4 ms·

Forget forums. Forget mailing lists. Bring back NNTP, so we can just point people at com.mycompany.engineering.infrastructure and not worry about setting up ano

Forget forums. Forget mailing lists. Bring back NNTP, so we can just point people at com.mycompany.engineering.infrastructure and not worry about setting up another lame inbox filter.

zobzu 13y ago
to be honest.. i would like NTTP back as well. it solves all these problems decently well. i hate mailing lists, because they're not that efficient to use, and that includes the google ui to stuff (and gmail for that matter).
WalterBright 13y ago
http://forum.dlang.org http://forum.dlang.org is an NNTP forum. You can also access it via newsgroups news://www.digitalmars.com/digitalmars/D or even a mailing list at http://lists.puremagic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/digitalmars-d http://lists.puremagic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/digitalm... It works out quite nicely for us.
- ditoax 13y ago
  I love the DLang forums. They are so damn quick!
- na85 13y ago
  Wow is their forum software open source/freely available? I love how snappy they are.
  - WalterBright 13y ago
    Sure: http://forum.dlang.org/help#about http://forum.dlang.org/help#about
codinghorror 13y ago
I don't think that particular genie can be put back in the bottle.
dredmorbius 13y ago
I'm a big fan of NNTP, though I haven't used it in years. Sadly, I think that culture and clients are likely to sabotage this. Usenet worked pretty well when it was a handful of marquee tech firms and edus using tin or gnus. Similarly, email list work pretty well when everyone's using pine or mutt, understands threading, and uses postfix response format. The worst mess I ever saw was a list that mixed entertainment industry types with techies, using a wide range of email clients, and featured a lot of people who really liked the sound of their own voices (talked, and wrote, far too much). It was all but impossible to follow discussions, threads were utterly mangled, etc., etc. So I'm not sure Usenet can continue to work, on a wide scale (not to mention most people don't have a client installed). Though one can hope.
- nailer 13y ago
  I think a lot of people understand postfix response format. but top-post because they think having the newest content at the top, rather than having to scroll, is better.
  - dhimes 13y ago
    Yes- the top/bottom post debate is probably older than netscape.
roel_v 13y ago
It would need some form of voting, distributed moderating support (including UI in clients), html posting/images and advertising to be a real alternative for most forums though. NNTP is much better than web forums but web allowed people to add features ('innovate' shudder) much faster than a 'set standard/get clients to update' cycle can.
buro9 13y ago
Actually I think where Discourse is going is the same place Microcosm is going. The software is just an intermediary that connects people having discussions and collaborating. The first version may well be a web forum. The second version may well be an email interface / mailing list. The third version may well be native mobile apps. But all versions work all of the time and people should be able to connect around their shared interest regardless of how their interface preference might divide them. In that regard, you have the usenet dream of people picking whatever client they love, and there's little reason NNTP can't just be one of the available interfaces to the underlying swirl of discussion and collaboration.
Tepix 13y ago
I agree that NNTP is nice, it is however lacking some features that forums offer these days. Ideally there would be a push to a new version of the protocol that adds these features (and more such as using hashcash to combat spam).
- fennecfoxen 13y ago
  You don't need anti-spam measures if your newsgroups are internal. :)

Forget forums. Forget mailing lists. Bring back NNTP, so we can just point people at com.mycompany.engineering.infrastructure and not worry about setting up another lame inbox filter.

zobzu 13y ago

to be honest.. i would like NTTP back as well. it solves all these problems decently well. i hate mailing lists, because they're not that efficient to use, and that includes the google ui to stuff (and gmail for that matter).

WalterBright 13y ago

http://forum.dlang.org http://forum.dlang.org is an NNTP forum. You can also access it via newsgroups news://www.digitalmars.com/digitalmars/D or even a mailing list at http://lists.puremagic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/digitalmars-d http://lists.puremagic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/digitalm... It works out quite nicely for us.

ditoax 13y ago
I love the DLang forums. They are so damn quick!
na85 13y ago
Wow is their forum software open source/freely available? I love how snappy they are.
- WalterBright 13y ago
  Sure: http://forum.dlang.org/help#about http://forum.dlang.org/help#about

codinghorror 13y ago

I don't think that particular genie can be put back in the bottle.

dredmorbius 13y ago

I'm a big fan of NNTP, though I haven't used it in years. Sadly, I think that culture and clients are likely to sabotage this. Usenet worked pretty well when it was a handful of marquee tech firms and edus using tin or gnus. Similarly, email list work pretty well when everyone's using pine or mutt, understands threading, and uses postfix response format. The worst mess I ever saw was a list that mixed entertainment industry types with techies, using a wide range of email clients, and featured a lot of people who really liked the sound of their own voices (talked, and wrote, far too much). It was all but impossible to follow discussions, threads were utterly mangled, etc., etc. So I'm not sure Usenet can continue to work, on a wide scale (not to mention most people don't have a client installed). Though one can hope.

nailer 13y ago
I think a lot of people understand postfix response format. but top-post because they think having the newest content at the top, rather than having to scroll, is better.
- dhimes 13y ago
  Yes- the top/bottom post debate is probably older than netscape.

roel_v 13y ago

It would need some form of voting, distributed moderating support (including UI in clients), html posting/images and advertising to be a real alternative for most forums though. NNTP is much better than web forums but web allowed people to add features ('innovate' shudder) much faster than a 'set standard/get clients to update' cycle can.

buro9 13y ago

Actually I think where Discourse is going is the same place Microcosm is going. The software is just an intermediary that connects people having discussions and collaborating. The first version may well be a web forum. The second version may well be an email interface / mailing list. The third version may well be native mobile apps. But all versions work all of the time and people should be able to connect around their shared interest regardless of how their interface preference might divide them. In that regard, you have the usenet dream of people picking whatever client they love, and there's little reason NNTP can't just be one of the available interfaces to the underlying swirl of discussion and collaboration.

Tepix 13y ago

I agree that NNTP is nice, it is however lacking some features that forums offer these days. Ideally there would be a push to a new version of the protocol that adds these features (and more such as using hashcash to combat spam).

fennecfoxen 13y ago
You don't need anti-spam measures if your newsgroups are internal. :)