POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.off-topic : Old threads Server Time
1 Jun 2024 11:34:21 EDT (-0400)
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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 23 Jul 2018 20:54:22
Message: <5b5678be$1@news.povray.org>
On 7/23/2018 8:43 PM, dick balaska wrote:
> On 07/23/2018 07:24 PM, Mike Horvath wrote:
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Now I just need to figure out how to get TB to turn URLs that are longer
>> than one line into proper links.
>>
>> Mike
>>
> 
> Share your secret...
> 
> One of my fantasies is to get the newsgroups to emit an url for a
> message that is less than 200 chars long.
> 
> 

Yeah, that is an annoyance. I have to manually copy and paste those 
types of URLs.


Mike


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From: dick balaska
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 23 Jul 2018 22:17:34
Message: <5b568c3e$1@news.povray.org>
On 07/23/2018 08:54 PM, Mike Horvath wrote:
> On 7/23/2018 8:43 PM, dick balaska wrote:
>> On 07/23/2018 07:24 PM, Mike Horvath wrote:
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> Now I just need to figure out how to get TB to turn URLs that are longer
>>> than one line into proper links.
>>>
>>> Mike
>>>
>>
>> Share your secret...
>>
>> One of my fantasies is to get the newsgroups to emit an url for a
>> message that is less than 200 chars long.
>>
>>
> 
> Yeah, that is an annoyance. I have to manually copy and paste those
> types of URLs.
> 
> 
> Mike

Another weird thing about TB is most times, my new posts don't wrap. I
wondered if other people saw them like that. I assumed no. But when I
reply like this, it is wrapping while I type.

And *another* weird thing, often the povray newsgroup links work even if
the last 3-4 characters wrap.  I always do the tinyurl thing to help my
fellow povers avoid the wrapping nonsense. (which is annoying because it
anonymizes the url. I'm really sending you to pornhub.)

-- 
dik
Rendered 328976 of 330000 (99%)


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 24 Jul 2018 04:38:03
Message: <5b56e56b@news.povray.org>
Am 24.07.2018 um 04:17 schrieb dick balaska:

>>> One of my fantasies is to get the newsgroups to emit an url for a
>>> message that is less than 200 chars long.
...
> And *another* weird thing, often the povray newsgroup links work even if
> the last 3-4 characters wrap.  I always do the tinyurl thing to help my
> fellow povers avoid the wrapping nonsense. (which is annoying because it
> anonymizes the url. I'm really sending you to pornhub.)

The anatomy of a link to a message in the web interface is as follows:

    http://news.povray.org/<GROUP>/message/<ID>/#<ID>

where <GROUP> is the name of the newsgroup, and <ID> is the message ID
(always starting with `%3C` and ending with `%3E`, which represent the
characters `<` and `>`, respectively).

Note that the last portion of the URL is a /fragment/ (recognizable by
the leading `#`), i.e. a specific location within the referenced page,
instructing the browser to scroll down on that page accordingly.

If only the fragment portion is garbled, the web page will still load
fine; the browser will just not scroll down to the fragment because it
can't find it. (As a matter of fact, in practice that's even the
behaviour when the fragment `#<ID>` is present and intact: The
single-message pages do not have any fragments at all.)

This also means that you can strip the fragment portion from the URL
entirely to make it shorter.


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 24 Jul 2018 04:46:31
Message: <5b56e767$1@news.povray.org>
On 7/24/2018 4:38 AM, clipka wrote:
> The anatomy of a link to a message in the web interface is as follows:
> 
>      http://news.povray.org/<GROUP>/message/<ID>/#<ID>
> 
> where <GROUP> is the name of the newsgroup, and <ID> is the message ID
> (always starting with `%3C` and ending with `%3E`, which represent the
> characters `<` and `>`, respectively).

The '<' and '>' are superfluous IMO, but it's probably not worth the 
trouble of removing them.

Who is the webmaster, by the way?


Mike


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 24 Jul 2018 05:14:12
Message: <5b56ede4$1@news.povray.org>
Am 24.07.2018 um 10:46 schrieb Mike Horvath:
> On 7/24/2018 4:38 AM, clipka wrote:
>> The anatomy of a link to a message in the web interface is as follows:
>>
>>      http://news.povray.org/<GROUP>/message/<ID>/#<ID>
>>
>> where <GROUP> is the name of the newsgroup, and <ID> is the message ID
>> (always starting with `%3C` and ending with `%3E`, which represent the
>> characters `<` and `>`, respectively).
> 
> The '<' and '>' are superfluous IMO, but it's probably not worth the
> trouble of removing them.

Technically, the URL scheme could be shortened to

    http://news.povray.org/<ID>

without loss of information, provided that the leading `%3C` and
trailing `%3E` are retained as a pattern by which to recognize message
IDs and differentiate them from other links.

Note however that any change to the URL scheme would break links posted
in existing messages, unless the old URL scheme is also retained for
compatibility.

> Who is the webmaster, by the way?

The closest thing to a webmaster we currently have would be Chris Cason.
He has full access to everything, though I'm not sure whether he'd find
the time or energy to change it.


