Hello,

I'm playing around with RockSolid light and seeing if it is suitable for
a private newsgroup server.

Currently I'm using nntp-forum which is pretty good, but doesn't quote
original articles in replies, and doesn't run with PHP 8.2. RockSolid
seems a more user friendly, complete web front end.

https://github.com/arkanis/nntp-forum

The problem is I have certain requirements that I don't think RockSolid
can meet, and just want to see if there is a way to do it, or if I'm
barking up the wrong tree. Note that this will be accessed over the
internet, not limited to an intranet.

My requirements are

1: READ access is limited to those with an account. I could get Apache
to do authentication, to access the site itself, but this authentication
would be seperate to that which RockSolid would do when the user logs
in. I would like not to have to have the user log in twice. Is there a
way to only allow those with accounts to READ messages or even see
groups? From what I can see, you can read just fine, just not post with
an account.

2: Shared authentication with INN2. I'm not sure how this is done. I'm
running INN on the server, and it has its own authentication mechanism.
How can I get RockSolid to use the same mechanism? I'm a little
confused how this works. I was able to create a user in RockSolid, but
my INN2 server rejected it.

3: Be able to create accounts myself for others. I'd like people to NOT
be able to create their own accounts, and for me to do it manually
somehow. ie, invite only. Could I create entries manually in
/etc/rslight/userconfig ?

I may have more questions later,

Thanks!

On Sat, 29 Jun 2024 04:04:31 -0000 (UTC), Borax Man wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm playing around with RockSolid light and seeing if it is suitable for
> a private newsgroup server.
>
> Currently I'm using nntp-forum which is pretty good, but doesn't quote
> original articles in replies, and doesn't run with PHP 8.2. RockSolid
> seems a more user friendly, complete web front end.
>
> https://github.com/arkanis/nntp-forum
>
> The problem is I have certain requirements that I don't think RockSolid
> can meet, and just want to see if there is a way to do it, or if I'm
> barking up the wrong tree. Note that this will be accessed over the
> internet, not limited to an intranet.
>
> My requirements are
>
> 1: READ access is limited to those with an account. I could get Apache
> to do authentication, to access the site itself, but this authentication
> would be seperate to that which RockSolid would do when the user logs
> in. I would like not to have to have the user log in twice. Is there a
> way to only allow those with accounts to READ messages or even see
> groups? From what I can see, you can read just fine, just not post with
> an account.

It wouldn't be too difficult to add such auth. We could require an account
log in at first access, then redirect any page to login page if not logged
in. Is this what you're looking for?

I can do this if you are serious about giving it a try. I would ask that
you test rslight first to see if you really want to use it, and then let me
know that yes, you would like to now add this log in ability.

> 2: Shared authentication with INN2. I'm not sure how this is done. I'm
> running INN on the server, and it has its own authentication mechanism.
> How can I get RockSolid to use the same mechanism? I'm a little
> confused how this works. I was able to create a user in RockSolid, but
> my INN2 server rejected it.

I already have written a script a few years ago that does this. It is used
in place of inn's 'ckpasswd'. So you would call my script from
'readers.conf' just like you'd call 'ckpasswd'. My script then
authenticates from a rslight user database. (it also works for apache)

This script has been live on news.novabbs.org for years now. I'd be happy
to provide it to you. (It's a php script)

> 3: Be able to create accounts myself for others. I'd like people to NOT
> be able to create their own accounts, and for me to do it manually
> somehow. ie, invite only. Could I create entries manually in
> /etc/rslight/userconfig ?

It's rare that I manually create accounts, so I just use the web interface
to do so. We can write a small script to do it, which is probably a good
idea. I'll work on that over the next few days.

> I may have more questions later,

Feel free to ask :)

On 29.06.2024 um 04:04 Uhr Borax Man wrote:

> 3: Be able to create accounts myself for others. I'd like people to
> NOT be able to create their own accounts, and for me to do it manually
> somehow. ie, invite only. Could I create entries manually in
> /etc/rslight/userconfig ?

I did that by restricting the access to the login form with apache and
created the accounts manually. People need to e-mail me.
Although, a self-registration with admin-confirm would be nice if
someone would like to implement it.

--
kind regards
Marco

Send spam to 1719626671muell@cartoonies.org

On 2024-06-29, Retro Guy <retroguy@novabbs.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Jun 2024 04:04:31 -0000 (UTC), Borax Man wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I'm playing around with RockSolid light and seeing if it is suitable for
>> a private newsgroup server.
>>
>> Currently I'm using nntp-forum which is pretty good, but doesn't quote
>> original articles in replies, and doesn't run with PHP 8.2. RockSolid
>> seems a more user friendly, complete web front end.
>>
>> https://github.com/arkanis/nntp-forum
>>
>> The problem is I have certain requirements that I don't think RockSolid
>> can meet, and just want to see if there is a way to do it, or if I'm
>> barking up the wrong tree. Note that this will be accessed over the
>> internet, not limited to an intranet.
>>
>> My requirements are
>>
>> 1: READ access is limited to those with an account. I could get Apache
>> to do authentication, to access the site itself, but this authentication
>> would be seperate to that which RockSolid would do when the user logs
>> in. I would like not to have to have the user log in twice. Is there a
>> way to only allow those with accounts to READ messages or even see
>> groups? From what I can see, you can read just fine, just not post with
>> an account.
>
> It wouldn't be too difficult to add such auth. We could require an account
> log in at first access, then redirect any page to login page if not logged
> in. Is this what you're looking for?
>
> I can do this if you are serious about giving it a try. I would ask that
> you test rslight first to see if you really want to use it, and then let me
> know that yes, you would like to now add this log in ability.

I am having issues with INN after the server upgrade, so I'm not in a
position to test anything yet. I've had to downgrade to bring the news
server back online, and will have to try again later. I'll come back
when ready and serious, but at the moment at the 'evaluation' stage.
For some reason the upgrade to Debian 12 from 11 resulted in INN2 not
posting anything.

Nevertheless, this software seems like the one of the best options
available at the moment. There is also the one that runs the D Language
Forum, but I'd prefer to keep INN2 as the backend.

>> 2: Shared authentication with INN2. I'm not sure how this is done. I'm
>> running INN on the server, and it has its own authentication mechanism.
>> How can I get RockSolid to use the same mechanism? I'm a little
>> confused how this works. I was able to create a user in RockSolid, but
>> my INN2 server rejected it.
>
> I already have written a script a few years ago that does this. It is used
> in place of inn's 'ckpasswd'. So you would call my script from
> 'readers.conf' just like you'd call 'ckpasswd'. My script then
> authenticates from a rslight user database. (it also works for apache)
>
> This script has been live on news.novabbs.org for years now. I'd be happy
> to provide it to you. (It's a php script)
>

That would be great!

>> 3: Be able to create accounts myself for others. I'd like people to NOT
>> be able to create their own accounts, and for me to do it manually
>> somehow. ie, invite only. Could I create entries manually in
>> /etc/rslight/userconfig ?
>
> It's rare that I manually create accounts, so I just use the web interface
> to do so. We can write a small script to do it, which is probably a good
> idea. I'll work on that over the next few days.
>
>> I may have more questions later,
>

I'm happy to do the script myself