This proposal comments on nntp rfc 977 and extends nntp rfc 1035 (?) to add more information about metadata as apropriate to the Indymedia Network.

Threading data and expiry.

• We should set up NNTP servers not to expire articles. This can break threading, and trash the historical availability of articles. Not good.

• Out of respect for the wider usenet network however, if we are to hook into usenet, we should designate an area code for indy as a meta entity such as 'indy' or something, and include the header field "Distribution: ind"

• For simplicity sake, our software only should thread to one level deep. This way, if there is no reference field, its top level, otherwise its a comment. comments to comments in tree format get ignored. theres no top level story to tie it to. This precludes email client participation in the nntp feeds, but this is not necessarily a bad thing! (Could we use In-Reply-To as well, which might let email clients reply to top-level stories? -- MJR)

Metadata and mime format.

• Dublin core elements in header IF supported!!!!!!!!! spec
• Many elements missing cos they are redundant!

example:

DC-Title

Name of story (map to Subject)

DC-Subject

Keywords in story (map to Keywords)

DC-Creator

Original author of story (map to From)

DC-Contributor

Poster of story (map to Sender)

DC-Publisher

IMC responsible (map to Organization)

DC-Date

Publish date (map to Date)

DC-Type

See dcmi type vocab (map to X-DC-Type)

DC-Format

Mime type (map to Content-Type)

DC-Identifier

bleah... best leave this one out. (map to Message-Id?)

DC-Source

External publish location or something like that? (map to X-Trace?)

DC-Language

i8n code (map to X-Language)

DC-Relation

ignore this

DC-Coverage

geographic location ie perth (map to X-DC-Coverage)

DC-Rights

Link to licence, or perhaps the CC subtype codes (map to X-DC-Rights)

-- ShayneOneill - 18 Oct 2004

-- MjR - 07 Dec 2004