small decentralized nntp

i've been trying out the "newsgroups" feature in alpine. it's cute and neat and fun to play around in, and it made me think more about how it could be even /more/ intuitive for modern smolnet fans!

big news

/originally/ you'd browse newsgroups like this:

you buy an account on news.example.com

news.example.com is absolutely massive and holds lots of data

you have access to major newsgroups called the "big 8"

you have a .netrc file that holds the groups you're subscribed to.

i didn't like this. it was too awkward, and it felt all "business-y" and coporate and weird. like what, only rich people can host nntp servers? you have to /buy/ a service and make an account?

but after turning on "multiple .newsrc files" and adding a few servers to "nntp server list" in alpine, i found a much more comf way of using newsgroups!!

smol news

this isn't a proposal as much as it is a discovery, but it's comf:

you /join/ a server on news.example.com. no account needed.

news.example.com is small, like a tilde server.

you have a .netrc file for every server you join, seperating them.

if you're worried about spam or high traffick on your nntp server, you could do what the sdf guys did and /only/ allow your newsgroup to be accessed by users who are logged in via ssh!

you can already access a small nntp server right now at news.tilde.club!

tutorial

if you want to connect to the tilde newsgroup via alpine, set the following settings in ~/.pinerc

then in alpine, you can select "folders" and go to tilde news, where you can search for, or get a full list of, the groups on tilde.club!

it's much cleaner than gnus, in my opinion. i tried gnus last year and had a harder time setting it up properly, but maybe i'll give it another shot soon.

that's all. just advertising for stuff i like (which is all i ever do, really)

march 20, 2021