@tomjennings i'm writing a decentralized peer-to-peer network of discussion groups with an nntp server back-end and a reddit-like frontend, called #tomo.
a lot of the ideas and implementation came from watching bbs interviews about #fidonet.
but because it's peer-to-peer (using nntp store and forward), i'm having trouble coming up with a reliable system for maintaining a master list of discussion group names (e.g. tomonet.pets.cat). i want to keep it as decentralized as possible, but i'm beginning to realize that "someone has to have a master list of groups" to prevent name collisions across the network.
i'd hate to be in the position where two distant servers NEWGROUP tomonet.pets.cat at the same time, and then have to figure out whose is canonical, and whose gets merged-in or deleted.
i can't find any info on how fido dealt with this situation in the protocol docs. was there a system in place to prevent name collisions like this?
