About HyperNews Starting here you should be able to find HyperNews forums about HyperNews itself. If you are looking for forums on other topics, please see the HyperNews Home Page.

Read the instructions for how to add messages, if it is not obvious. A good place to try this out is the HyperNews Test page, but if you want to say anything substantial, consider adding to the Guestbook or one of the other HyperNews pages.

You can install the HyperNews Source on your own site to run your own forums. Subscribe to the HyperNews History forum to be notified about new versions. I've got a lot of ideas that still need implementation.

If you have a problem with any aspect of HyperNews, please add a message on the bugs page if you can, or email me about it (liberte@hypernews.org). Please be aware that I cannot help much with problems at other HyperNews sites.

Forums About HyperNews

• About HyperNews - this page
• Instructions for Using HyperNews
• Reading Messages - how to navigate through the message trees. Also, how to inline messages or use frames.
• Adding Messages - how to create and post messages or replies.
• Becoming a Member - how to become a member and what that means. Also, how to change your membership info or reset your password.
• Subscribe and Unsubscribe - for notification by email when something is posted.
• Administration of Messages - how to copy, delete, or move messages.
• HyperNews Testing - do your tests there.
• HyperNews Guestbook - add your name to the list.
• Source and installation requirements for HyperNews
  • HyperNews Bugs, old and new
  • History of HyperNews - the version history, subscribe to that forum to receive announcements of new versions.
  • HyperNews Consortium - share in the process of developing the code and the community.
• Installation and Configuration.
  • Creating Forums - (used to be called "Base Articles").
  • Security issues regarding HyperNews
  • HyperNews gateway to Email - works bidirectionally now
• Future of HyperNews - overview of development plans.
  • Structured Dialogs for HyperNews
  • Searching for HyperNews pages
  • HyperNews gateway to Usenet
  • Evolution of Information Organization - the idea behind HyperNews and where it still needs to go.

A Brief Overview

Currently there is not a gateway to Usenet News (but see discussion on that issue). Rather, forums and messages are maintained on a web server. Unlike most news servers, messages never expire (unless an automatic expiration feature is enabled). But like usenet articles, HyperNews messages may not be edited after being "posted". However, there are many applications where it makes sense to allow editing, so we would like to add support for that.

The source for HyperNews is avaiable to anyone who wants to download it. Please read the installation instructions and bug reporting forums.

There are several related WWW projects on collaboration that allow feedback from readers on the web.

HyperNews is not intended to be a centralized service, and not all forums are on one machine (many other HyperNews servers have been set up - see the list). Everyone is invited to install the HyperNews Source on their own server to begin distributing forums more widely. Distributing the forums will distribute the load and make HyperNews more scalable. Caching and replication would also help, but that will be required to make the WWW scalable in any case.

Contrary to appearances, HyperNews does not modify pages to append replies. Instead, the HyperNews "get" script fetches and returns the body of the forum or message with the tree of reply messages appended dynamically.

Current Scheme

Each message is numbered, starting at 1 within each HyperNews node (a forum or message). All messages under a forum or message are in a subdirectory, and each message has a file containing information about the message named "<number>.html,urc". The body of a message is in the file named "<number>-body.html". A file of pregenerated message lines is named "<number>/responses.html".

A URL to a message looks like: ".../HyperNews/get/baseArticle/3/10/2.html". The "get" script looks up the information about the message, generates the HTML for the message body and the outline of reply messages, if any.

The "Add Message" button at the bottom of the page is the general way to add any kind of messages: replies, questions, whatever.

Another Overview of HyperNews was prepared for a talk on collaboration technologies. Another outline of HyperNews Features is also available. HyperNews is HyperDiscussion is a forum that lists several interesting uses of HyperNews, most oriented around education.

Other Articles About HyperNews

• Affordances and Constraints of Electronic Discussions by Russell A. Hunt, St. Thomas University, May 1996

• HyperNews: The Pitbull of the Internet by John Hartzog.

• Public Software for Public Education mentions HyperNews as a freeware tool.

• Uses of HyperNews in Computer Science Classes by Robert W. Lingard, uses examples from actual forums.
• Virtual Visions HyperNews "Best Practices" Workshop by Sheryl Thompson.
• ESTUDO DA FERRAMENTA DE FÓRUM WEB: HyperNews - in Portuguese, a study of using HyperNews.

Articles with References to HyperNews

• Web Annotation Service

• Now This is Community by Jeff Jarvis, discusses the success of Advance Publications communities using a threaded news system, which happens to be HyperNews.

