@lkh as I said, the idea is simple, getting it working isn't. there are a lot of small working parts that need to be configured right.
like the passwd file needs to have a tab between username and password, where everywhere else a space is enough.
and of course the documentation is spread over at least 20 year old files all over the net.
it's not like many people are enthusiastic about this particular technology (because lets face it, for #usenet#nntp is superior, for email it's #smtp)