[plug] New PLUG news server

[Bernd Felsche]

James Devenish <devenish at guild.uwa.edu.au> writes:

>In message <ragp22xha9.ln2 at innovative.iinet.net.au>
>on Wed, Sep 29, 2004 at 09:39:07AM +0800, Bernd Felsche wrote:

>> The whole archive? I hope not. Maybe a week's worth. Remember that
>> it's a newsgroup server; not an oldsgroup server. :-)

>Argh! Only a week's worth? That's not very nice! For a start, it
>means that if you read a thread at time y when it started at time
>x, they your newsreader will be unable to reconstruct the thread
>and you will be unable to review the parent articles (which you
>might have ignored earlier in your life). This means you have to
>resort to using the web archives and replying out-of-band.

We're talking about articles posted *before* the news server came
online.

>Likewise, if you are away for two weeks' break and you disabled
>your mail subscription, you will be unable to enjoy reviewing the
>fortnight with your news reader.

Install leafnode on your Linux box, set up the BIOS to alarm every 3
days and then set it to fetchnews when connected to the net. After
collection, set the next alarm in the BIOS and do a shutdown.

You can then point your newsreader at your local leafnode server for
maximum rowsing enjoyment; and the parameters for article expiry.

If somebody goes away _today_ and comes back in 65 years, they'll
(theoretically) have all the articles posted since their departure
available on the news server because I set the expiry to 24800 days.

If the custodians feel inspired, they could set up a "plug.replay"
newsgroup and throw the list archives in there. Just make sure that
you set the newsgroup to status "n", which means no postings at all.
May be useful as an exercise.
-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
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