Ping Sysops - New Subscriber Metrics Since Google Groupocalypse?

[SugarBug]

Would syspos please post a ballpark of the number of new subscribers on
their servers since the google groupocalypse groupsspagheddon
announcement? This information metric will be good for having as part
of Usenet history.

I hope you all are keeping track! My suspicion is that Usenet is
certainly not dead and that subscriber numbers will prove that possibly
thousands still lurk the network.

[rek2 hispagatos]

Post by SugarBug
Would syspos please post a ballpark of the number of new subscribers on
their servers since the google groupocalypse groupsspagheddon
announcement? This information metric will be good for having as part
of Usenet history.
I hope you all are keeping track! My suspicion is that Usenet is
certainly not dead and that subscriber numbers will prove that possibly
thousands still lurk the network.

We had around 9-10 give or take..
But not that we promote our server neither, usually people interested because
they saw our services on mastodon etc and ask for an account and we give it
to them.

Happy Hacking
ReK2

[Adam W.]

Post by SugarBug
Would syspos please post a ballpark of the number of new subscribers on
their servers since the google groupocalypse groupsspagheddon
announcement? This information metric will be good for having as part
of Usenet history.

Here's a bunch of dates in 2023 when new users registered on
news.chmurka.net, since July to give you a scale.

02.07
13.07
18.07
30.07
31.07
10.08
14.08
23.08
25.08
25.08
27.08
30.08
01.09
06.09
11.09
13.09
13.09
13.09
14.09
14.09
22.09
27.10
27.10
29.10
03.11
03.11
05.11
11.11
14.11
21.11
21.11
21.11
24.11
24.11
24.11
26.11
26.11
28.11
28.11
15.12
16.12
16.12
17.12
18.12
21.12
21.12
21.12
25.12
31.12
31.12

[Nigel Reed]

On Mon, 1 Jan 2024 16:53:50 -0600

Post by SugarBug
Would syspos please post a ballpark of the number of new subscribers
on their servers since the google groupocalypse groupsspagheddon
announcement? This information metric will be good for having as part
of Usenet history.
I hope you all are keeping track! My suspicion is that Usenet is
certainly not dead and that subscriber numbers will prove that
possibly thousands still lurk the network.

I had a user join my BBS the other day so they could access the cbm
newsgroups via the fidonet gateway.

Currently I'm trying to figure a way to allow my users full access to
usenet. I was looking at using sln possibly but I'm not convinced I
want users using something like that.

Also thinking of creating a web interface, I'm sure some exist already
but I've not had the bandwidth to delve into it.

[Marco Moock]

Post by Nigel Reed
Also thinking of creating a web interface, I'm sure some exist already
but I've not had the bandwidth to delve into it.

rslight exists.
https://gitlab.com/rslight-public/rocksolid-light

Shouldn't consume too much bandwidth.

[Nigel Reed]

On Sat, 13 Jan 2024 15:55:02 -0600

On Fri, 12 Jan 2024 08:22:30 +0100

Post by Marco Moock

Post by Nigel Reed
Also thinking of creating a web interface, I'm sure some exist
already but I've not had the bandwidth to delve into it.

rslight exists.
https://gitlab.com/rslight-public/rocksolid-light
Shouldn't consume too much bandwidth.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look.

I'd like to look at some alternatives if anyone knows any. I tried php
newsreader but it's not been updated for php 8.1 and I'm not sure I'm
liking their "catalog" system.

[Adam W.]

Post by Nigel Reed
Currently I'm trying to figure a way to allow my users full access to
usenet.

Via the BBS interface or NNRP?

Post by Nigel Reed
I was looking at using sln possibly but I'm not convinced I want users
using something like that.

What's sln in this context?

[Retro Guy]

Post by Adam W.

Post by Nigel Reed
Currently I'm trying to figure a way to allow my users full access to
usenet.

Via the BBS interface or NNRP?

Post by Nigel Reed
I was looking at using sln possibly but I'm not convinced I want users
using something like that.

What's sln in this context?

I'm only guessing, but I believe he is/was considering allowing users to
run slrn from his BBS as a door. He is correctly thinking deeply about
security issues, etc.

[Adam W.]

Post by Retro Guy
I'm only guessing, but I believe he is/was considering allowing users to
run slrn from his BBS as a door. He is correctly thinking deeply about
security issues, etc.

Ok, slrn then :) tin also might be worth considering. A very convenient
text-mode newsreader, I'm using it for ~20 years (earlier I used pine, it
supports NNTP too, but tin is much more convenient to me; I stick to
alpine for email).

[Retro Guy]

Post by Adam W.

Post by Retro Guy
I'm only guessing, but I believe he is/was considering allowing users to
run slrn from his BBS as a door. He is correctly thinking deeply about
security issues, etc.

Ok, slrn then :) tin also might be worth considering. A very convenient
text-mode newsreader, I'm using it for ~20 years (earlier I used pine, it
supports NNTP too, but tin is much more convenient to me; I stick to
alpine for email).

I like both :) I also used pine a long time ago, it was quite good. Now I
use 40tude Dialog on wine because I just love the TINY font when composing
a message that I can't seem to fix!

Things to consider when running a program as a door on a BBS is stuff like
"is there a command to drop to shell?" Is my server protected from a rogue
user?

I messed with lynx for a while on Synchronet, but it seemed too risky. I'm
paranoid.

[Adam W.]

Post by Retro Guy
Things to consider when running a program as a door on a BBS is stuff like
"is there a command to drop to shell?" Is my server protected from a rogue
user?

I think the question should be different. "Let's give this user access to
shell (or assume he gains access to shell from the newsreader). How do I
secure it so he can't do anything bad?".

If I had to do something like this, I'd set up two separate virtual
machines for the task. First one (A) would be available to users and
second one (B) would act as a firewall for A (giving access only to
systems I want users to access, like my news server), and as a permanent
storage, exporting read-only filesystems to A (including rootfs). Only
home directories on A (or some storage for newsreader's data) would be
writable.

This way, even if user gained root access on A, he won't be able to access
the Internet (because it would be blocked on B, and A would only have an
interface to B), and won't be able to modify system files (because rootfs
and other filesystems except home would be mounted read-only, enforced by
B; something like nbd or maybe nfs).

This, plus some ulimits and quotas to prevent the user from disrupting the
service for others, and some kind of automatic auditing / monitoring to
detect unwanted changes.

Post by Retro Guy
I messed with lynx for a while on Synchronet, but it seemed too risky. I'm
paranoid.

It's not paranoia, it's carefulness :) If the system is public then we
should always expect users to try to hack it for some malicious purposes,
or just for fun.