Urgent question: forum or newsgroup?

The term which you are referencing on the Adobe NTTP groups its called Authentication. Authentication requires that you fill out a user name, then a password. In Mozilla products you can have password manager if you let it it would require saving username, and password separate from then on then the server polls for username Mozilla products automatically sent. You never saw the request again.

A bit of history from an old and current NNTP user (FidoNet, Usenet, and other private news servers).<br /><br />[Edit: The newsgroups Claudio was asking about] are hosted on forums.macromedia.com. They were in use and very active years before Macromedia added that nasty FuseTalk Web application. No login was ever required to read and post to that server. You can point your newsreader application to that server, download its list of newsgroups, and begin reading/posting in any group. <br /><br />The Web application simply reads from, and posts to the news server - munging code and message headers along the way. But if you want to use the Web access, you do have to use a login. If you never registered software at the former Macromedia site, you would need to create a new login for this. (I don't recommend it.) Or they may have had a separate login, I don't recall, exactly.<br /><br />Adobe has a separate NNTP server, adobeforums.com, that I believe was also around before the WebX application provided HTTP access. It does not require login to read the messages with a newsreader, but if you want to post to that server with a newsreader, you do have to login with an Adobe ID. Most newsreader programs provide a way to do that.<br /><br />Neither of these servers are really considered part of Usenet. While they do make their feeds available to other news servers*, they do not get newsfeeds from other servers. That is why sites such as groups.google.com (formerly dejanews.com) can archive the posts for posterity, but cannot post to these newsgroups.<br /><br />* I /think/ adobeforums.com may have discontinued this practice.<br /><br />That's how it went to the best of my recollection tonight.<br /><br /><Warning: newsgroup .sigfile follows><br /><br />-- <br />Mark A. Boyd<br />Keep-On-Learnin' :)

If you actually want to create an alt newsgroup, you might want to go to http://nntp.aacity.net/ and read up on it.

>want to host a newsgroup, you just link into the automated software

Ok... so if I wanted to host a group on fly fishing lure tying using ONLY silk thread, I could just rent space from my ISP and, once I figured out how to create the link, put my group into the ALT area without anyone's permission

>the .alt domain, where anyone can start anything (and thus the weird sex stuff winds up there)

Yeah... I've seen a lot of ALT groups, including the sex stuff, so I wonder who's paying for the server space for those?

Anyway, I see what you mean about the Adobe domain may be going away on newsgroups... if Adobe isn't going to provide server space, and they own the domain, those links just go away

> how is the entire newsgroup structure supported?

My understanding is that it is supported in the same way that the Internet itself is supported. If you want to host a newsgroup, you just link into the automated software. There are rules for putting up new groups in the .comp domain (and most other domains) ... basically you have to get a petition and/or election thing to get in. The one exception to this is the .alt domain, where anyone can start anything (and thus the weird sex stuff winds up there).

Then there are corporate domains. The .macromedia domain died when the merger happened (Macromedia did not have web forums, only NNTP). Those became .adobe groups (Adobe had both web forums and NNTP domains). That is why I suggested that the .adobe domains might go away.

So basically, any costs related to hosting the domains, with the exception of the corporate ones, are borne by your local ISP, when they decide to offer NNTP services.

(Note: It's been a while since I've been involved in NNTP, so if any of this is changed, or I got it wrong through bad memory, or possibly stupidity, then I apologize.)

ah. :)

>I've wondered whether one reason that they are quitting the NNTP feed is to slow down or stop other peoples use of forum posts in ways that Adobe doesn't intend

that could be too. i've seen myself echoed hundreds of times on photoshop boards i've never heard of because all they do is repackage the adobeforum streams, then, of course, they sell their own advertising on top of it.

> I would think that "something" will still show in the various newsgroup subjects

having popped into the google groups view of the photoshop win forum on occasion - most of the subjects have to do with buying and selling... things...

Adobe pays for the cost of maintaining the forums, including the wage of the Forum Manager. Everything from the forums is set to send out via NNTP. From there it's out in the wilds. What happens once posts leave the Adobe server is not in Adobe's control.

I've wondered whether one reason that they are quitting the NNTP feed is to slow down or stop other peoples use of forum posts in ways that Adobe doesn't intend. Couldn't blame them if so... to pass information into what is no more then advertising sites that try to make money by using other people's content, to me, is inappropriate, but I see it all over, and don't like when that stuff mucks up google results for me.

I don't go to any Adobe newsgroups, but I will GUESS that questions asked there, even after the change here, will be answered as they are now... by others who use newsgroups

Even if the forums here completely disappear from the newsgroup feed, I would think that "something" will still show in the various newsgroup subjects

Speaking of which... I know that this place is supported by Adobe... but just who does it and how is the entire newsgroup structure supported?

I've scanned the groups (have used Free Agent and now Agent to support that company) and there are many thousands... I've never been asked to donate any money, so just can't figure out how the structure is maintained