Re: [Pan-users] Feature request: merge groups.

[Duncan]

On Mon 06 Jan 2003 03:27, Bobby D. Bryant posted as excerpted below:
> What is the feasibility (and desirability) of having a newsreader
> support "virtual" newsgroups that are just views into two or more real
> newsgroups?
>
> What I'm thinking is that if you frequent several newsgroups with a lot
> of similar content and cross-posting, it would be very nice to have
> your newsreader present them to you as if they were a single newsgroup,
> without displaying all the duplicate posts.

Like BNR2?  That sort of thing, along with virtual server support (such that 
it would be able to download posts from whatever server they happened to be 
on, starting with the ones marked as priority servers, probably your ISP 
bundled servers, then switching to the pay per meg servers after all the 
parts on the free server were downloaded but there were still parts missing, 
and also allowing the use of multiple connections to multiple servers at 
once, automatically, and only having to queue up the downloads once to use 
all available servers and connections as needed), is planned, but currently 
on hold, waiting on a back-end data-base change, as that will make it far 
easier to implement.  They are planning to switch PAN to using an SQLite type 
db backend, with the added bonus that it should allow users to access the 
database with tools like MySQL for more powerful management features as well, 
should that be desired.  Once the db switch happens, support for virtual 
servers and virtual newsgroups should be far easier ti implement, and thus 
not terribly far behind.

-- 
Duncan
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --
Benjamin Franklin