So is this a post against using HTML beacause you really prefer NNTP or is it because you have employees "stealing" from you?
You miss the point - read his post again.
I'm with Zombie on this topic. Here is why:
I "have to" read 4 web-bbs's currently just
to stay informed about what happens in WB
(agw, ien, wb.de) and AH - when playnet opens
theirs it will be 5 boards
I have to read all those boards online, which
means that it is a time consuming task, no
matter if I do it in my lunch break or at
home (or -godforbid- during my work).
With NNTP you have the possibility to
download the groups you want to read at
once (either only the headers or the full
articles) and read them when you have time
to.
The most important feature those web boards
are missing is
Threading,
Filtering and
being able to mark articles read.
On agw, eg., there is a topic (not a thread,
mind you) that has about 110 postings in
it; it's spread over 3 pages and you really
have to go at least through the whole last
page to identify the posting you have read
the last time and see what posting are new.
The arguments for NNTP are well known (better
performance, threading, filtering, off-line,
etc). Here are some arguments for web bbs's:
- you can place ads on a web board
- it's soooooo easy (well this is also valid for NNTP but who cares)
- most companies don't allow any other access
than on the WWW port
Judging those arguments, the only one that
is really valid is no. 1 (you can set up
an NNTP server on any given port, also on
80). This rises the question, why should
I have ads on a web bbs? Simple answer from
the company: to generate revenue by
ad-impressions.
Simple answer from a user's perspective:
what ads? I use the webwasher or any other
filtering programm so I don't see them
anyway (iEN lately tried to fool webwasher
but all you had to do is up-date the
filter list with
www.gamehub.net 
).
So what would be a feasable solution?
Use a web-bbs with an NNTP interface! Those
who want to use the "click-me" interface (aka
WWW) would not have threading but they would
be happy. The company would be happy because
they could have their ad impressions. The
"more advanced" customers would be happy
because they had their NNTP.
Just my oppinion anyway,
Dancer out.