Unrelated HyperNewses

• HyperNews Hypermedia Newspaper. This project aims at developing an electronic newspaper environment based on agent technology for the WWW.
• The windowing system, HyperNeWS, now called HyperLook.
• The NNTP newsreader for Macintoshs also called HyperNews.
• A news to HTML extracter by Ray Moody (moody@cray.com) called Hypernews.
• hypernews parses .newsrc file and creates a file that contains all the groups, but structured as a tree and that is in HTML format. (Used to be here.)
• Team America, Corp has used the term "HyperNews" for their tool that assigns numbers to identify topics of newsgroups. It is now called AmeryNews. Jim L..., email: 71774.302@CompuServe.COM
• Hypermail archives email and makes it accessible via the web. HyperNews can do this now too.

HyperNews supports caching. You should too.

38 Problems with new caching clients and HyperNews by Thomas Pfarr, 1995, Mar 23

1 HyperNews needs to adapt by Daniel LaLiberte, 1995, Mar 24

42 Solving the by Brett Kottmann, 1995, Mar 30

2 ... censorship problem? by Daniel LaLiberte, 1995, Mar 30

1 By locating the source site in a non-litigating country by bkottman@erinet.com, 1995, Apr 12

...

2 censorship by Horace , 2000, Oct 29

... 1 Message(s)

54 Netscape Extensions to HyperNews (including code) by Elliotte Rusty Harold, 1995, May 08

55 Using HyperNews as a moderated bbs? by Mike Cosaboom, 1995, May 09

1 I'd like to know about this, too! by James Shuman, 1996, Apr 25

1 1993 by 1993, 2001, Sep 16

2 1994 qwerty by ssn3009@yahoo.com, 2001, Sep 16

64 Expiration of old messages by David E. Athey, 1995, Jun 09

1 Expiration of old messages by Kevin Kadow, 1995, Oct 04

1 Maybe with cron by Sebastian.Boschert@stuttgart.netsurf.de, 1997, Oct 03

2 Does anyone have a solution yet? by dave@bensoft.com, 1997, Oct 15

... 2 Message(s)

73 The Electronic Town-Hall has Arrived! by Ben Tremblay, 1995, Jun 23

74 HyperNews as a BBS? by adam kepecs, 1995, Jun 23

1 Untitled by Sam Przyswa, 1995, Nov 12

4 Does BBS mean a moderated group ? by neal@oecd.org, 1996, May 17

5 HyperNews as BBS -- private web site. by Dan, 1997, Oct 21

75 Great Job! by Anderson E. Reed, 1995, Jun 23

1 Thanks by liberte@hypernews.org, 1995, Apr 17

2 this my mensage by Julanito@juana.uusa.edu, 1997, Jun 11

87 Can HyperNews be run on a stand alone PC? by David Rock, 1995, Aug 01

1 No, and yes by pwiseman@mindspring.com, 1995, Aug 04

97 Speeding up HyperNews by Kwang han, TAN, 1995, Oct 09

1 What's slow? by liberte@hypernews.org, 1995, Oct 10

Images are slow! by nick@mail.esrin.esa.it, 1995, Nov 10

Test-only viewing by star@starshine.org, 1997, Feb 01

Text-only works OK by liberte@hypernews.org, 1997, Feb 03

101 HyperNews / Web Conferencing Host Site Wanted by Michael Reeder, 1995, Oct 26

1 We would be glad to host your forums by Craig Johnson, 1996, Feb 07

2 APC Web Pro Conferencing by Richard Lientz, 2001, Apr 30

106 Similar system, inspired by HN, uses backend databases by Georges, 1995, Nov 22

118 Hyper News in Java? by bob massey, 1996, Jan 11

1 Can't do it in JavaScript by simsong@acm.org, 1996, Jan 29

But perl is ugly and Java is elegant. by Toshi Kosaka, 1997, Jan 06

1 But perl is fast and Java is slow , 1997, Mar 22

... 1 Message(s)

