We[*] have been invited to have a short brief chat and drink with some official MSN people[**] regarding MSN Messenger tomorrow (dec 7th).

So what would you like to ask them?

Please keep the questions civilized and a bit interesting though...
(thus not stuff of which the answer can be found by searching the various messenger related forums or something).

[*]
TB, Inky, juzzi, some others and me

[**]
Scott Swanson  => MSN Messenger Platform Planning Team (also know from the Messenger Activity API/SDK and its forum)
Todd Biggs => MSN Product Manager (also know from the Messenger Activity API/SDK and its forum)
Joost Bon => MSN Manager (Holland)

So that's why you're going to Amsterdam, nice!

Ask them to make be a WLM betatester, still haven't received any mail lol.

No real good questions come to mind tright now, but interesting, get a full report when you're back .

EDIT: Hmm, now that i mentioned beta testing. There used to be a seperate Dutch MSN Messenger betatesting site (MSN Group actually) in the 6.2 period. That one seems to have dissapeard, will it come back for WLM tests?

how about:

Why have they decided to change the name of a well known brand to something that sounds rubbish?

tell them to restrict the beta testing invites so leaked betas wouldn't go out to the public so easily..

Actually it's not the Dutch MSN Messenger team I think cookie. Scott Swanson & Todd Biggs will be there tomorrow, together with Joost Bon, who appears to be a manager of MSN Holland (not Messenger).
Anyway, I look forward to tomorrow!

Ask them if the API is going to get a decent update in WLM

How much money do they get to put into development for the product?

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Originally posted by Madman
Ask them if the API is going to get a decent update in WLM

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[offtopic]How about a mini-meeting in amsterdam while you are there[/offtopic]

Ask them to make a Light version without all the bloated stuff.

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Originally posted by Madman
Ask them if the API is going to get a decent update in WLM

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Ask them...stupid obvious question when we'll see a public beta and then a full release

they've always given vague answers before

ask them if the Messenger web page is gonna have a new look with WLM. when beta? when public?

ask them if WLM will only be compatible with windows xp and vista.

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Originally posted by MR_5_MR
ask them if WLM will only be compatible with windows xp and vista.

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Ask them how they see Messenger Plus!'s future with Live Messenger and what they would like to see.

Hum, my question would be why not making it possible to write you're Personal message before logging in, seeing as it's stored on you're computer..

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Originally posted by MR_5_MR
Merry Christmas

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adding to sean's question, will YM users be able to send to MSN contacts?

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Originally posted by XxRebelSeanxX
Anyhow, I have one question I'd like to see asked. When will we see this new Yahoo & MSN Messenger merge take place? Like to say, when will we see the client that supports both IM?

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Originally posted by MeEtc
adding to sean's question, will YM users be able to send to MSN contacts?

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I would like to ask why they can't come up with their own features when it comes to MSN Messenger. Why do they have to keep "stealing" features from other people's programs.

I say "stealing" because whenever I just say it normally, I get told off, that it isn't stealing, because the whole of the code has been rewrote... In my eyes, it's still stealing though.

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Originally posted by traxor
I would like to ask why they can't come up with their own features when it comes to MSN Messenger. Why do they have to keep "stealing" features from other people's programs.

I say "stealing" because whenever I just say it normally, I get told off, that it isn't stealing, because the whole of the code has been rewrote... In my eyes, it's still stealing though.

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Originally posted by vincerooney
when we'll see a public beta and then a full release

they've always given vague answers before

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PLEESE ASK ABOUT SKINNING AND THEIR FURTURE FOR IT E.G I THEIR MAKING A SYSTEM AND WHY HAVE THEY HAD IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ATM thanks

I was [apparently] just speaking to Scott Swanson over TB's mobile MSN Messenger account - they're in a pub by all accounts and Absorbation made him go offline by forcing me to ask him a question for the Skinners.

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Originally posted by Patches
I was [apparently] just speaking to Scott Swanson over TB's mobile MSN Messenger account - they're in a pub by all accounts and Absorbation made him go offline by forcing me to ask him a question for the Skinners.

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Look, you ruined my life okay Absorbation. Now here is a Oxford English Dictionary, go learn how to spell think okay?

I'm back now! I had a lovely evening and I'll tell you more about it asap

Edit: posted some info here. (You can copy it to this forum if you want).