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From: Chris Cason
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 24 Jul 2018 05:45:09
Message: <5b56f525$1@news.povray.org>
On 24/07/2018 19:14, clipka wrote:
> Technically, the URL scheme could be shortened to
> 
>     http://news.povray.org/<ID>
> 
> without loss of information, provided that the leading `%3C` and
> trailing `%3E` are retained as a pattern by which to recognize message
> IDs and differentiate them from other links.

You mean like this? http://news.povray.org/5b56ede4$1@news.povray.org

It doesn't bring up the thread, but it does at least link to the message.

> The closest thing to a webmaster we currently have would be Chris Cason.
> He has full access to everything, though I'm not sure whether he'd find
> the time or energy to change it.

I try not to touch that code too much as it's legacy (though it works
currently of course) and wasn't written by me. I do fix things from time
to time if it's important, but at some point we will have to face
changing it completely. The NNTP server we are using is a long
discontinued commercial product and I don't feel confident that it will
still work (or even be re-installable) when this server is finally
retired (the hardware is over ten years old now).

While technically I could install a new open-source NNTP server and suck
all the messages across then there's the issue of interfacing it with
the existing forum software and whether any of the features we use in
the commercial server that aren't in an OSS one matter or not. It's been
a long time since I had to tweak it.

What I'm saying basically is that when this machine eventually has to be
replaced and I replace the OS and everything with shiny new bits, it's
likely the NNTP server will not be part of it and we'll migrate
everything to some sort of standard forum software (or just keep the
existing one without the NNTP link).

If enough people feel strongly about it I would attempt to keep the NNTP
server, though.

PS I don't normally read P.O.T, just happened to be subscribed due to
the Moray question that came up recently and so did see this thread.

-- Chris


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From: Chris Cason
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 24 Jul 2018 05:50:27
Message: <5b56f663@news.povray.org>
On 22/07/2018 18:27, Mike Horvath wrote:
> How do I go back and read very old threads in Thunderbird? I know I can 
> use the Web interface, but I prefer the news reader. Thanks.

Note that povray.off-topic is (or was) 'special' in that when we set it
up some 20 years ago we intentionally set the article retention period
to only two weeks (from memory). It was intended to keep things fresh,
avoid using up too much storage, and pretty much replicated how most
NNTP servers worked in those days.

Sometime in the last decade or so I decided the storage issue was no
longer important (new server, more disk space ...) so changed it.
There's possibly still some limit on it but it's certainly not two weeks
like it used to be.

-- Chris


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 24 Jul 2018 11:27:47
Message: <5b574573$1@news.povray.org>
Am 24.07.2018 um 11:45 schrieb Chris Cason:
> On 24/07/2018 19:14, clipka wrote:
>> Technically, the URL scheme could be shortened to
>>
>>     http://news.povray.org/<ID>
>>
>> without loss of information, provided that the leading `%3C` and
>> trailing `%3E` are retained as a pattern by which to recognize message
>> IDs and differentiate them from other links.
> 
> You mean like this? http://news.povray.org/5b56ede4$1@news.povray.org
> 
> It doesn't bring up the thread, but it does at least link to the message.

Um... yeah... I guess ;)

Now what we need is some elegant way to /get/ that link from any given
message.

> What I'm saying basically is that when this machine eventually has to be
> replaced and I replace the OS and everything with shiny new bits, it's
> likely the NNTP server will not be part of it and we'll migrate
> everything to some sort of standard forum software (or just keep the
> existing one without the NNTP link).

You mean the web interface without newsreader access?
That would be pathologically perverse. The only advantage of the current
system over a modern(!) web-based forum system I see is the newsreader
access. (Well, that and the vast archive of existing messages.) The web
front-end of the current system is maximally crappy by today's standards.


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 24 Jul 2018 11:29:39
Message: <5b5745e3$1@news.povray.org>
Am 24.07.2018 um 11:50 schrieb Chris Cason:
> On 22/07/2018 18:27, Mike Horvath wrote:
>> How do I go back and read very old threads in Thunderbird? I know I can 
>> use the Web interface, but I prefer the news reader. Thanks.
> 
> Note that povray.off-topic is (or was) 'special' in that when we set it
> up some 20 years ago we intentionally set the article retention period
> to only two weeks (from memory). It was intended to keep things fresh,
> avoid using up too much storage, and pretty much replicated how most
> NNTP servers worked in those days.
> 
> Sometime in the last decade or so I decided the storage issue was no
> longer important (new server, more disk space ...) so changed it.
> There's possibly still some limit on it but it's certainly not two weeks
> like it used to be.

p.o.t. currently seems to have a retention period of 4 weeks, give or take.


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From: Chris Cason
Subject: Re: Old threads
Date: 24 Jul 2018 11:34:09
Message: <5b5746f1$1@news.povray.org>
On 25/07/2018 01:27, clipka wrote:
> Um... yeah... I guess ;)
> 
> Now what we need is some elegant way to /get/ that link from any given
> message.

From the web view, just right-click on the message ID underneath the
date and copy the link.

-- Chris


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