XPost: alt.free.newsservers, news.software.readers   
   From: mariasophia@comprehension.com   
      
   True story. Just happened moments ago. Interesting lessons were learned.   
      
   BACKGROUND:   
   When I moved from UNIX (SunOS/Solaris) to Redhat/Centos long ago, with help   
   on Linux newsgroups (e.g., Marek Novotny was a Godsend) I wrote a working   
   newsreader which incorporated telnet/vi & which allowed for random headers.   
   That telnet:vi newsreader was ported to Windows telent/gVim 15 years ago.   
   I haven't touched it since (other than to clean up charset headers).   
      
   I've been posting to Usenet using various free servers for years using it.   
   Today, I tried my 1st post to a moderated newsgroup & it failed instantly.   
   Why?   
      
   Note: I am not deprecating Jesse's server as I very much appreciate   
         his very kind permission to use his server resources.   
      
   It's just what happened.   
      
   It turns out Jesse Rehmer's server simply doesn't carry that moderated ng   
   (which is perfectly understandable as the misc.taxes ng is more active).   
    Taskbar > Runbox > cmd   
    C:\> telnet news.blueworldhosting.com 119   
         200 nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com InterNetNews NNRP server INN   
         2.8.0 (20250329 snapshot) ready (posting ok)   
    MODE READER   
    LIST ACTIVE misc.taxes   
         215 Newsgroups in form "group high low status"   
         misc.taxes 0000060117 0000000001 y   
         .   
    LIST ACTIVE misc.taxes.moderated   
         215 Newsgroups in form "group high low status"   
         .   
    LIST MODERATORS   
         215 Newsgroup moderators in form "group-pattern:submission-template"   
         aioe.*:%s-newsgroup@aioe.org   
         fido7.*:%s@fido7.org   
         ffm.*:%s@moderators.arcornews.de   
         fj.*:%s@moderators.fj-news.org   
         medlux.*:%s@news.medlux.ru   
         nl.*:%s@nl.news-admin.org   
         perl.*:news-moderator-%s@perl.org   
         relcom.*:%s@moderators.relcom.ru   
         si.*:%s@arnes.si   
         ukr.*:%s@sita.kiev.ua   
         *:%s@moderators.isc.org   
         .   
    QUIT   
      
   Drat. Blueworld does not carry the misc.taxes.moderated newsgroup, which is   
   perfectly understandable as it has a lower volume than misc.taxes does.   
      
   If Blueworld did carry misc.taxes.moderated then it would have forwarded   
   moderated posts to misc-taxes-moderated@moderators.isc.org but since the   
   low-activity moderated tax group is not carried, this rule never applies.   
      
   You might not see this 'cuz a "real" newsreader would likely have emailed   
   the moderator directly which requires connecting to a working MAPI mail   
   client, which my homegrown newsreader never thought it would need to do.   
      
   Let's run another test, only with an arbitrarily different free server.   
   Let's pick Ivo Gandolfo's server as the 1st pick of free nntp servers.   
      
    Taskbar > Runbox > cmd   
    C:\> telnet paganini.bofh.team 119   
         200 paganini.bofh.team InterNetNews NNRP server INN 2.6.4 ready   
         (posting ok)   
    MODE READER   
    LIST ACTIVE misc.taxes   
         215 Newsgroups in form "group high low status"   
         misc.taxes 0000060041 0000059279 y   
         .   
    LIST ACTIVE misc.taxes.moderated   
         215 Newsgroups in form "group high low status"   
         misc.taxes.moderated 0000061574 0000002149 m   
         .   
    LIST MODERATORS   
         215 Newsgroup moderators in form "group-pattern:submission-template"   
         fido7.*:%s@fido7.ru   
         ffm.*:%s@moderators.arcornews.de   
         fj.*:%s@moderators.fj-news.org   
         medlux.*:%s@news.medlux.ru   
         nl.*:%s@nl.news-admin.org   
         perl.*:news-moderator-%s@perl.org   
         relcom.*:%s@moderators.relcom.ru   
         si.*:%s@arnes.si   
         ukr.*:%s@sita.kiev.ua   
         *:%s@moderators.isc.org   
         .   
    QUIT   
      
   Woo hoo!   
      
   Paganini *does* carry misc.taxes.moderated, as shown by the line:   
    misc.taxes.moderated 0000061574 0000002149 m   
   The trailing "m" means the group is moderated.   
      
   And because paganini has the wildcard rule:   
    *:%s@moderators.isc.org   
   it automatically expands the group name & forwards all moderated posts to:   
    misc-taxes-moderated@moderators.isc.org   
      
   Whew!   
      
   No MAPI mail client needed. No local mailer. No coding needed! No fuss.   
      
   Conclusion on the perils of writing your own home-grown newsreader...   
   a. The failure wasn't Blueworld's fault as it simply doesn't carry   
      misc.taxes.moderated, so there was no NNTP path for my post.   
      
   b. A more full-featured newsreader would likely have fallen back to sending   
      the article via email to the moderator, but my home-grown setup doesn't   
      communicate with a local mail client, so that path wasn't available.   
      
   c. Luckily, the next server I randomly tested (paganini.bofh.team) *does*   
      carry misc.taxes.moderated & handles the forwarding to the moderator   
      via email automatically, so the post appears to have gone through.   
      
   I'll know in a couple of days if that post went through though, but I   
   figured I'd write up this one lesson in the perils of writing a newsreader.   
      
   Have any of the readers who see this written their own newsreader?   
   How did you handle sending to moderated newsgroups with email fallback?   
      
   How does a NORMAL newsreader handle this fallback to email for moderation?   
   --   
   Usenet allows old friends to discuss unique topics of mutual interest.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)