Newsgrouper Update

[Colin Macleod]

I've made some updates to Newsgrouper, my web interface to Usenet.
It's now at https://newsgrouper.org.uk and the old url will redirect there.

The display of a thread is redesigned. If Javascript is enabled you can
navigate a thread with the keyboard:
- RightArrow will jump to the next message in the thread.
- LeftArrow will jump to the previous message in the thread.
- 'n' will jump to the next New message in the thread.
- 'v' will View the raw source of the current message.

There is a facility to block all posts from annoying people, like the
traditional "kill file", see "Block Poster" at the bottom of the article
display and the general "Preferences".

At the bottom of the list of threads for a group there is now a
"Find Articles" button which can search through 20 years worth of posts
for a specific string (or glob pattern) in the Subject or From field.

[Denez Van Dyck]

Post by Colin Macleod
I've made some updates to Newsgrouper, my web interface to Usenet.
It's now at https://newsgrouper.org.uk and the old url will redirect there.

Good news: non-ASCII characters are now perfectly decoded. Thanks for
that!

However, I've noticed another problem when a URL is between two angle
brackets, like this:

<https://gemini.oxydable.fr>

The URL doesn't appear in Newsgrouper. I presume this is linked to the
use of angle brackets in the HTML code. It should be possible to replace
them with the corresponding HTML entities : &lt; and &gt; ...

I don't know whether this presentation of URLs is used on
English-speaking groups, but it is common on the fr.* hierarchy.

[Colin Macleod]

Post by Denez Van Dyck

Post by Colin Macleod
I've made some updates to Newsgrouper, my web interface to Usenet.
It's now at https://newsgrouper.org.uk and the old url will redirect there.

Good news: non-ASCII characters are now perfectly decoded. Thanks for
that!
However, I've noticed another problem when a URL is between two angle
<https://gemini.oxydable.fr>

Thanks for the report, I believe I've fixed this now.

It was rather odd. I was already encoding html entities, but it seems
that this was undone because I used "srcdoc" to load the article html
into an iframe. I've made a workaround now.

[Denez Van Dyck]

Post by Colin Macleod
Thanks for the report, I believe I've fixed this now.
It was rather odd. I was already encoding html entities, but it seems
that this was undone because I used "srcdoc" to load the article html
into an iframe. I've made a workaround now.

Indeed, it works now. That was quick!

I think it's time for me to subscribe to Newsgrouper...

[D]

Post by Colin Macleod
I've made some updates to Newsgrouper, my web interface to Usenet.
It's now at https://newsgrouper.org.uk and the old url will redirect there.
The display of a thread is redesigned. If Javascript is enabled you can
- RightArrow will jump to the next message in the thread.
- LeftArrow will jump to the previous message in the thread.
- 'n' will jump to the next New message in the thread.
- 'v' will View the raw source of the current message.
There is a facility to block all posts from annoying people, like the
traditional "kill file", see "Block Poster" at the bottom of the article
display and the general "Preferences".
At the bottom of the list of threads for a group there is now a
"Find Articles" button which can search through 20 years worth of posts
for a specific string (or glob pattern) in the Subject or From field.

very nice!

(using Tor Browser 14.0)
https://newsgrouper.org.uk

Post by Colin Macleod
...
https://newsgrouper.org.uk/news.software.readers
...

e.g. this article . . .

Post by Colin Macleod
Newsgrouper Update Colin Macleod 24 Oct 2 1
https://newsgrouper.org.uk/news.software.readers/36312
From: Colin Macleod
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Newsgrouper Update
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:07:49 GMT
...
Path: eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!newsgrouper.org.uk!.POSTED!not-for-mail
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Newsgrouper Update
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:07:49 GMT
Injection-Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2024 15:07:49 GMT
User-Agent: Newsgrouper/0.6.1
Xref: news.eternal-september.org news.software.readers:36312

[end quoted plain text]

https://newsgrouper.org.uk/

Post by Colin Macleod
Newsgrouper
A web interface to Usenet discussion groups (no binaries)
Find groups to read
In the Group Name In the Description
Find an article by message-id

searched for several random message-ids copied from "blueworld" server,
starting with the oldest first . . . (twenty-one years ago, 2003/07/01)

Post by Colin Macleod
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Re: Let's Start a XanaNews Thread
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 01:20:42 +0100

newsgrouper search returned "article not found". . .

Post by Colin Macleod
Article Not Found.

tested several more recent articles . . .

Post by Colin Macleod
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Newsgrouper - a web interface to Usenet (text only)
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 24 22:01:55 GMT

again, newsgrouper search shows "article not found". . .

Post by Colin Macleod
Article Not Found.

otherwise, it's a user-friendly web interface and includes 1000s
more newsgroups than novabbs' "rocksolid light" (477 newsgroups);

also, it was easy to block a known troll in another newsgroup by
opening one of their articles and clicking "block poster" at the
bottom of the window, then refresh article list . . . and viola,
the preferences shows the entry and it really works ... awesome!

[morena]

Post by D
newsgrouper search returned "article not found". . .

