Back in 2008, I set up a LinkedIn group after the UK Windows Server User Group’s leader, Scotty McLeod, was involved in a tragic accident and it was originally intended to provide a temporary workaround until we got the Windows Server Team site up and running again.

Towards the end of last year Mark Parris and I had a conversation around combining the UK Active Directory User Group with the UK Windows Server User Group. The reasoning behind this was that Windows Server User Group meetings had become few and far between, meanwhile the Active Directory User Group is an active community. At the same time Active Directory touches almost every component of Windows Server (it does, after all, account for five of the Windows Server roles) and the division between Windows Server content and Active Directory content was becoming very blurred.

Consequently, the two user groups will now merge to become collectively known as the Windows Server User Group (WSUG).

Mark has set up a new website and forums and, whilst they still require some work, they share credentials and support both traditional user/password authentication and OpenID.

Meanwhile the LinkedIn group will still exist, but I’m honestly not sure that it provides any value and I would encourage members to sign up at the WSUG website, where we are trying to build an active Windows Server community with discussion forums and in-person meetings (generally held at Microsoft offices in the UK).

Twitter users can also follow @windowsserverug for event announcements, etc.

Please let us know what you would like to see on the forums and, if you would like to get more involved, please get in touch with either Mark Parris or myself.  You can find our contact details on the WSUG site.