[kdepim-users] Usenet/GMane users and the (lack of) future of KNode

[René J.V. Bertin]

Hi,

I just learned that KNode is a fossil in suspended animation that won't make it to KF5.

The impression one could get from the blog post I was pointed to when I reported a KNode crash the other day is that this decision was made by a single developer who felt he wasn't in a position to do the porting of unmaintained code that isn't his in the first place. I can relate to that, but KDE (PIM) isn't a single person's effort (nor is it intended to serve the needs of only those who're developing it actively - I'd hope).

A quick survey suggest that graphical Usenet clients are a dying breed all over (even the apparently most popular app, "pan", hasn't seen a release in over 10y) and in some ways that isn't too surprising.

I myself had stopped using newsgroups long ago except for the occasional visit through Google's interface. And then I developed a need for a kind of filtering I couldn't find anywhere but in newsgroup readers; the kind of filter that lets through only threads/topic on which you participate(d). So now most of my less important mailing list subscriptions are set not to deliver email except the messages I send to the list and copies of replies to my own messages (= the setting you usually turn off); and I subscribe to the corresponding GMane groups in KNode.
This allows me to archive my own posts in the dedicated email folders and insulates me from all irrelevant ML activity. Unless I decide to have a peek what else is going on, in which case I toggle the filter setting temporarily.

I'm sure I'm not the only one on here who has an interest in this kind of feature that increases productivity by avoiding distraction (no temptation to take part in all kinds of "passionating" but otherwise irrelevant threads).

I'm completely unfamiliar with KNode's code myself, and don't exactly have KDE/KF5 experience beyond adapting existing code to my needs and/or OS X specifics. I cannot asses therefore how (im)possible it will be to port KNode to KF5, but I'd be willing to help where I can. BTW, I can guess that porting could be a bit less complex than it might have been because KNode runs independently from the akonadiserver and its agents, but that's really just that, a guess.
I usually launch KNode before starting Kontact, so that it runs with its own window ; as far as I'm concerned any porting effort could thus drop the kontact integration in first instance.

Alternatively, how feasible would it be to implement a comparable filtering feature in KMail? Before I started using KNode, I had set up most of my dedicated ML folders to expire (move-to-trash) all messages that had remained unread for 7 days. That still left me with 200-300 unread messages on the most active ML (FFMpeg-devel) but when combined with a viewing filter that works like the one in KNode you'd probably get a very comparable functionality. Provided that expiration still works on messages that are not being shown.

Any thoughts? Any others on here who would like to see a Usenet/GMane reader in KF5 or filtering functionality like described above?

Thanks,
René