Re: ietf-nntp Initial draft FINALLY available

[Ramanan <[e-mail]>]

Stan:

> > >            12.4 NEWNEWS
> > 
> > Do we have to keep this?  It really doesn't work in a practical way in some 
> > of the widely used NNTP implementations.
> 
> 
> Any other opinions about this.

NEWNEWS is used by sites using pull/slurp. Most ISPs who use INN have
some concerns allowing the NEWNEWS command. INN itself being a heavy
resource utilizing process, the way NEWNEWS is implemented causes several
thousand directory lookups and history file lookups. This adds to the
burden on the machine. Most people disable NEWNEWS if they dont support
pull/feed capabilities. 

Causing this command to be not there in RFC would force you to come up
with something else that will support pull feeders ? Or may be it is 
time for pull-feed software developers to use a better slurping mechanism
and they can help contribute to the RFC. Or even better, that you could
have it for now and we can have more discussion on this before removing
or keeping this command.

But I know that some big News providers do support NEWNEWS. I dont support
it yet, but have been thinking of supporting it due to an increasing
number of requests for pull feeds.

Regards,
--Ramanan