Re: [seul-edu] Mail list versus UUNET newgroup

["Stephen C. Daukas" <stephen@daukas.com>]

At 12:11 PM 5/19/2002, Doug wrote:
>Stephen C. Daukas wrote:
>
>>I wasn't thinking "web" - I was thinking good old nntp, which can be 
>>set-up to allow postings by a select group, but can be read by anyone who 
>>wants to subscribe...  (One can even use sendmail settings to limited 
>>access on some nntp servers and this could also be setup to do both nntp 
>>and smtp at the same time.)
>
>I used to be a dedicated USEnaut, but if I look at a newsgroup once every 
>few months these days I'd be surprised.  I think that's the case with a 
>lot of folks since newsgroups have become so spam-filled and since the 
>"endless September" effect took hold years ago.

Agreed.  I haven't looked at public news groups since the mid 90's!  I do, 
however, follow a few private ones (not part of the hierarchy and not 
copied around the world).  If we wanted, we wouldn't have to include any 
news groups we create in the hierarchy, just put up the server and lets 
folks know where to find it...

>>Taking this approach would actually save bandwidth for those who pay a 
>>high-cost connection fee:  just subscribe to what you are interested in 
>>and avoid downloading the rest.  We did at a former employer of mine 
>>years ago...  Not sure how they do it now, but we had thousands of 
>>subscribers (members) and used email with archive, as well as web, as 
>>well as nntp.
>
>The problem would be that a web forum would just be an extra script 
>running on our existing web server, while NNTP newsgroups would require an 
>entire new app to run.  I haven't run INN for years, but as I recall it 
>was fairly resource-intensive.  I'd have to see how many of our users 
>would prefer it to either email or web before I could make a case for it.

Exactly, which is why I left off my original post with "who's going to run 
it" and you replied "most likely me"!  Of course, that doesn't have to be 
the case...  If it is decided that nntp would be a nice thing to do,  we 
could create private groups which would reduce all of the other hassles 
associated with nntp.  it may also be possible to leverage a willing 
institution's existing server.  This would introduce a "span of control" 
issue for School Forge/SEUL/etc., but if everyone felt strongly about going 
this direction, it could be looked at.  That's a big IF, by the way...  So 
far, it looks like a few of us saying this would be a "nice to have", but 
it doesn't look like folks are beating down the doors for it...   ;-)

Steve