I also installed "newsd", a kind of private news-server, yesterday. Created a few hierarchies, among which a "gemini.bolla" one, dedicated to the bubble instance I'm running for Italian people.,
Everything it's new and shiny.. and empty, lol, but I'm having lots of fun.
/u/roughnecks/image/667.jpeg
Posted in: s/Usenet
🐦 roughnecks
2025-11-23 · 6 months ago · 👍 norayr, dragfyre, 99thplace
⛵️ kebokyo [...] · Nov 23 at 22:17:
I didn’t know it was that easy to make your own Usenet spaces… I’m tempted to check out Usenet more now owo
🐦 roughnecks [OP] · Nov 24 at 06:43:
Easy, yes, but it looks like newsd alone is prone to abuse of different kinds. You can read more in the issues tracker.. I've asked a few questions.
💎 Vindemiatrix · Nov 24 at 18:15:
I installed a newsreader and subscribed to a newsgroup years ago. All I saw were cigarette and viagra ads, no real discussions or community sadly. Is there somewhere else where that’s not the case?
🐙 norayr · May 17 at 05:43:
what is your top subspace? ah, you mentioned gemini. in theory i think it is possible to ask the group of usenet maintainers to create something like:
net.protocols.gemini and assign to your server.
secondly, do you only have to post by using email? is there an other way to identify and represent yourself?
my understanding is that lemmy groups work like that. there are also guppe groups and tootik groups and they all are compatible, i. e. you mention a "subspace" account and it forwards to all subscribed.
i'd like to try but a bit discouraged that most of activity pub software doesn't support utf usernames.
what are your conclusions now, after some time?
🐦 roughnecks [OP] · May 18 at 21:35:
Hello,
unfortunately "newsd" is completely "private". I mean, is publicly accessible but it's not in sync with any other of the standard NNTP servers.
Even if I wanted, I couldn't serve any new hierarchy on the public servers. I'd have to run something like "INN", which, from my understanding - I read all of the docs - is far too complicated to set up than what I like.
So, yes, my instance is basically on its own and no one is actually using it, but me. There were a couple posts from some friends, but that's it.
My impressions are still positive. I have also installed "TIN" as a terminal client and it's really really well done, especially compared to "slrn" - can recommend it.