MSN Groups - History

History

Since 1991 there were various communities on MSN, all run by MSN, featuring real newsgroups and IRC chat rooms. They were not easily updatable as only MSN Communities staff members could update the one page that each "community" had. There was one for every generic interest. Around 1998-9, MSN created the home pages, which were real Web sites much like Tripod or GeoCities. These had no message boards or chat rooms attached. MSN did away with these home pages around 2001-2, not too long after they introduced the Custom Pages and File cab (later referred to as Documents) in MSN Communities, which were later called Groups.

Besides the general content and community that many of these groups provided, they would compete for the top ten rankings. Some of the largest groups in the site, often rising to the number 1 spot, included Debate, Critical Thinking and Philosophy, The Meaning of Life, ChristianTeen777, and others. (Needs others listed.)

The "make your own group" feature came along in summer of 1999, when MSN did away with the real newsgroups IRC chat rooms. Message boards, chat rooms, one customizable home page and photo albums were added. Gradually, the list pages, custom pages and documents pages were added. Some groups had icons displayed next to the name. Official groups by MSN had the MSN "butterfly", groups considered "cool" had "sunglasses", private groups had a "padlock" and Mature groups had the "smoking pipe". Previously, "Adult" groups had their own icon too.

In 2005, all "Adult" groups were transferred to the World Groups web site. Creating or changing a group to "Adult" is no longer possible in MSN. The removal of all "Adult" groups was processed on November 28, 2005 . On October 16, 2006, the chats on every MSN Group were removed during the cancellation of the MSN Chat service. MSN Groups Chat rooms were removed from the CMS because MSN Subscription Chat was no longer profitable, and because of security and safety issues for children.