2 Java is easy Perl is not by troxel@sammcgees.com, 1998, Jan 12

5 Ha! Java sucks, PERL kicks its ass and is easier to write by bothanspy@emailchoice.com, 2000, Mar 12

123 Marathon HyperNews site. by Kenneth C. Schalk, 1996, Feb 02

152 NT Server HYPERNEWS by Sean Johnston, 1996, Apr 29

1 Allaire Forums by Dan Beer, 1996, Apr 29

1 Hello. Where are these elusive forums and how can I sieze and test them? by kingb@dfo-mpo.gc.ca, 1998, Sep 22

2 HyperNews on NT Server by Dan, 1997, Oct 21

1 Port to NT is not so easy by dlaliberte@gte.com, 1997, Oct 22

2 But I heard that perl is not good! by Huong Nguyen, 2000, Sep 30

157 http://stockclub.com/ Hypernews forums on stocks , 1996, May 13

160 HELP THE THREADS!!!!! , 1996, May 17

162 New HyperNews site for Linux kernel hackers by michaelkjohnson, 1996, May 18

165 Firm's Offering HyperNews Services? , 1996, May 23

1 Not that I know of, but... by jtara@stockclub.com, 1996, May 28

Yea, were out here hiding from you :-> by bryan@bcpub.com, 1996, Aug 13

171 New NT 4.0 server. How do we get a hypernews newsgroup setup? , 1996, Jun 15

177 HELP NEEDED for setting up HyperNews by Gary Lin, 1996, Jul 02

1 i really need help by bankal@msn.com, 1997, Mar 21

180 HyperNews as an Announcement System? by BEMason, 1996, Jul 10

1 Not ideal by Daniel LaLiberte, 1996, Jul 10

Announcement System by bemason@fnal.gov, 1996, Jul 10

183 Hypernews in French ? by I. Dresse, 1996, Aug 01

1 Yes by jfiger@ecom.cgs.fr, 1996, Aug 22

Where? by trc@auracom.com, 1997, Jan 25

185 HELP wanted to setup HyperNews on UNIX server by B. Raven, 1996, Aug 02

1 Help still wanted by scandy@info1.com, 1996, Oct 08

3 what do you want? by isal@vergina.eng.auth.gr, 1996, Oct 13

1 Need Installation ASAP on Netscape Commercial Server by johnpike@fas.org, 1996, Oct 18

... 1 Message(s)

4 HyperNews Version: 1.9.5 and Apache/1.2b8 by Aimee Abbott, 1997, May 16

187 Looking for host/sponsor of new HyperNews group by Walt Carroll, 1996, Aug 05

188 Version 2.0 of HyperNews? by Dylan Greene, 1996, Aug 19

1 Maybe version 1.10? by liberte@hypernews.org, 1996, Aug 19

189 HyperNews in German? by Georg Heßmann, 1996, Aug 27

204 Reporting Facilities by Ari Jort, 1996, Oct 09

1 Interesting idea by Daniel LaLiberte , 1996, Nov 13

1 getting back in touch by arijort@pingsite.com, 1997, May 30

... 1 Message(s)

2 Is automatic digesting possible now? by vsaljuki@nsf.gov, 1999, May 18

... 1 Message(s)

224 Vision of the learner by Denis, 1996, Dec 20

231 Hypernews as a Problem Reporting/Tracking System by george, 1997, Feb 11

1 Maybe by liberte@hypernews.org, 1997, Feb 11

Untitled by georgec@ti.com, 1997, Feb 11

Attributes, Sorting, Usenet by liberte@hypernews.org, 1997, Feb 11

235 authentication via cgi rather than .htaccess by Ari Jort, 1997, Feb 20

281 Another Site Using HyperNews by Christopher Sawtell, 1997, Aug 23

285 BayCHI goes online with HyperNews by Bob Weissman, 1997, Aug 26

295 HELP FOR INSTALLATION OF HYPERNES by Kinnari form India, 1997, Sep 20

297 REVERSING MESSAGES by SCOTT BOSSI, 1997, Oct 15

1 Delayed reaction by dlaliberte@gte.com, 1997, Oct 15

298 NEED HELP! "Internal Server Error" by Moon, Young-Jin, 1997, Oct 16

301 Duplicate entry problem by Scott, 1997, Oct 24

1 Cause of Duplicates is a mystery by dlaliberte@gte.com, 1997, Oct 24

302 Interesting Chinese Forums & Message Boards In Malaysia !!! by Informer, 1997, Oct 24

305 HyperNews bases message systems by Dan Willett, 1997, Oct 26

307 Images in Messages by Raymond Hines, 1997, Oct 27

308 So does the e-mail gateway work? , 1997, Oct 28

311 "connection timed out"??? by Luis Torres, 1997, Nov 06

1 same problem by eric@serv1.ncte.org, 1998, Jan 03

321 Russain HyperNews by Sergei Parinov, 1998, Jan 19

325 Is this still available by Clark Beeston, 1998, Mar 05

330 HyperNews and Lotus Domino Go by John Gamble, 1998, Mar 18

1 Solved Problem by cs51tg@surrey.ac.uk, 1999, Jun 03

331 Looking for law discussions , 1998, Mar 19

337 question by mauro ussoc, 1998, May 18

1 depends... by Ralf Gerlich, 1998, May 21

2 of course! by Sergio Moran, 1999, Oct 26

1 what a great way of collaborating! by smoran@ing.puc.cl, 1999, Oct 26

... 1 Message(s)

