I do think the intent of Usenet and Slashdot are somewhat different -- Usenet discussions can continue for a long time; Slashdot discussions generally are limited to a couple of days.
I believe that the reason that Slashdot discussions only last a few days are precisely because of the enforced web client. It makes it difficult to read older stories.
>Web based forum software offer a lot more features than newsgroups.
The main problem with Web Forums is that they mix up the management of the messages, with the presentation of them to a user.
An NNTP server can successfully manage the meessages database.
An NNTP Client (news reader) can present them to the user in any way which is useful.
If you want better presentation, then improve the _clients_, please don't throw out the NNTP servers.
>It would be nice if the most popular forum software like phpBB, VBulletin etc
Yes, it would be lovely if these actually were NNTP servers instead of web servers!
I've often considered wrting some proxy to tunnel web forums back into an NNTP protocol, so that I could use a sensible reader. But as usual, I've never quite got around to it .:-(
No-one seems to have yet mentioned proprietary lock-in. If you go with Open Source, you have open interfaces and formats, so you have less lock-in to the specific suppliers in the future.
That is 'a good thing' (TM).
Slashdot Mirror
I do think the intent of Usenet and Slashdot are somewhat different -- Usenet discussions can continue for a long time; Slashdot discussions generally are limited to a couple of days.
I believe that the reason that Slashdot discussions only last a few days are precisely because of the enforced web client. It makes it difficult to read older stories.
A similar site already exists: http://www.senderbase.org/
The main problem with Web Forums is that they mix up the management of the messages, with the presentation of them to a user.
An NNTP server can successfully manage the meessages database.
An NNTP Client (news reader) can present them to the user in any way which is useful.
If you want better presentation, then improve the _clients_, please don't throw out the NNTP servers.
>It would be nice if the most popular forum software like phpBB, VBulletin etc
Yes, it would be lovely if these actually were NNTP servers instead of web servers!
I've often considered wrting some proxy to tunnel web forums back into an NNTP protocol, so that I could use a sensible reader. But as usual, I've never quite got around to it . :-(
Wasn't there a Pentium Pro stuck in there too, somewhere (I think) between Pentium and Pentium II ?
No-one seems to have yet mentioned proprietary lock-in. If you go with Open Source, you have open interfaces and formats, so you have less lock-in to the specific suppliers in the future. That is 'a good thing' (TM).