[plug] Setting up PLUG groups in addition to this e-mail list

[James Devenish]

Hi everyone,

A recurring theme on this list is the idea of having "newsgroups" or
"web discussion groups" as an alternative to the high-volume PLUG e-mail
list. For a variety of reasons, it is not acceptable to replace the PLUG
e-mail with these alternatives. However, an alternative solution has
been proposed. Basically, the plug at plug e-mail list *will* remain the
core method through which we communicate, but a number of alternative
"views" can be established. The principal proposal is to have an NNTP
("netnews" / "USENET") service. This service would be exact mirror of
the mailing list. Anything posted to the list will appear in the
newsgroup and anything posted to the newsgroup will appear in the list.
The mailing list and its archives will remain as-is. The NNTP view will
be cobbled around the mailing list. People who do not like high-volume
e-mail will instead be able to view messages through the NTTP service.

However, there are some barriers to implementing this service. The two
main areas are computer resources and development/administration time.
However, I have had a look at some of the ideas that have been proposed
and I think it is feasible to undertake this exercise if there is a
demand for it. If you would like to "vote" in favour / against the
effort of implementing this service, please reply to this thread.

For those with an interest in the specifics, my suggestion at the
current stage is:

 - Set up a leafnode2 NTTP server on PLUG's xbox (which currently acts
   as the PLUG web server).
 - People will be able to use their "news" client to connect to the
   leafnode server, and will have to enter their Mailman address and
   password to gain posting privileges. (We cannot have an 'anonymous'
   service because random spammers and robots could infiltrate it.)
 - Once people are connected to the server, they will see PLUG as a
   'local group'. The server will not provide any access to USENET.
 - Messages will be gated between Mailman (on PLUG's SPARC e-mail
   server) and leafnode (on the xbox).
 - To make the authentication work, the easiest method is probably to
   periodically dump the Mailman credentials into a leafnode-compatible
   flat file list on a NFS share.
 - I propose that Mailman, and its archives, remain completely unchanged
   (will not be replacing the Mailman web archives with one based on the
   newsspool).

Personally, I would like to be able to connect to the leafnode server
and see a variety of local groups. For a start, we should also gate the
Off-topic list (by the way: is it still a SmartList?). I would also be
interested in whether PLUG web articles could be "injected" into a
read-only group. That is, our news clients would show a few local groups
like:

plug
plug.ot
plug.news

Also, a wishlist item: I would love it if the PLUG group could be
experienced through NNTP with a variety of 'dynamic views'. For example,
if we had a range of intelligent filters that could allow articles to be
categorised on the fly like:

plug.mandrake
plug.redhatfedora
plug.debian
plug.gentoo
plug.suse
plug.gaming
plug.windows
plug.smallbusiness
plug.misc

My idea is that all of these are simply 'dynamic views' of the main
group: you could choose to either read the main group or these dynamic
groups. If you were to post inside one of the dynamic groups, it would
just form part of a thread in the main group. Any individual article may
appear in one or more of the dynamic views. And any articles not placed
in a dynamic view would go into the 'misc' view. There would also remain
the all-encompassing 'plug' group for those who prefer it. Naturally,
users of the mailing list would be unaffected by all this.

Unfortuantely, implementing our own search/metadata/handpicking system
would surely be a nightmare. If anyone knows of any good FOSS content
analysis tools that could be used to maintain these dynamic views,
please reply to this thread. I would be willing to do a bit of leafnode
integration to assist this idea.