On 2025-08-22 12:47:47 GMT, Zelphir Kaltstahl wrote: > I would expect of a forum, that every page or view is > linkable/bookmarkable/sharable with other people. A unique URL for > each thing in the forum. Each topic, each comment, each user profile, > ... A JS app style of forum, or SPA, or whatever you wanna call it > usually struggles with that, because it requires to take extra > precautions. Similar for all standard browser actions like going back > and forth, right click context menus and so on.
In a sense we have had something like this for a long time. It's called Usenet (nntp), and I am reading this now on Gmane (using Emacs/GNUS). Gmane used to have 'Archived-At:' links to give web URLs to each article, but the overhead got two expensive for it's large scope of mailing lists it shadows. It even allows for its content to be distributed over multiple sites, and individual articles saved locally. The servers can be closed to just its subscribers, and groups can be moderated. And it can be gatewayed in and out of mailing lists. But it backs up these group<>mailing list so you can follow threads and topic back in time without storing all the messages locally on your computer. If this doesn't meet your requirements, it does start with a protocol framework that could be a starting point in developing something better, but allowing to capture past mailing list history, in something that is immediately useful. -- Barry Fishman
