[NNTP] [2501] Reader commands in transit servers and vice-versa

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Russ Allbery said:
>> Issue: if a server advertises itself as transit-only, should it be
>> allowed to implement some of the reader-only commands or not?
> Yes.  As Andrew pointed out, there's no reason to forbid a server from
> doing this, and it's useful for various purposes.
> 
> The question is more whether we want to define a mechanism for the server
> to *tell* a client that it's doing this.

Agreed.

> If we don't, then a compliant
> client will never know it can use the commands, won't use them, and
> therefore they'll be there basically only for debugging and for internal
> purposes.
> 
> Personally, I think that's fine, and better than the complexity of trying
> to define a way of communicating all this information.  I would rather
> take the route of specifying what the *client* should do based on what the
> server says it supports and simply remain mum on the question of what the
> server might do outside of what it's advertising that it does.

Okay, this is a path I can follow (very happily). I'll rewrite this bit
accordingly.

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