forum SW [forum protocol]

[Unknown W. Brackets]

I used to be the lead developer for SMF, the software mentioned.  I've 
heard talk about this (not much) before, but the trouble is simple.

Too much competition.  If anyone implemented it, it would just be them. 
  Some have to a degree.... it's really not that hard.  What's hard is 
getting everyone to do it the same way.

It would have to be a third party, anyway.  I was never in a position I 
could make it happen, for this reason.

Anyway, the closest thing currently available is RSS (or other XML feeds 
various forum softwares provide)... which you can read in your favorite 
client already.  You just can't respond without going to the actual 
forum software.

NNTP support is available for a few softwares, but it's just not very 
popular.

SMTP/POP is available for some softwares, but the trouble with it being 
out-of-the-box is that it is difficult, on many servers, to configure it 
properly... and worse, authentication is a lot of trouble.  The From 
address is about as trustworthy as your daily lump of spam.

Walter also seems to have a general dislike of generated web content 
(but somehow generated content over protocols other than HTTP are more 
okay...?)  Just a feeling I've gotten from his posts on the subject.

-[Unknown]


> "guest" <guest at dm.com> wrote in message 
> news:eng89a$8qm$1 at digitaldaemon.com...
>> who likes this forum-SW ???
>> (i think it's a PITA)
>>
>> what do you think about a SMF forum (for example)
>> it would be enhance readability and convenience a lot
>>
>> thx
> I believe a while back a few people kicked around the idea of creating a 
> protocol for modern forums, so clients could entirely govern display 
> whichever way they wanted as opposed to using a single interface for web 
> forums.  Anyone interested in experimenting with this? 
> 
>