🚀 go-pugleaf

[Added crosspost to news.software.nntp]

In article <19lefqINNrtv@hpscdf.scd.hp.com>,
schmitz@scd.hp.com (John Schmitz) writes:
> Has anybody considered adding a message of the day capability or
> similar to an NNTP server?  Many times I'd like to make sure
> EVERYBODY reads a message about an important announcement, not just
> the diligent readers of the local announcement group.  Of course,
> all the readers would have to be modified to add the capability, but
> blasting out some text verbatim and pausing should be easy enough.

The protocol already allows this.

200 foo.bar.edu NNTP server ready, posting is permitted
200-I see that the "in-addr.arpa" records for your site are wrong.
200-Please ask your network administrator to fix them within 7 days,
200-or you will be denied access to this server.
200-
200-As from 1 April 1995, this server will no longer carry the baz.*
200-hierarchy.  If you don't like this policy, moan at
200-bigboss@admin.bar.edu.

All you need to do is modify the server to make it send the message,
and modify the client to make it display the message to the user.
Since you need to modify the server and client anyway, I see no need to
modify the protocol.

If you need additional features, such as keeping track of which important
announcements have been seen and which have not, then I suggest using a
local newsgroup for this purpose.  The client software could force the
user to read the relevant group.  Again, no protocol changes needed.

--apb
Alan Barrett, Dept. of Electronic Eng., Univ. of Natal, Durban, South Africa
RFC822: barrett@ee.und.ac.za                    Bang: m2xenix!undeed!barrett