Microsoft is going to kill support for more than 4,000 old-style newsgroups starting next month.

It said that it wants users to go to discussion forums such as those found on the Microsoft Answers, TechNet, and MSDN sites. Microsoft said that so-called NNTP newsgroups are past their time in terms of being usable and secure.

In a statement Redmond said that the newsgroups run on an outdated and discontinued platform that is no longer supported, making them vulnerable to spam and other usability issues. The company said that its forums get 15 million visits a month and have been growing, on average, 12 percent each month. Participation in the old newsgroups has dropped nearly in half over the past year.

Forums are also moderated by Microsoft to ensure content is “accurate and to encourage richer conversations”. So calling someone a nazi is supposed to be a thing of the past. The newsgroups first appeared in April 1996, replacing the Microsoft-sponsored discussion forums on CompuServe.