Merging "95" and "98" makes sense, but I don't think it matters from a members point of view as long as there is a place for the Win 95 users to go. If it makes a difference in what the moderators do or how they do it then they probably should decide how to handle it based on how it affects them.

Merge!!(W95A User)

You could just have a Windows 9X forum.

I think merging 98 & 95 is a very good idea. Go for it! :)

Merging would probably be the most convenient all-round, and maybe a 'sticky' could be posted w/ information on where Win95 users could still seek specific information regarding their OS.

Nautilus

Quote:

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Originally posted by Vernon Frazee
FWIW, here are the number of new threads in our Operating Systems forums over the last 100 days, sorted by number of Threads, (descending order):

http://64.70.165.184/vfrazee/nowonde...s/vdrw95th.gif

IOW, the Windows 95 forum has been getting more than twice the number of new threads as Windows 3.1 & DOS and six times as many as the Mac forum.

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I'm surprised that WinMe has more than Win98.

I use WinMe and Win98 at home but always thought that the WinMe forum was fairly quite compared to Win98.

Also if it was based on number of new threads in last 100 days you'd be merging WinNT and the other two Vernon mentioned as well.

Why not:

Windows XP
Windows 2000/NT
Other Windows/DOS

Windows 9x forum makes sense to me

If you combine, how about adding msg. icons to identify posts relating either 95 or 98 ?

I take it, the 95 forum's archives will be combined also?

I've been here to see 3.x and DOS combine. That went well.

This seems the next logical step.

I read earlier this week, that Microhard is dropping support for NT this month.

I can't see the list of forum's right now, but I think NT's has already been combined with 2000.

[This is a good case for putting a set of forum icons across the top of the page, like it used to be. :) ]

I agree that 95 & 98 could be joined. Makes sense in every way... low use of 95, mods wouldn't need to be switched around or recruited. Just as long as already mentioned, the poster indicates the OS they're using.

I have often wondered why we still have the two (98 & 95) split. Most places simply lump them into "Windows 9x", and if you have a problem specific to one OS, you simply explain that.

My vote is to merge.

I dont really have areason to post anything on w95, however I still think it makes sense to merge the forum with w98.

You will note that we have done a fine job in fixing DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. Congratulations!

Even though the DOS and Windows 3.1 forums were combined, DOS is common to virtually all versions of Windows. 95, 98 and even ME users come to that forum for advice. Even Windows 98fe must be differentiated from 98Se for a lot of advice. Yet all of these have a lot in common.

Combining 9.x makes the most sense. Just advise users to identify which version they are asking questions about. Combining these will actually be advantageous in many instances. A question about menus, Scandisk, Defrag, and programs such as word processors, internet browsers would have the benefit of advice from far more "experts" that they get with the traffic of the Windows 95 forum.

Looking at Vernon's chart, the combined traffic of the 9.x forums would not approach the traffic of the XP forum. The primary reason for splitting 95 from 98 was too heavy a traffic load. That is no longer the concern. Since there are still a lot of 95 users (including me) it would be a disservice to cut all help off as Microsoft has done.

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My
Two Cents
Dennis
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