TDPL a bad idea?

[Nick Sabalausky]

"BCS" <none at anon.com> wrote in message 
news:a6268fffef38cc745343a814d6 at news.digitalmars.com...
> Hello Gareth,
>
>
>> I actually like the newsgroup format (more than modern web forums) now
>> that I've gone to the trouble of setting up Thunderbrid but I guess
>> they did put me off initially.
>>

I had the same exact experience. Initially put off, but then learned to love 
it.


>> Well, that's one data point for you.
>>
>
> I've said it before, but I might as well say it again; I'm of the same 
> opinion, News groups are my first choice for online communities. I think 
> the primary reasons for this is that it 1) doesn't require me to keep 
> hitting refresh, 2) works offline and 3) allows me to use whatever 
> interface I darn well choose.
>

As much as I love newsgroups, and agree with their definite advanages, there 
are a few areas where I think web forums do still have an advantage:

- Private messaging without the bother of first having to request or offer a 
real email address, and then post it publicly.

- Actual user accounts. Anonymous reading/posting is great, and many web 
forums can still do that anyway, but they can also have real user accounts 
to, for example, prevent posters from pretending to be someone else. I 
rather like user profiles, too (although they're certainly not strictly 
necessary).

- Anonymous posting restricted by CAPTCHA.

- No standard URI system for individual newsgroup threads or postings. Best 
that can be done is to go find a web-reader, search for the post you were 
already on in your regular newsgroup reader, and post that link, then the 
people who come across it have to look at it and then search for the same 
post in their own reader (or put up with using something other than their 
normal reader). With web forums, it's easy to have plain old URL bookmarks 
for each post.

- A lot of times when people point others to a newsgroup, they fail to 
mention what server it's on.

Many of the above things can't be done with the current newsgroup protocol.