Blog Interface for Gmane

Seems Lars the Gmane-master has sone interest in this crazy idea of mine. There it goes:

The Blog Interface for Gmane would show lists and msgs as if they were blogs, entries and comments. How?

Like this:

http://www.eibar.org/blogak/luistxo/images/BIG1.html

CAUTION: that is a fake plane html dummy page. All links are false... However, the messages shown are true, a selection of some days at July at gmane.discuss

At a first glance, we see 3 messages there. They are thread initials, only. The ones that in Classic Gmane appear indented with black little strokes are classified as comments and hidden below each main entry... That would be what we would see at blog.gmane.org/gmane.discuss

Well, this is just fake, but instead of whole messages in each entry I suppose that some 500 or 800 chars. could be automatically classed as summary and the rest is reachable after clicking in a Continue reading link. More or less, a selection similar to the one that the RSS method provides.

A plus would be, of course, some kind of javascript trick a-la-Gmail to let quoted parts expand or hide according to a click.

Now, look at the right column. The Current view caption tells us that it is a threaded view... Well, besides blog.gmane.org/gmane.discuss there could be an additional interface with all-messages, plainly arranged chronologically, some url like chronoblog.gmane.org/gmane.discuss and with no comments in the entries.

Another click would change the the view from only 800 chars to whole msg and viceversa.

And now, the other view, that of a given message or thread: http://www.eibar.org/blogak/luistxo/images/BIG2.html

this could be the equivalent to thread.gmane.org/gmane.discuss/6153 which would be URL'ed like entry.gmane.org/gmane.discuss/6153

In this default view, each reply would be chronlogically displayed, with no thread-indication. But a click would display a threaded view of the replies, like collective massive blogs like Kuro5hin or Slashdot do. We could call that threadentry.gmane.org/gmane.discuss/6153*

That could be trickier to adapt to a clean CSS html, but well...

The reply option, in this blog interfaces, would be a open dialog box below the entries. That would answer to the initial main msg. For other messages in the thread, another window would be opened after clicking on Reply to this comment

Each comment-permalink, if it leads to a sub-thread, would display its own replies as comments, with the sub-thread initial as the main msg. In those partial threads or sub-thread there would be that button, now below at Classic Gmane to find the original thread.

And well, the column at the right shows the options of Gmane, as well as the typical blog options: the calendar, the msgs archived by month (a much more usable feature than the pull-down numeral menu of old messages of Classic Gmane). Google ads should go there also.

This example of dummy html pages follows a Movable-Type-like Html layout and just altering the CSS the view of the interface would change completely. A community of blogs hosted there offers variants as Espaloia , Iturri or Prospektiba all sharing the same html layout. Some samples to share at Movablestyle

Why?

What's the purpose of all this crazy idea, the Blog Interface for Gmane?

• Advance in the buzzword-compliant feature policy of Gmane. After RSS, now it's time to add blog features to the system
• Nicer web appeal: truly CSS modifiable designs, if admin interfaces are placed...
• A blog way of posting, replying, will increase interaction in the lists (I believe)
• More fame for Gmane, more visits, more GoogleAd clicks.
• The Blog/mailing list intersection... There is talk about that over there in Internet, but I doubt if that grial has ever been found. Now, this is an opportunity for Gmane. It pionereed usenet/list intersection. Now, one step further. After that, it will time for wold domination.

Of course, I am afraid that a terrible amount of coding would be needed if such a thing should be made... But well, there's the idea. Free idea, of course.