Newsgrouper's source is Eternal September which currently does not have
older articles due to some technical issues.
So currently I assume you will not find anything older there.

[D]

Post by morena

Post by D
newsgrouper search returned "article not found". . .

Newsgrouper's source is Eternal September which currently does not have
older articles due to some technical issues.
So currently I assume you will not find anything older there.

(using Tor Browser 14.0)
https://newsgrouper.org.uk/news.software.readers/search

Post by morena
ind articles in news.software.readers
In the Subject In the From (Author) In the References

i tried "find articles" in this group's search window using default

Post by morena
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Newsgrouper - a web interface to Usenet (text only)
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 24 22:01:55 GMT

tried "find articles" again for a randomly-selected older article

Post by morena
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: [Dialog] Browsing through groups marks first message read
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 19:46:09 +0100

newsgrouper seems like dejanews v2.0! (hopefully the troll farm bosses
don't end up doing to newsgrouper what they so ruthlessly did to deja)

[D]

Post by morena

Post by D
newsgrouper search returned "article not found". . .

Newsgrouper's source is Eternal September which currently does not have
older articles due to some technical issues.
So currently I assume you will not find anything older there.

p.s.

that oldest message-id <***@ID-66775.user.dfncis.de> copied
from the "blueworld" server (dated 2003/07/01, twenty-one years ago)
was found in https://newsgrouper.org.uk/news.software.readers/search
by searching for the article subject "let's start a xananews thread":

[begin quoted plain text]

Post by morena
Path: nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com!!news.usenet.blueworldhosting.com!spool1.usenet.blueworldhosting.com!injection-bsd1!not-for-mail
Newsgroups: news.software.readers
Subject: Re: Let's Start a XanaNews Thread
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 01:20:42 +0100
Organization: Home
Lines: 31
NNTP-Posting-Host: host217-41-46-209.in-addr.btopenworld.com (217.41.46.209)
X-Trace: fu-berlin.de 1057019235 33108126 217.41.46.209 (16 [66775])
X-Orig-Path: girvan.news.server!not-for-mail
User-Agent: Xnews/06.02.16
X-Posting-Agent: Hamster/2.0.2.1
X-KorrNews: Used
Xref: nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com news.software.readers:2949

Post by D
Who's using it and what are the good and bad points? I've been
playing with it this evening and am fairly impressed at first
sight. I've not investigated its multi server binary functionality
yet...

Nor me!
I'm a committed Xnews user but I'm aware that Luu has pretty much
given up on Xnews development.
I took a look at Dialog and was impressed but there was something
about it I just didn't like (I have no idea what it was - it just
didn't *feel* right).
Xananews, on the other hand, looks and feels like a winner. I'm
sticking with Xnews for the time being but I think that Xananews may
well become my newsreader of choice. (I'll not commit myself until it
lets me set up separate folders to allow me to gather various
subscribed newsgroups under generic headings - one of the things that
Xnews does really well.)
Other than that, I have no criticisms - an excellent program.
Cheers,
Allan.
--
Please use the "Reply To" address for emails

[end quoted plain text]

it seems certain that google isn't about to let go of their dejanews
cash cow any time soon, so this type of web interface "piggybacking"
on popular open newsservers could become more of a trend, as perhaps
more newsservers and similar "web2news" sites may share the increase
in user demand for such convenience in the wake of google's farewell

smartphone users, and less tech-savvy, are especially hamstrung from
usenet participation . . . the novabbs "rocksolid light" works great
but is limited to select newsgroups; whereas these major newsservers
include tens of thousands of newsgroups, this is sure to get noticed

[Colin Macleod]

Post by D

Post by morena

Post by D
newsgrouper search returned "article not found". . .

Newsgrouper's source is Eternal September which currently does not have
older articles due to some technical issues.
So currently I assume you will not find anything older there.

p.s.
from the "blueworld" server (dated 2003/07/01, twenty-one years ago)
was found in https://newsgrouper.org.uk/news.software.readers/search

Yes, I had switched the "Find Articles" search to use blueworldhosting,
which has around 20 years of history. I have now switched the message-id
search to use this as well, and it now does find the examples you gave.

Thanks for your encouraging comments!

[Colin Macleod]

Post by Colin Macleod
I've made some updates to Newsgrouper, my web interface to Usenet.
It's now at https://newsgrouper.org.uk and the old url will redirect there.

I've now made the source code available at:
https://chiselapp.com/user/cmacleod/repository/newsgrouper/home

It's still in fairly rough form but may be of interest to someone.

[Samuel Söderberg]

On 24 Oct 2024 at 16:07:49 CEST, "Colin Macleod"

Post by Colin Macleod
I've made some updates to Newsgrouper, my web interface to Usenet.
It's now at https://newsgrouper.org.uk and the old url will redirect there.
The display of a thread is redesigned. If Javascript is enabled you can
- RightArrow will jump to the next message in the thread.
- LeftArrow will jump to the previous message in the thread.
- 'n' will jump to the next New message in the thread.
- 'v' will View the raw source of the current message.
There is a facility to block all posts from annoying people, like the
traditional "kill file", see "Block Poster" at the bottom of the article
display and the general "Preferences".
At the bottom of the list of threads for a group there is now a
"Find Articles" button which can search through 20 years worth of posts
for a specific string (or glob pattern) in the Subject or From field.