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Originally posted by Juzzi
I'm back now! I had a lovely evening and I'll tell you more about it asap

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I'll post some answers to the questions later (mainly because it is already 1am, secondly because I need to decrypt the handwriting of Joost , third, because I want to ask some other things eg: more clarifications on some things which has been said)

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Originally posted by Juzzi
(You can copy it to this forum if you want).

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quote:

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Originally posted by Juzzi

This evening I went to Amsterdam to meet a few famous people from the MSN Messenger community, and some official people from the MSN Messenger team.

Who where there?
Microsoft Redmond (USA):
Scott Swanson: Group Product Planner for the MSN Messenger Platform. He admitted his title doesn't say anything, and explained he manages all stuff regarding to API's et cetera. He seems to be the one who's in charge of the World's Best App contest and the Messenger API forum.
Todd Biggs: MSN Product Manager, nice guy who's on the same team as Scott

Microsoft Holland:
Joost Bon: Manager of the Microsoft Network in the Netherlands if I got it right.
The goodies guy (I forgot his name ): He tests all Dutch MSN products before they're released. He's in charge of the Dutch MSN/WLM beta's, and therefor he's called the goodies guy .

Then there were two people of a Dutch company Oberon Medialab, they made the 'Nieuwskraker' bot for the Dutch newspaper 'Volkskrant'.

Messenger Community
Juzzi That's me
The Blasphemer creator of the popular Stuffplug plugin for Messenger Plus!
CookieRevised very active member of the Messenger Plus! community (and the Dutch Msgplus translator).
Inky Creator of BOT2K3
ZoRoNaX Introduced himself as a "Protocol hacker"
Speedy Kevin Creator of Speedy Messenger
Unfortunately Timothy (mess.be) wasn't able to come to Amsterdam.

How did it go?
I met TB & Kevin 5 minutes after my arrival at the Amsterdam railroad station. Because Inky didn't pick up his phone it took a little while untill we found him joined by ZoRoNaX. Cookie told us he'd come later. After our visit to the burger king we were heading for the cafe we'd meet the Microsoft people. It took a while until we found it (even though it was near the station), but this wasn't a problem, since the MSN people were running late as well. Cookie arrived shortly after us.

When Scott, Todd, and Joost arrived the interesting & fun stuff started. At start we all received our own 128 MB MSN Messenger USB stick . After everyone introduced himself and we ordered our drinks we started talking about... MSN/Windows Live Messenger! We discussed all the projects we're doing, and of course everything they're working on. We discussed Windows Live, Messenger, the World's Best App contest, and a lot more!

What did we get to know?
Here's a list some interesting, sometimes obvious things they told us about:

• The Windows Live Messenger public beta will start at the beginning of 2006
  
• Microsoft hopes to release Windows Live Messenger in Spring 2006
  
• Joost Bon visits Msgweb.nl on a regular basis
  
• Windows Live will be all about combining different Microsoft products. For example Windows Live Messenger, Live Mail, Spaces, and an Orkut/friendster like product will all combine contact information.
  
• All six of us will get an invite for the Windows Live Messenger beta, and we'll be able to invite 5-10 others.
  
• To be continued..

All by all, I had a lovely evening. I'd like to stress that I think Microsoft is doing a really great job with it's 'new strategy' to pay more attention to us, the community, and especially to developers. Scott's team has been set up for this only a year ago. Most of the new Microsoft products seem to fit in this 'new strategy', especially the Windows Live products (Microsoft Gadgets, MSN Search API, Virtual Earth API, etc).

I'll update this article ASAP, but I'm going to catch some sleep now

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I noticed that you guys will get to invite 5-10 others .... *cough cough*.... .... please.... haha.... okay... well... If none of you want to when you guys get to invite people that's okay... cause i'm fine waiting too... But that's some pretty cool stuff with the meeting and all! Can't wait for more info.

As you can read on Juzzi's report of meeting, we met a couple of important people in the Messenger community.

The meeting was fantastique and also very unique (one of a kind meeting) as Joost told us later. (sic: though let's hope more will follow ). It was held in the "In De Wildeman" in Amsterdam. A nice causey little pub specialized in hundreds of different beers from all over the world. (sic: They couldn't have found a better place IMO!! I'll sure return to that pub when I'm in A'dam again)

The MSN people came a little later as intended. Nevertheless, the meeting went on well after what was announced in the invitation we got.

