Doc O'Leary wrote:
Julien ÉLIE wrote:
couldn't we work out a way to gateway
Usenet newsgroups with the Fediverse, using the ActivityPub protocol?
Why? What does it benefit either side? What makes ActivityPub superior
to NNTP? Why must everything be web-ified?
Even if ActivityPub seems to be a protocol defined by W3C, it looks
like a transport system. It should be possible to use it like Usenet
(with dedicated software / without a Web-Browser).
I’ve written a Usenet client. It’s not hard.
As somebody who also wrote a Usenet client, I disagree:
Processing and creation of RFC 5536 conformant articles was hard
(mostly because of MIME).
I’ve thought of using it to
transform messages for use in other apps, but I haven’t found any compelling reason to do so.
Likely this job is better done on the server side.
Merging things in a way that allow Fediverse to access existing Usenet
groups (at least for posting) would be dangerous. The small number of
remaining Usenet users could be overrun by a much larger number of
Fediverse users.
Let's assume such a gateway would work with a new hierarchy in Usenet, "fediverse.*" or something like that, I think the risk is low that
something would be damaged. Usenet server operators can even completely
ignore it, similar to existing hierachies with binaries.
Honestly, the abstract task of transporting data/messages between computers is an over-solved problem. Same is true for message formats. As a result, the main issue that needs to be solved is organizing the vast amounts of
data that we have access to.
The biggest problem is how to handle off-topic and illegal content.
Most social networks have some kind of moderation. Usenet does not
provide that (any more) in most cases.
Currently Usenet flies under the radar of government regulation, most
people are not even aware that it exists. This will change, maybe very
quickly, if the number of users would increase too far.
Social networks do *not* help with that in my experience, because they’re all about a “cult of personality” that is devoid of any sense of netiquette. They have served to disprove
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Arcade#%22Greater_Internet_Fuckwad_Theory%22>
The anonymous users of "open" Usenet servers already behave exactly as
outlined in the link.
For as much trolling and off-topic ranting Usenet has seen, it cannot
compare to the damage done to society by modern social networks. I’m
good with putting in zero effort to keep a barrier between those two
worlds in place.
I fully agree for the commercial social networks.
Their focus on self-expression and emotions (hate in many cases) is part
of the business model and harmful for the general public.
But Fediverse is noncommercial, if I understand it correctly.
Maybe things are different there (or at least not worse compared to
Usenet).
[Xpost reduced, I think the real problems have nothing to do with NNTP]
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)