When I was surfing the net I saw one forum have multiple methods on how to access a web forum, including Newsgroup protocol (NNTP).

I wonder if something like that could be done for . Although, it would possibly not have as many features as the web based accesss. It still could be usefull.

Edited to add:
One usefull addition is that some newsgroup clients can be set to refresh at a specified intervel.

Hi Crash.

While this may seem like a good idea, there is no possible way it would work out. I'm afraid that this is one of the few suggestions that I can flat out say will never happen.

As far as I know, newsgroups don't really have a permission system like the forum does. That means that we would not be able to limit participation to only members. When you sign up with the forum, you agree to the Terms of Service, which state that you agree to follow the rules. If people could participate without agreeing to follow the rules, it would basically destroy AD.

We will soon have an RSS Feed setup implemented in the forum, and that will accomplish the update-by-interval that you mentioned. But, RSS Feeds are for reading only.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Mike

NNTP access could be set read only until we find that NTTP can handle passwords, and then if/when we do, set it read only until a valid username and password is given.

Edited to add:

Well, my research has told me otherwise. NNTP can do username/password authentication.

Yeah, news servers allow basic authentication. Our system is so far beyond basic authentication that I can't even begin to describe it to you.

Go to IPB's site and apply for a demo account. Take a look at the complexity of the permissions setup. There is simply no way that a news server could match that level of flexibility without writing a news server from the ground up (throwing the spec out the window, rendering newsreaders useless), and developing a custom-made reader (again throwing out the spec).

News servers can't give some members read permissions for certain forums but deny the ability to post, or give read and posting permission but deny the the ability to start messages, or to flat-out deny reading certain forums, etc. There are no moderation tools. No Moderation Queue. There are no banned word filters. No reported post functions. No mod notes. No calendar. No search feature. No email validation feature. No emoticons. No BBCode. No help system. No easily accessible links to the rules. No way to post without making your email address public. No option to allow advertising (which pays a large percentage of our bills).

I can come up with 100 problems in interfacing a news server with AD.

I stand by my previous comment, and no amount of research or debate will change it. We are not taking a step backward in technology at the expense of what would likely be hundreds of development hours at considerable cost and substantially reduced revenue, just so the forum can be read in a news reader. We're a forum, not a newsgroup.

Once the RSS feeds are up, there is nothing stopping you from writing your own app that will interface with the RSS feeds, and dump them into a locally run (on your own PC) and publicly inaccessible news server if you wish.

I'm going to close this since no amount of debate will change the fact that this isn't going to happen.

Thanks for understanding,

Mike