After half an hour Joost got a phone call (or something, or he SMS'd, dunno anymore) from another dude and he would come over also. In short, and after a while there were 6 MSN people instead of the announced 3

Because it was in a pub and because we were with many people we all chatted away (what else do you do in a pub, except drinking ). Unfortunatly, because of this it was very hard to follow every (very interesting!) conversation. Nevertheless, I bet many people would give their right hand for knowing some stuff (just teasing ).

Before I went to the meeting I had put all the questions (well almost) asked here in this thread and in the thread on mess.be on paper.

Joost seemed to be very anxious to start answering them. He actually asked a pen and started to write down the answers (to the questions he could answer that is). It almost seemed like an examination, lol. Most questions were discussed, etc...

Anyways, unfortunatly I had to leave at 21u10 because the last train to Belgium departed at 21u23. I sure wanted to stay though. So, the group photo was taken (best one will be the one taken by Inky, so stay tuned), shaked hands and said goodbye (until online).

Juzzi also left at that point to catch his train. We had to run to the station because we were really short in time. And damn, my condition is worse then I thought Arrived at the station (and more dead than alive, at least I was, Juzzi had no trouble at all ), we looked at the departure monitor. His train arrived at platform 1 or something, just only 10m away. Of course, mine... platform 14... DOH! So there I found myself running again (I better stayed at the pub )

Anyways, that was my short, but extremely interesting meeting with the MSN people...

PS: Joost loves to annoy his contacts with the nudge feature (shhhht.... I didn't say this )

EDIT: oh, one last thing which was very clear: They are always seeking new, fresh ideas and programmers/developpers. So if you're up to it, get in contact!

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Originally posted by groessl35
I noticed that you guys will get to invite 5-10 others

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or maybe 10-20 as I already am on the closed beta tester team (and haven't used my invites yet)

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
So, the group photo was taken (best one will be the one taken by Inky, so stay tuned), shaked hands and said goodbye (until online), and that was my short, but extremely interesting meeting with the MSN people...

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quote:

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Originally posted by TheBlasphemer

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
So, the group photo was taken (best one will be the one taken by Inky, so stay tuned), shaked hands and said goodbye (until online), and that was my short, but extremely interesting meeting with the MSN people...

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This is the one from Inky, judge for yourselves
http://files.stuffplug.com/msgramsterdam.jpg

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quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
PS: Joost loves to annoy his contacts with the nudge feature (shhhht.... I didn't say this

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quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
or maybe 10-20 as I already am on the closed beta tester team (and haven't used my invites yet)

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Originally posted by lou_habs

can you please put arrows and show who is who?

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quote:

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Originally posted by lou_habs
can you please put arrows and show who is who?

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I hope I've got every name right, except for the three guys which I didn't remember the name from (someone fill me in, I'll update the picture)

Sounds like things are going really well with the Beta and WLM. I'm glad they are open to new ideas and all from people not on the development team. It would definitely be fun to try out the Beta, and those who get invites better give plenty of details as to what's going on.

And, yes, I hope this isn't the only meeting of its kind. We (the general user population) could definitely use this sort of thing to get our ideas and questions to the Messenger team more effectively.

Aww Juzzi's cut out haha... Kinda.... well, there's a tiny part of him in it.

Sounds good guys, thanks for the information!

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Originally posted by groessl35
Aww Juzzi's cut out haha... Kinda.... well, there's a tiny part of him in it.

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Seems like you had a really good time ...

You could always offer me an invite jk. But you can if you want .

cookie, when will you be posting the info on the ansers to the questions?

When I get hold of them again on MSN, so I can verify some answers and ask for more clarifications on some.

I'm actully very impressed to see MSN takes so much importance from their users ( well.. a little more than users for CR, TB and Juzzi seeing as they program, help and have huge websites.. but you guys get what I mean.. )

I think this a really good thing, I'm glad you guys had a great time

First guy on the left from "Oberon Media labs" is Hans-Peter

The goodies guy is Maarten van der Most

We sure had a great time, very intresting conversations.

About 30 minutes after Cookie and Juzzi left we went to a nice dutch restaurant called Dorrius.
ZoRoNaX and I had a small dessert and took off (around 22:50) to the train station.
I arrived home around 00:30

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
I hope I've got every name right, except for the two guys which I didn't remember the name from (someone fill me in, I'll update the picture)

http://shoutbox.menthix.net/attachment.php?pid=575027

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
final update: all names are present now

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Originally posted by MenthiX

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
final update: all names are present now

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So that guy is really called "???" ?

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Here is the one made by Hans