What would it take to get trn on the web?

[nancylebov]

It seems to be technically possible now that Javascript is in common use. It would make long discussions easier to read and navigate. I believe that making long discussions more feasible would make the web a better place, and killfiles might be a noticeable win too.

I've mentioned this, and been told that it wouldn't be that hard to write, but it's too boring.

The question has been raised of whether money would make it interesting, and if so, how much. Any opinions?

(I put this in terms of trn because that's what I was happy with. I don't know whether slrn has a huge advantage, or if it would be much more trouble to write.)

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

slrn has a huge advantage over trn.

First there was rn; with no threading, but killfiles.

Then there was trn, with threading -- and it was basically fit for purpose.

Then there was strn, with threading and scoring, so that rather than using an all-or-nothing killfile to block unwanted content you could use a nuanced score file to raise or lower the interestingness of a given post.

slrn is a from-scratch rewrite with the functionality of strn but a CURSES interface reminiscent of tin (but vastly more powerful). Interestingly, it uses a macro language and graphics library, S-LANG, mostly as an abstraction layer between the newsreader and the terminal.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

What for? For comment threads?

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

This is a very interesting idea. What features specifically do you miss? per-user killfiles? muting of threads? persistent marking of what you've already seen?

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

What I want is a RSS -> NNTP bridge. Then people can use whatever newsreader they want to read any blogs they want.

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

Is there some underlying standard format for comments on the web? Otherwise Javascript-trn would have the problem that you can build it but they won't come. My uninformed impression is that there are scads of different web forum/comment software packages out there, and that they probably aren't very compatible. So j-trn would need some customization for each different web forum/comment package.

There is one web forum I am on where I am told there is a Firefox add-on that will let you killfile things on that forum software only, but I've never gotten motivated enough to find it and install it.

(Note: I probably have no idea what I am talking about here.)

[mneme]

What would you want trn doing? Netnews reader? rss reader?