INN over IPFS?

[Jason Evans]

On 12/4/24 2:00 AM, Grant Taylor wrote:
> As has been discussed (at length) on other lists, IPFS is meant for 
> FILES.
>
> As such, just about anything and everything that has Protocol in it's 
> name is not natively compatible with a file system as it's 
> communications mechanism.
>
> You could probably store a traditional news spool on IPFS, but it 
> would almost certainly be inherently single point of update to avoid 
> issues with overview databases and article numbers, etc.
>
> But you probably could get traditional news clients that read from the 
> raw news spool to read articles.  I have no idea how the posting would 
> go because that will almost certainly involve <something> Protocol 
> <maybe something else>.

I was thinking the same thing. I really like the idea of distributed 
news articles but this would mean writing something from scratch. If you 
were to go down this rabbit hole, I would suggest reading the main NNTP 
RFCs to get a good understanding and then go from there. I think you 
would definitely need to introduce a universal article identifier and I 
don't know if the "message-id" could do that.

RFC 977: This is the original specification for NNTP, written by Brian 
Kantor and Phil Lapsley in March 1986. It defines the basic protocol for 
the distribution, inquiry, retrieval, and posting of news articles.
RFC 3977: Released in October 2006, this RFC updates NNTP, codifying 
many of the additions and changes that had been made over the years 
since RFC 977. It defines the protocol in much greater detail and 
includes new commands and capabilities.
RFC 4642: This RFC specifies the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) 
with NNTP via STARTTLS for securing NNTP connections. It was published 
in October 2006 alongside RFC 3977.
RFC 6048: Released in November 2010, this document adds several 
extensions to the LIST command in NNTP, including LIST COUNTS, LIST 
MODERATORS, and LIST MOTD, enhancing the capabilities of the LIST 
command for different types of queries.
RFC 8143: This RFC, published in April 2017, updates the use of TLS with 
NNTP, advocating for the use of implicit TLS (where the connection is 
secured from the start) and providing guidance on how to follow best 
current practices for TLS.

Jason