Re: Misc. as part of usage testing

On 1/11/26 14:34, Anton Shepelev wrote:
> Mark Millard to Anton Shepelev:
> 
>>> This setup looks very wrong to me, because the same account
>>> is split between two disparate universes: using NNTP for
>>> incoming messages and SMTP for outgoing ones.  This may
>>> explan why you read via NNTP yet post via SMTP.
>>
>> For news.gmane.io in thunderbird (and probably more
>> generally), if a SMTP server is defined in Thunderbird,
>> news.gmane.io uses one of them.
> 
> No, it simply makes no sense.  A Usenet (NNTP) server has
> nothing at all to do with an e-mail (SMTP) server, except the
> very looselyt coupled connection when you specify your e-mail
> address in your NNTP account, but that is just the value of a
> header in the NNTP message, nothing more.  NNTP works for both
> reading and posting without any involvement of SMTP.

It may not be clear to you but I'm after FreeBSD mail list
functionality. FreeBSD does not have newsgroups, they have mail lists.
The closer to correct ail list functionality the better for my use. Mail
list functionality is what many other FreeBSD users expect form my
postings as well.

For example, I've had folks request being TO'd/CC'd on list messaging
because they do not regularly monitor the list, reading it rarely. But
for the specific message sequence they wanted to track. I want to be
able to support such a way of operating.

The specifics of just-newsgroup-functionality are not directly any goal
of mine. As stands, what I've got supports Mail List functionality
better than my old way of working: it no longer breaks up threads. Nor
does have new limitations in what I can do for posting to the Mail
Lists, so far as I know.

(I'm also not looking to replace any of my normal non-list Email
handling, not switching any of it to Thunderbird or anything new.)

Even if posting via NNTP to the list was working nicely (ignoring the
likes of also using To/Cc to off-list Email addresses), I also require
handling of off-list Email addresses, including sending to such for a
thread.

> 
>> It appears that the only way to avoid that is to never have
>> filled in a Outgoing Server (SMTP) in Thunderbird or using the
>> (config editor...)  button in Settings to get to Advanced
>> Preferences and to reset and delete appropriate definitions.
> 
> It sure sounds wrong.  No tutorials that I see mention SMTP at
> all, e.g. the one below seems like a good tutorial (save for the
> specific NNTP-server details), and with screenshots:
> 
>    <https://web.archive.org/web/20250121115404/https://www.i2pn2.org/common/Thunderbird/Usenet-Thunderbird.html>
> 
> It shows a configured account with just the NNTP server, without
> even the incoming/outgoing distinction:
> 
>    <https://web.archive.org/web/20250121115404im_/https://www.i2pn2.org/common/Thunderbird/5-Congratulations.png>
> 
>> The UI for newsgroups makes no reference to Incoming vs.
>> Outgoing for NNTP, biased to implicitly both.
> 
> That's right.
> 
>> But if an SMTP Outgoing server is defined it seems to be what
>> is used for Outgoing.
> 
> And that's... strange.

I want to be able to send to both the list and to non-list Email
addresses for my list-related activity, per what others at times request
or initiate on/for the Mail Lists. I do not want to replace any other
Email handling at all.

Again: Mail List functionality, not newsgroup functionality.

> 
>> So I got Thunderbird back to being just NNTP, no outgoing SMTP
>> server.
>>
>> Retrying sending ot just the Newgroup: No message in list so
>> far (15+ min).

(Still not showing on list hours later. I do not expect it will ever
show up.)

>>
>> Attempting to send with both the Newsgroups filled in and the
>> To filled in just waits until one clicks Cancel to the
>> progress dialog. Even then it shows it is still an active,
>> pending send.
> 
> In Usenet/NetNews/NNTP mode, the To: field should not be visible
> and available at all,

It can be explicitly added by selection from a list after "Followup".
Such may well be Thunderbird specific.

If I can not also send to folks that want to be TO'd/CC'd, I'm not
interested in actively using such a restricted technique.

> as shown in another screenshot from the
> tutorial above:
> 
>    <https://web.archive.org/web/20250121115404im_/https://www.i2pn2.org/common/Thunderbird/16-Followup.png>
> 
> 
> 


-- 
===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com