
How to Setup a Unix News Server (1999) - kruhft
http://aplawrence.com/Unixart/newsserver.html
======
floren
It seems like the way news propagates, it should be possible to eliminate bad
posters IF most people on the network are either running their own server or
posting from a friend's server. If spam is popping up, you can look back at
the path it took; if the spammer's feeds don't stop propagating his messages,
then they themselves will probably get disconnected by _their_ feeds. Earlier
this year I participated in a recreation of a UUCP network, booted on
simulated VAX nodes running Unix; we were able to propagate news pretty well,
but the very old software combined with "serial lines over TCP/IP" meant
things tended to drop on and off. I think a Usenet2 that focuses on small
servers propagating to small servers, rather than the giant ISP-run systems we
have today, could be a very neat thing to set up.

~~~
kruhft
Are not today's standard systems similar to those giant run ISPs today of
yesteryear? I agree, everyone should run their own usenet server and build
some sort of mesh network to create a new usenet, I just don't see how the
software would need to be improved much other than in user interface.

What would have to be changed in 'inn' to make it better than what it already
does other than possibly auto-peer finding?

~~~
floren
I don't think inn really needs any improvement; my gripe was with C-News
running on BSD 2.11 :) I've set up INN on a modern system and it's quite
simple.

Personally, I think auto-peering would be terrible for the reason I mentioned
in my previous post. If you have to manually set up a peer, you have some
control over who and what you propagate. If your friend starts posting
garbage, one of your other peers might get pissed off enough to de-peer you--
which I consider a feature! Configuring a peer isn't _difficult_ , but it does
require an explicit human-to-human agreement.

The way things work today, when somebody wants to post on Usenet, they go to
eternal-september.org and get a free account. I think something like 50% of
postings on text newsgroups must originate from eternal-september, and it's
great that they're providing a free service, but things like e-s and the
Google Groups Usenet bridge means that there's no accountability for garbage.
With a $20 Raspberry Pi, though, you can run a totally capable text groups
server, and I think a network like that might have some interesting people on
it. It's also a foot in the door toward people hosting their own content
rather than shoving everything on some random free online service.

~~~
Kadin
I think this is a great idea and I'd love to participate in something like it,
personally.

What Mastodon does for decentralized / less-shitty Twitter, this could do for
Usenet.

~~~
kruhft
I don't see why Usenet couldn't be used as the backbone for a complete social
media platform. Give it a better interface for reading and peer finding
(possibly through a re-interpretation of 'friends') that doesn't require setup
and you have the perfect multi-machine transport system for posts.

------
LV-426
The Easy Way to Set Up a Local News Server (1996)

[http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LG/issue09/newsserver.html](http://www.tldp.org/LDP/LG/issue09/newsserver.html)

~~~
kruhft
Excellent, much more concise.

Now, how to exchange IPs to find upstream/peer servers?

------
kruhft
Relevant: [https://serverfault.com/questions/218747/how-to-setup-a-
nntp...](https://serverfault.com/questions/218747/how-to-setup-a-nntp-server-
for-usenet)

