Can gnus interface with an online forum

Can gnus interface with an online forum

[Harry Putnam]

I've recently got active in several topical online forums.  And am
finding the interfaces provided are really a clunky way to do
business.

I'm severely spoiled from using the gnus interface for such things.

Is there a way for gnus to interface with these things...  It would
really speed up reading and posting, which when strained thru a web
interface can really be time consuming.

Re: Can gnus interface with an online forum

[Jonas Steverud]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> I've recently got active in several topical online forums.  And am
> finding the interfaces provided are really a clunky way to do
> business.

So have I and I think that web forums are a step twenty years back in
time. The reason I think many like them is that so few nowadays have
their own computer account with email. They have to use a web interface
to email anyway so why not a web interface to the forums themselves?

M-x insert-file RET std-rant.text RET

> Is there a way for gnus to interface with these things...  It would
> really speed up reading and posting, which when strained thru a web
> interface can really be time consuming.

From what I can tell, phpBB and ubbthreads are the two dominant
forum engines. It should be possible to parse the websites á la the
webmail interface.

I don't think I have enough knowledge to implement it but I can sure
beta test it!

(How much wouldn't I love the folks that implemented a nntp or email
backend to the forum system? Just for the admins to plug in and then
for all of us old ones to start to use. I don't think it's hard to
implement from a technical point of view - it is matter of time [as
usual].)

-- 
(        http://hem.bredband.net/steverud/        !     Wei Wu Wei     )
(        Meaning of U2 Lyrics, Roleplaying        !  To Do Without Do  )

Re: Can gnus interface with an online forum

[Raymond Scholz]

· Jonas Steverud <tvrud@bredband.net> wrote:

> From what I can tell, phpBB and ubbthreads are the two dominant
> forum engines. It should be possible to parse the websites á la the
> webmail interface.

See nnultimate.el which comes with Gnus, but it is probably outdated.

Cheers, Ray
-- 
/* Halley */ (Halley's comment.)

Re: Can gnus interface with an online forum

[Chris Green]

Jonas Steverud <tvrud@bredband.net> writes:

> (How much wouldn't I love the folks that implemented a nntp or email
> backend to the forum system? Just for the admins to plug in and then
> for all of us old ones to start to use. I don't think it's hard to
> implement from a technical point of view - it is matter of time [as
> usual].)

Having just fought for that as a solution for an organization
switching from nntp -> web forums...  I don't think there's that much
popular interest from places that aren't heavily geek populated.

A big problem is that people buy webhosting, not machine hosting so
most people won't have the rights to run nntp so even if people have
the motivation, they are usually restricted. Too much of the internet
is being reinvented to run over port 80.
-- 
Chris Green <cmg@dok.org>
Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.

Re: Can gnus interface with an online forum

[Wes Hardaker]

>>>>> On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 22:13:25 -0400, Chris Green <cmg@dok.org> said:

Chris> A big problem is that people buy webhosting, not machine hosting so
Chris> most people won't have the rights to run nntp so even if people have
Chris> the motivation, they are usually restricted. Too much of the internet
Chris> is being reinvented to run over port 80.

You know, the thing I love about forward progress is that you often
start off with a huge, cluttered toolbox full of all sorts of tools
and fasteners.  Forward progress means that over time, you throw your
tools and fasteners out one by one until all you have left is a hammer
and a nail.

-- 
"In the bathtub of history the truth is harder to hold than the soap,
 and much more difficult to find."  -- Terry Pratchett

Re: Can gnus interface with an online forum

[Michael Widerkrantz]

You could try to persuade the maintainers of the web forums to provide
an NNTP entrance to the forums. I found the NNTP gateway Papercut
quite useful in helping with this. You could volunteer in providing
the necessary changes to Papercut to help interface to their web
forum.

Interestingly, Papercut does not interface directly with the HTML
forms, but speaks directly to the backend database.

See:

  http://papercut.org/

I did the necessary changes to Papercut to be able to follow the
discussions in the Swedish Slashdot counterpart, Gnuheter. It's
published here:

  http://hack.org/mc/hacks/papercut-gnuheter-1.1.tar.gz

However, it seems to be broken with the new setup, and I don't seem to
have the time nor the interest to change it. It /is/, however, fairly
easy to hack.

Re: Can gnus interface with an online forum

[Harry Putnam]

Michael Widerkrantz <mc@hack.org> writes:

> You could try to persuade the maintainers of the web forums to provide
> an NNTP entrance to the forums. I found the NNTP gateway Papercut
> quite useful in helping with this. You could volunteer in providing
> the necessary changes to Papercut to help interface to their web
> forum.

That looks like an interesting approach.  Hopefully someone who isn't
as lazy as I am will see this and do the work involved.  I had
visions of a much easier method...

Re: Can gnus interface with an online forum

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Michael Widerkrantz <mc@hack.org> writes:

>   http://papercut.org/

Cool.  Now someone just needs to put up a biiig web-to-nntp gateway.
You could call it Gwene.  :-)

Web forums really suck.  And it's amazing how slowly they progress.
RSS is a step in the right direction, but...

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen