PosterCentricMessageSubscriptionProtocol can be regarded in various ways -
-
A SpamProof replacement for Usenet.
-
An optimized WordOfMouth technology for the Internet.
-
A BulletinBoard that separates posting, message location, subscription, SubjectSpace definition and ModerationPolicy. Usenet separates the first three from each other, but fares badly on the last two.
The MiskiProject is a project to design and implement this system, and the web site contains a White Paper.
PCMSP operates on a model of client to server to server to client. It requires a new DnsRecordType and two new UrlSchemes.
Very basically the system operates as follows -
-
Each user defines their own SubjectSpace. Each subject has a textual description and a language. There is also a SubjectInclusionRelationship.
-
A user can post a message to a subject in their subject space.
-
Another user can subscribe to a subject in that user's subject space.
-
A subscribing user receives all messages posted to other user's subjects that they have subscribed to.
-
A user reading a message can repost that message, causing it to be received by all their subscribers, although a message is never sent to a subscriber more than once.
-
Each user deals only with their own MiskiServer, except when retrieving message contents, which are created as straight web pages.
-
A posting user advertises subjects in their SubjectSpace via URL's in the PcmspUrlScheme. Clicking on a PCMSP URL causes the browsing user's browser to communicate with their own server which then communicates with the advertising user's server to retrieve the advertising user's subject space. The browsing user can then edit their subscription to that user, and their server in turn alters its subscription to the advertising user's server (if necessary).
Sounds promising, but it appears that Miski doesn't allow postings to flow upstream the SubjectSpace. That's one of the nice things about list servers and usenet, that the old-time experts see the newbie's messages.
It's a catch-22 situation.
- If you allow upstream flow, you enable spam.
- If you prohibit upstream flow, you must be able to determine the Miski address of every newbie that you might be interested in so that you can subscribe.
- If a Miski server's user list is readable with destination address visible, you enable spam.
- If a Miski server's user list is verifiable, but not readable, you invite hackers.
Hence -- What we have is NNTP: with reader moderation.