[plug] Re: mail-list vs news

[Bernd Felsche]

On Saturday 11 September 2004 15:46, Alex Nordstrom wrote:
> On Saturday, 11 Sep 2004 14:27, Bernd Felsche wrote:
> > On Saturday 11 September 2004 12:37, Michael Holland wrote:
> > > On Sat, 11 Sep 2004, Bernd Felsche wrote:
> > > > You only have to download articles which you find "interesting".

> > > I don't think that's an issue for many people any more. But if you
> > > do have bandwidth problems, e.g. using GSM-data, you can acheive
> > > the same thing with e-mail using IMAP.
> >
> > Which works how if you're running your own mail server?

> I doubt you would be able to download just the headers with NNTP if you
> insist on having your own NNTP server, either.

PLUG NNTP server talking to local leafnode2 handles delay-body. If
you don't try to read the article, the body's not fetched. Leafnode2
also has filters that work on the headers like

	newsgroups = plug\..*
	pattern = ^Subject: .*[Gg][Mm][Aa][Ii][Ll].*
	action = kill

Which causes the leafnode never to download the corresponding article.

> Bottom line: just about all, if not precisely all, of the
> perceived differences between mailing lists and newsgroups are
> attributable to user agents and are independent of transport
> protocol. It is suggested that gnus makes this obvious. From a
> technical point of view,  protocol preference is arbitrary.

The primary difference is that email forces the entire article down
to your email server. News doesn't.

> Now, I like KMail, which means to read newsgroups, I'd also have to use
> another program, like KNode, but I prefer to use only one program. I

I prefer to use different programs for email and news. Because there
are other, fundamental differences that blur when you start to deal
with mailing lists.

> could still use something like gnus, so the argument doesn't hold up
> from a technical point of view. In my opinion, it's still a relevant
> argument from a personal point of view, though.

> My bottom line: It's a religious war; no alternative is technically
> superior. From a personal point of view, I favour mailing lists. If I

Perhaps you don't see one being technically superior for the
purpose. I can see significant advantages. But maybe that's just 25
years of agony (experience).

> were the maintainer, I'd naturally favour status quo, but if the
> capability and willingness to maintain a dual-protocol forum exists,
> there is obviously nothing wrong with that.

Leafnode2 has rather limited capabilities when it's not being used
on the leaf.... no surprise!  It does handle authentication, even
PAM (fairly new), though I don't know how well that ties in with
mailman's.

I've already pointed out that the newsgroups could be used as the
archive; so no "duplicate" storage is required. It would require a
local CGI to serve "archived" articles through a web interface.

-- 
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