ietf-nntp FAQ Extension to NNTP

[Dave Barr]

In message <9608221406.AA09228 at sulphur.osf.org>, Rich Salz writes:
>I disagree:  I like the idea of a mechanism for retrieving newsgroup
>metadata, like FAQ's, expiration policy, archive information, etc.

I can agree on the others, but FAQ's aren't newsgroup metadata.  They're
article data.

I see two problems with implementing the FAQ command in the news server:

- news servers are going to vary in their implementation of this command.
(do I check Article-Names?  If so, what names do I return?  Anything
With an Article-Names header, or just standard values? What about
non-standard periodic postings?)  With different implementations,
newsreaders will be encouraged to do some work themselves to "correct"
for past mistakes in implemetations.

- news readers can do this now.  today.  Why invent something new which
isn't really an improvement on what you can do now?


Instead of a FAQ command, I'd like to see a "CHARTER" command.  A simple
extended description (perhaps HTML so it can include hypertext references
to other newsgroups, web sites, and mailboxes.) of the newsgroup,
rules and guidelines for new readers of the group, and the like.
_that_ is newsgroup metadata. The FAQ command is too broad.  Some
newsgroups have dozens of FAQs in them.  (some, like announce groups,
are often largely FAQs)  The charters would probably need to be
centrally maintained, at least for the Big-8.

--Dave