syntax for linking to a newsgroup article

[Brian Cryer]

What I would like to be able to do is to link to a specific newsgroup
article (ok, I know that articles may not be held a newsgroup server for
more than a couple of weeks depending on the newsgroup).

I know how to link to a newsgroup:

a href="
I also know how to specify the server:

a href="
is it also possible to specify the article id/reference that I'm interested
in? I came across one reference that indicated it might be possible, but
with no details. If its not possible then that would be useful to know,
because I won't search any further.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dylan Parry]

Pondering the eternal question of "Hobnobs or Rich Tea?", Brian Cryer
finally proclaimed:

What I would like to be able to do is to link to a specific newsgroup
article (ok, I know that articles may not be held a newsgroup server for
more than a couple of weeks depending on the newsgroup).

Totally ignoring the rest of your post, have you thought of linking to
the articles as they are presented at Google Groups? Toby Inkster set up
a nice site for doing just that (http://message-id.net/) where you can
link directly to articles by their ID.

 

[Brian Cryer]

Pondering the eternal question of "Hobnobs or Rich Tea?", Brian Cryer
finally proclaimed:


Totally ignoring the rest of your post, have you thought of linking to
the articles as they are presented at Google Groups? Toby Inkster set up
a nice site for doing just that (http://message-id.net/) where you can
link directly to articles by their ID.

Hi Dylan,

Thanks for the idea. That's certainly quite clever of Toby.

What I'd really like though is to be able to direct someone to a (recent)
article and have it open in their newsreader.

 

[Brian Cryer]

What I would like to be able to do is to link to a specific newsgroup
article (ok, I know that articles may not be held a newsgroup server for
more than a couple of weeks depending on the newsgroup).

I know how to link to a newsgroup:

a href="
I also know how to specify the server:

a href="
is it also possible to specify the article id/reference that I'm
interested in? I came across one reference that indicated it might be
possible, but with no details. If its not possible then that would be
useful to know, because I won't search any further.

Thanks in advance.

I've found it - RFC 1036. Not quite what I was hoping for.


but this won't open the newsreader, it just opens the message (presumably
using the default news account) and allows you to reply to the sender not
the group - or at least that's the behaviour I've just observed on Windows.

So much for my hope of clicking on a link to open a newsgroup reader at a
specific article ... Dylan, your suggestion of using Toby's site and Google
groups may be the only way of doing it.

 

[Dylan Parry]

Pondering the eternal question of "Hobnobs or Rich Tea?", Brian Cryer
finally proclaimed:

What I'd really like though is to be able to direct someone to a (recent)
article and have it open in their newsreader.

The problem with that scenario is that it relies upon the user actually
/having/ a newsreader that is configured correctly, and a browser that
handles the URL correctly. It's a bit like trying to use mailto:

 

[Brian Cryer]

Pondering the eternal question of "Hobnobs or Rich Tea?", Brian Cryer
finally proclaimed:


The problem with that scenario is that it relies upon the user actually
/having/ a newsreader that is configured correctly, and a browser that
handles the URL correctly. It's a bit like trying to use mailto:

Very true. I concede, your suggestion is probably the only way to go.

Thanks.