No NNTP??? :(

Let me for once and for all lay all myths with regard to missing features like attachments and message formatting for NNTP to rest. NNTP has exactly the same message format as email (ARPANET mail). Anything you can do in email, formatting, attachments, flowed line width, quoting, etc., you can do in NNTP.
The original RFC for the NNTP message format is RFC 850. The following quote is directly from that RFC:

> Therefore, the
rule is adopted that all USENET news articles must be
formatted as valid ARPANET mail messages, according to the
ARPANET standard RFC 822.

This also means there is no special handling required. You can just grab an NNTP message from the news server queue and drop it in the mail interface inbox and vice versa. And if there are additional requirements with regard to user authentication and spam filtering, just make NNTP read-only. Any NNTP reader that is worth its salt has a 'Reply by email' option so people can read by NNTP and reply by email.

These are all well understood, trivial processes and best practices that have been in place for about 2 decades all over the internet. I find it worrying that Adobe is willing to antagonize a part of its user-base, arguably the users with the answers instead of the questions, while such trivial workarounds are available.

Jim, I heartily disagree with you. Having participated at many software application forums that use NNTP, I'm sorry to hear that Adobe's new forum software will no longer allow forum postings using NNTP.

I suspect that the number of full quotation posts will NOT go down appreciably and may in fact increase. I think most of those who usually reply with full quotation simply may not know how to reply without quotation, or were never advised to limit the number of full quotation replies that they post.

Using NNTP, I access many discussion forums simply by reading the posts collected via Outlook Express without making replies. When I do feel moved to reply, I simply send my response. However, on occation I do sometimes reply with full quotation, when it seems appropriate. Removing NNTP access to forums will do little to enforce a reduction in full quotation replies.

Being new to the Adobe Forums, I guess I won't bother asking how to access the forums via NNTP. If the decision were in my hands, I would continue formum access via NNTP. I find NNTP forum access to a valuable tool in keeping up on many, many subjects.

Just my $0.02.

Reminds me of this story, <a href="http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/03/sheriffs-lawsuit-says-craiglist-largest-source-of-prostitution.html>"Sheriff sues Craigslist as 'largest source' of prostitution"</a>

as if it won't force it underground instead of out in the open where the police can gather evidence and go after posters.

And as if newsgroups are the only place that child porn exists.

many large companies (comcast) are dropping support for newsgroups because of misguided lawmakers - ex. ny atty general threatening to sue becuase of child porn, as if that's all that goes on in newsgroups.

Well... they do have attachments... in a way. Have you heard of base64 encoding. That's where news groups get off having pictures and movies in a posting. There are rules. But, it works in a fashion.

That is also a way for viruses to get around.

> But NNTP has no formatting and no attachments

And way too much spam, last time I was there.

I too like NNTP, but admit that it has lost. The world has gone to web forums without my permission.

Had NNTP evolved, it would still be viable. But NNTP has no formatting and no attachments, and the majority of NNTP newsreaders don't follow basic common sense.

So I hate to see it go, but hope that Adobe will do a better job of a web forum than most. The majority of web forums are outright poor in appearance and usability, and are no improvement over the NNTP protocol that hasn't changed significantly in 15 years.

Edward

All the companies I see just flat out don't allow news groups nor chat. It is not secured protocols. Most don't even let pop3 and smtp beyond their firewalls. Most support that's available by companies uses the web to setup their own form of chat and "see your computer screen"... because most companies allow port 80 to go out. Many companies use the web for interbusiness these daze. They do ensure nothing dangerous comes back, such as activex or packages of most kinds. So, I'm not sure how NNTP is going to come across with everyone in general.