From: coyo@darkdna.net   
      
   If it might be possible to come up with an alternative peering protocol   
   between Usenet servers besides NNTP. NNTP is based on email, which is   
   purely a text-based protocol. As a result, binaries need to be encoded   
   as text, first, because it can be transmitted.   
      
   As things like MsgPack, ProtoBuf and ZeroMQ become increasingly popular,   
   I wonder if an alternative protocol to NNTP would ever catch on and gain   
   traction? It seems possible, since Usenet is just a loose decentralized   
   federation between autonomous systems. Peering is however the two   
   parties decide on doing it, no?   
      
   Something for me to chew on. Between Usenet and XMPP, an open Internet   
   forum, social network and chat system is not out of reach. The more   
   people rely on things like faceboogle, the more closed and inaccessible   
   the Internet as a whole becomes.   
      
   If people went back to Usenet from Faceboogle and the like, went back   
   even further than OStatus or Friendica or Diaspora, but back to Usenet,   
   it would be good for the Internet, though maybe not so good for the Web.   
      
   A unified XMPP+NNTP+OSim protocol would be pretty cool. However, I   
   suspect it won't catch on unless I'm already considered in the big   
   leagues, among such august company as Tim Berners-Lee, Richard Stallman,   
   Linux Torvalds, Bruce Schneier, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.   
      
   But considering how popular Telehash, BitTorrent, Bitcoin, and similar   
   protocols already are, as well as the increasing popularity of OTR,   
   ZeroMQ, Protobuf and MsgPack, I suspect I wouldn't be stretching that far.   
      
   Anyway, something to chew on.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)