Amazing work!

What if we could have your frontend as an option @ the site of
Eternal-September... Google Groups resurrected...

[Colin Macleod]

Post by Samuel Söderberg
Amazing work!
Eternal-September... Google Groups resurrected...

Thanks for the encouragement.

A few months ago Ray Banana, the E-S admin, was experimenting with
Rocksolid Light, as used at https://www.novabbs.com with a view to
providing that as a web front-end to E-S. I don't know what the state
of that project is now.

(I would cross-post this to eternal-september.support but crossposting
is one thing I don't support yet in Newsgrouper :-( ).

[Retro Guy]

Post by Colin Macleod

Post by Samuel Söderberg
Amazing work!
Eternal-September... Google Groups resurrected...

Thanks for the encouragement.
A few months ago Ray Banana, the E-S admin, was experimenting with
Rocksolid Light, as used at https://www.novabbs.com with a view to
providing that as a web front-end to E-S. I don't know what the state
of that project is now.

I don't know either. I would assume trying to serve thousands of groups
with Rocksolid Light would be quite difficult, as that is not what it is
designed to do. RSLight is really meant as a forum style interface to a
"selection" of groups. This is working well for my users, who are mostly
not really Usenet savvy, but like the forum style. (They don't know it
contains a full nnrpd backend :)

Newsgrouper seems designed to handle any number of groups, and is suited
to people already familiar with Usenet, who will appreciate the
familiarity with the structure.

I feel the two packages (rslight and Newsgrouper) and designed for
different audiences, which is a good thing :)

[D]

Post by Samuel Söderberg
On 24 Oct 2024 at 16:07:49 CEST, "Colin Macleod"

Post by Colin Macleod
I've made some updates to Newsgrouper, my web interface to Usenet.
It's now at https://newsgrouper.org.uk and the old url will redirect there.
The display of a thread is redesigned. If Javascript is enabled you can
- RightArrow will jump to the next message in the thread.
- LeftArrow will jump to the previous message in the thread.
- 'n' will jump to the next New message in the thread.
- 'v' will View the raw source of the current message.
There is a facility to block all posts from annoying people, like the
traditional "kill file", see "Block Poster" at the bottom of the article
display and the general "Preferences".
At the bottom of the list of threads for a group there is now a
"Find Articles" button which can search through 20 years worth of posts
for a specific string (or glob pattern) in the Subject or From field.

snip

Post by Samuel Söderberg
Google Groups resurrected...

no... it's far more like deja news; user friendly, "from" filters,
complete (untruncated) raw message source displayed in monospaced
text at the click of a button, and newsgrouper is also far better
because it is using major open news servers (e-s, blueworld), and
the sysadmin made this source code available for public scrutiny:

(using Tor Browser 14.0.1)
https://chiselapp.com/user/cmacleod/repository/newsgrouper/home

Post by Samuel Söderberg
Newsgrouper - a web interface to usenet newsgroups
This is the Tcl code used to run my site https://newsgrouper.org.uk.
It is not currently in a form where it would be very easy for someone
else to install, but I'm making it available just in case anyone is
interested. It has only been tested on Debian 12.
I have moved confidential parameters like login credentials for the
usenet server into config files, and I supply only dummy sample
versions here. But there are many other things hard-coded which
ideally would be configurable.
Prerequisites
Tcl 9.0
Tk (only needed for the user_admin program)
Tcllib
Tclhttpd
TclTls (if https support is wanted)
Retcl (Tcl interface to Redis)
Tclsqlite (Tcl interface to sqlite)
Redis (any of the compatible forks should also work but I have not
tested this)
NNTP access to a usenet server
X-Face support needs the uncompface program (for Debian this is
part of the compface package)
Downloads
You can download the code from The Download Page.
https://chiselapp.com/user/cmacleod/repository/newsgrouper/download
Architecture
Newsgrouper loads news headers and articles on-demand from one or
more usenet servers. These are then cached locally for configurable
times. This allows it to offer the full range of groups available
on the server without needing huge local resources.
The web server used here is Tclhttpd, which is itself implemented
in Tcl. It is customised for this purpose by loading more Tcl code,
principally server/news_code.tcl which generates all the Newsgrouper
web pages on demand.
Communication with the usenet server(s) is delegated to separate
newsgetter processes. Each of these opens one NNTP connection to a
usenet server. Most servers will permit up to 4 concurrent
connections per login, so up to 4 newsgetter processes can be run
per server.
There is also a newsutility process, currently its only job is to
generate PNG images from X-Face headers.
Coordination of these processes and caching of their results is
done through Redis, using the DisTcl system - see
https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/DisTcl for more info about this.
User login info, both for registered users and guests, is kept in
a single sqlite table. A utility program user_admin can be used to
initialise the database and to add registered users.
Other user-specific info like their preferences and which groups
they read is kept in Redis.
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Colin G. Macleod
...

[end quoted plain text]