This is a #lisp machine for network protocols. Initially in pursuit of a social forum focused on link sharing.
as #startups and free projects alike rush to implement some #IETF RFC adding only 'but on the web'. I aim to define a modular protocol server which can support an arbitrary number of network protocols as a network daemon. Our POC in this endeavour will be to build an #NNTP -like protocol daemon which gateways to #IPFS storage. The content held in this system can be consumed by arbitrary clients; a web application presenting #reddit -like services would be just one of many potential clients, although it is likely that Gnus for Emacs will be the first one. https://codeberg.org/fade/callisto
trying out some stuff on the side regarding my #usenet setup. turns out #leafnode doesn't even take more than a second to get all groups from a normal news server. for the #nntp server on my local bbs it is taking the better part of two hours so far, and it's not even finished yet.
I think that's more an issue with the nntp implementation in synchronet though.
Redoing my #introduction again since it's now been a quarter of a year since I first joined Mastodon:
Hello! 👋 I'm an #autistic Gen Z-er born in the mid-2000s, and I go by the name "Quinn" (with he/him pronouns) on most Internet platforms. I'm a fan of #Indieweb, #SmallWeb, #RSS, #NNTP, and the #Fediverse! 😁
The only two social media platforms I currently use are Mastodon and YouTube. I haven't really dabbled with any other social medias at this point.
Came across this really cool service called Feedbase. It turns your #RSS feeds into #NNTP (Newsgroup) posts that you can comment on! It's definitely grown quite a bit in the last year per the statistics on the website.
Feel free to add your own RSS feeds to your blog or newsletter to the service on the website to help grow the service! It's currently hosting 861 feeds, and serving 5,319,339 articles at the time of this post.
Accessing Mastodon and the fediverse via email: https://www.olowe.co/tmp/fedimail.mp4
An experimental #IMAP and #SMTP interface.
I feel like #NNTP#Usenet interface would be more appropriate.
But gotta start somewhere!
Threading and replies work ok too (so far!).
Ha good eyes! :) I have basic receive-only working with Lemmy using a virtual file system interface I wrote (pkg.go.dev/olowe.co/lemmy). Just realised we actually spoke about this a while ago haha (lemmy.sdf.org/post/1035382 )
But synchronising to disk is super inefficient: too many API calls. Should subscribe using ActivityPub proper and store updates received as RFC 5322 messages.
From there we could serve the messages via NNTP. Then, finally, we could use nntpfs(4)
Oh wow thanks! :) One program syncs my home Mastodon timeline, with all replies, to a Maildir. Dovecot serves that over IMAP. Sending involves a custom SMTP server which reads the mail message and creates a post from it.
For Mastodon it was all about converting statuses (toots? Posts?) into RFC 5322 messages. Using the status’ ID as Message-Id in the message header is handy. Mail clients do the heavy lifting of rendering threads thankfully!
If you’re like me and too young to get the name. It’s a funny and kinda sad tbh part of net history.
Also very into the idea of trying to set up an off grid, text only, hyper local, community #LoRa#nntp server in PDX… anyone want to tinker? Is this a thing?
Mostly. I am still trying to get it to work with #usenet, and I still need to get email working.
I'm not sure why I should have a BBS in the first place, but there you go.
It mostly is actually intended as a #nntp server for #ttrpg groups. And it largely works. I can USE it as a server. I just can't pull any new articles from other servers right now, which makes this somewhat less than ideal.
@ericsfraga@kensanata@kyonshi Oh yes, the Great Renaming. I remember it well. I also remember having to change my entire feed file as a result which was a bit of a pain in the ass.
The funny thing is that we actually deal with more individual elements/posts with the modern "firehose theory" designs that completely ignore useful tools like threading, score files, well-designed filters, and all the rest. We are using objectively worse tools to dig through objectively more content.
I actually quite resent this fact.
I have a strong suspicion that if you were to re-implement RFC 822 as a social media protocol and give us a clean, non-Emacs version of GNUS or SLRN to interface with it, you could spawn a renaissance of social media design.
Which means – it will never happen.
I sometimes miss rec.games.mecha from the old days. Flame wars and all. Rec.games.frp.misc, maybe somewhat less so.
The sad state of my quest for a Usenet NNTP GUI client for Linux.
Pan is awesome but the binaries of my Debian Bullseye based distro, Crostini, are ancient and buggy. The Pan project distributes no .deb or other packages. Building from source requires recent versions of tools not in Bullseye.
Very few other GUI options available. Even fewer with .deb or other binaries.
I can't figure how to set up the username and password of my account for the NNTP server and the passowrd of my email account for the outgoing SMTP server. It's not clear whether it's even possible.
With all that #fediverse effervescence, I just rediscovered #irc with #weechat, and realized that #neomutt also support #usenet servers. Going back to the source in a way.
so, if I understand correctly, usenet is a newsgroup hierarchy that uses nntp as protocol ?
> ...and as long as tag hygiene in the fediverse doesn't get a surprising
> boost, I don't even see how the fediverse matches at all the hierarchy
> of groups/topics style NNTP is designed for. It will not blend into
> another well.
> If I understand correctly, Usenet is a newsgroup hierarchy that uses NNTP as protocol?
Correct. There are other newsgroups out there that use NNTP, it's just that Usenet is the oldest (est. 1978) and largest. It started as a "poor man's ARPANET."
Usenet has previously been passed over UUCP, NNTP, air-mailed magnetic tapes (yes, really) and x25 data links. So, I thought #ActivityPub would be worth trying next.
I have complicated feelings regarding #Usenet and #NNTP due to some server-centric aspects.
Granted due to message #gossip the death of any given instance isn't catastrophic and moving is largely unnoticeable, but it still puts some hurdles on usability in adverse conditions.
It still fulfills most of the #AsynchronousCommunication characteristics handily, but that's still a nagging thought, since /most/ instances demand fairly high-uptime to peer and don't allow such instability from peers.