Just indulge my thought experiment here.  This is not a commitment or even a direction, but more of a...  "brain fart" if you will.  What if the MSDN Forum site, instead of forum like, was more live QnA like?  What if we just used Live QnA?   If you haven't checked out Live QnA yet then you can try it out by replying to the same question that I've posted here....

http://qna.live.com/ShowQuestion.aspx?qid=B39B1993FCBF409593E3E0701317F98A

Here is what I noticed:

  • The tag browsing and tag suggestions when asking a new question clearly beats trying to find a forum on a site with more than 150 forums. MUCH better for newbies.
  • They also have suggested answers to cut off duplicate questions.
  • The editor doesn't format code very well, but neither does the one on the MSDN forums today.
  • I'm not sure I like killing the discussion after 4 days.
  • I love how the best answer is a community vote and is always shown right next to the question.
  • They have points and a reputation system built in.
  • I'm not sure how things are moderated or if things can be re-tagged after the fact.
  • I like the related questions list below the question when you are browsing.
  • They have messenger and spaces integration.

Thoughts? 

http://qna.live.com/ShowQuestion.aspx?qid=B39B1993FCBF409593E3E0701317F98A

Sometimes its just worth having thought experiments like this when you are thinking about the future direction.