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debian-user via USENET [was: Proposal: An alternative to mailing lists which isn't a forum]

Miles Fidelman wrote:

Miles Fidelman wrote:

Miles Fidelman wrote:

Miles Fidelman wrote:

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

On 10/10/2014 10:01 AM, softwatt wrote:

On 10/10/2014 02:27 PM, Jerry Stuckle wrote:

I also read this
mail list via NNTP (easier to keep track of threads)


This is perfect for me. But information on the net is scarce and I
don't
know where to begin. I know that I can access linux.debian.* and read 
stuff, but that would require a -often paid- Usenet account.
Is there an open readonly server specifically for Debian? Mozilla does 
this (news.mozilla.org)

According to: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMailingLists
There are 4 ways to read the list:

  - Email when subscribed to the list.
  - A Web browser viewing the archives, which are public.
  - Usenet with Network News (Transfer|Transport) Protocol, NNTP.
  - The mail-to-news gateways linux.debian.*

I guess my question is how to do the third one.
Thanks in advance.





You don't need to use a paid server.  There are plenty of free ones
available. Personally, I use eternal-september.com. It's been pretty 
solid for me and contains all of the newsgroups I want. No binary
newsgroups, but I can life with that.
You can't post to Debian from there (because it's just a mirror of the 
mailing list), but you can post to real newsgroups.




Note that a lot of list-to-usenet gateway software can be
bi-directional, depending on administrative settings.

As someone pointed out, debian-user is gatewayed to gmane - which, in
turn, EXPOSES AN NNTP FEED.

Point your newsreader at nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.user

If this gets to the list, then one can post through it as well.



Looks like this DID get to the list - so you can read and post through
gmane's USENET i/f.  But... it looks like gmane actually posts via
email, not nntp - and the first time you do so, it sends you an email
to confirm your email address.  As far as users are concerned, it
doesn't matter - it all just works -- and, I think, it seems to
satisfy a lot of what the OP was asking for.

Meanwhile, it's not at all clear whether the list-nntp gateway is
bi-directional or not - there's not a lot to be found via google, and
all of what I find is pretty ancient.

I'll ask around a bit and report back what I find.



Sent an email off to the debian listmaster asking about the gateway.

Meanwhile - there seems to be an ancient, possibly unmaintained
list-mail gateway -  robomod@news.nic.it - which moderates the linux.*
newsgroup heirarchy.  In order to post through it, you need to register
by subscribing to the email list linux-gate@lists.bofh.it -- at
http://lists.bofh.it/listinfo/linux-gate

It seems to be running - but... when I tried to post a message via the
groups.google.com usenet reader - I got an error message from the robot
saying that I need to subscribe -- even though I had just subscribed. So
it's running, but the posting interface does not work, at least as far
as google groups is concerned.

Jerry: might be an interesting experiment to see if you can post via
eternal-september.com - after subscribing to linux-gate.

Miles Fidelman
I bit the bullet and set up an nntp account with eternal-september.org - let's see if this gets through with mfidelman@meetinghouse.net as my email address (which is registered with the linux-gate robot). 



So... looks like it does.  So... two ways to access debian-user via USENET:

1. via Gmane
- point newsreader at nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.user
- first time you try to post to, you'll get a message asking you to register w/ Gmane - reply to the message 
- after that, posts/replies will go through Gmane, via email, to debian-user
2. via eternal-september.org (and presumably any other nntp server that supports subscribe to linux.debian.user) 
- register for an account at eternal-september.org
- go to http://lists.bofh.it/listinfo/linux-gate, subscribe to linux-gate@lists.bofh.it - to authorize posting - point newsreader at news://news.eternal-september.org:119/linux.debian.user (or whatever; note, probably also supports nttps, but haven't tried) 
- you should be good to go
Note - in both cases, you might have to play games with your "From:" address --- e.g., for my combined mail/news/rss reader (SeaMonkey): - subscribing to a newsgroup, creates a new account on the new server (if it doesn't already exist) - have to go into the account preferences and enter my email address (the one I added to linux-gate) - when posting/replying, I have to be sure to select that account as my From address (Seamonkey provides a pull-down From: list) 

Cheers all,

Miles Fidelman


--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra
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