http://gmane.org/about/ http://gmane.org/about/ is more or less what you're referring to, and there are others. But the thing with nntp is not the storage - it'

http://gmane.org/about/ http://gmane.org/about/ is more or less what you're referring to, and there are others. But the thing with nntp is not the storage - it's the fact that it is standardized. It is extremely convenient to write a newsgroup post, and cc: someone in particular, and when they do a "reply all" the newsgroup is a recipient as well. This does not work with any "forum", and works (but not well) for mailing lists.