338 "this week" and "today" icons posted after subject lines by Kandice Jones, 1998, Jun 04

1 They changed the "new", "newer", "newest" icons by liberte@emancholl.pair.com, 1998, Jun 04

340 Hypernews as advisement tool by Joyce B. Maxwell, 1998, Jun 11

342 Hypernews with a CGI-BIN but no server side... HELP ME! by Reed, C., 1998, Jun 17

343 HyperNews won't authenticate me for password reset , 1998, Jun 22

345 Status NT version of Hypernews by Leo Plugge, 1998, Jun 23

353 Accessing a HyperNews server for our own purposes by Christina, 1998, Jul 07

354 HyperNews and Year 2000 by Devik Lansing, 1998, Jul 07

1 HyperNews 1.9.6 and later are better regarding 2000 by liberte@emancholl.pair.com, 1998, Jul 07

358 Can I change the article list's order? , 1998, Aug 17

368 creating foruns by André, 1998, Oct 19

1 Untitled , 1999, Feb 19

What HyperNews needs is a terrible-English-filter !!! , 1999, Jun 14

369 Ways to find out all Sub-forum of HyperNews by Behzad Barzideh, 1998, Oct 19

1 There is a way to list the subforums automatically now - untested. by liberte@emancholl.pair.com, 1998, Oct 19

378 Stupid , 1998, Nov 20

379 Adding messages to the bottom of a static HTML page by Brian Kelly, 1999, Jan 14

1 Reference page from forum via URL by liberte@emancholl.pair.com, 1999, Jan 15

400 is security subforum working? , 1999, Feb 25

401 Please help me get started by msaund6, 1999, Mar 03

1 Installing is not simple yet by liberte@hypernews.org, 1999, Mar 04

402 no messages to me , 1999, Mar 05

1 Wrong forum doesn't help by liberte@hypernews.org, 1999, Mar 06

405 Keep up the great work, Daniel LaLiberte! by Alfred Charles, 1999, Mar 30

1 HyperNews by egbert.schroer@degussa-huels.de, 1999, Nov 08

424 What hardware are people running their HyperNews servers on? by Denny De La Haye, 1999, Jun 17

433 The number of messages posted on the site... by Cag Onganer, 1999, Aug 02

1 See NumMessages in ,urc files. by liberte@hypernews.org, 1999, Aug 02

2 Number of messages posted, includding replies by webmaster@campus.ruv.itesm.mx, 1999, Nov 26

450 mod-perl , 1999, Oct 12

1 re: mod_perl by steve@mclurkin.com, 1999, Oct 18

452 Help with some desired additions.. by John, 1999, Nov 01

1 Relatively easy additions by liberte@hypernews.org, 1999, Nov 05

457 blank icons by Limbourg, 1999, Dec 07 [Moved]

458 How to get involve in the kernel project. by Guo taoyi, 1999, Dec 08

460 HyperNews at WIRESCRIPT by WIRESCRIPT, 1999, Dec 15

465 Java Chat Server by indyc, 2000, Jan 22

1 How about integrating HyperNews with Chat? by Daniel LaLiberte, 2000, Jan 24

2 Re: Java chat by John, 2000, Jan 27

472 Query about other forums by Saurabh Maheshwari, 2000, Feb 04

475 next release of hypernews -- hyperteach by Franco Bagnoli, 2000, Mar 09

1 File upload needed more and more by liberte@hypernews.org, 2000, Mar 14

Re: File upload needed more and more by bagnoli@dma.unifi.it, 2000, Mar 15

483 HyperNews Forums on WIRESCRIPT , 2000, Apr 15

487 Deleting a forum by Teresa Feck, 2000, Jun 23

1 Use shell to rm the forum. by liberte@hypernews.org, 2000, Jun 23

499 HyperNews giving error messages. One message lists: Please report this bug! by Paula Miller, 2000, Oct 12

503 HTML or XML? , 2000, Nov 27

1 maybe better but different by E, 2000, Nov 28

559 Testing , 2001, Apr 18

561 smtpmail by Christophe Delarue, 2001, May 17

562 Status of Hypernews Development by David McIntyre, 2001, May 21

1 HyperNews/HoloNexus plans by Daniel LaLiberte, 2001, May 22

565 I will install Hyper News by Joe, 2001, Jun 09

574 Seperate HyperNews Installations - move messages by Michael, 2001, Aug 23

1 Should work, if path inside hndocs is the same by Daniel LaLiberte, 2001, Aug 30

584 D3E: document-centered HyperNews discussions by D3E Project, 2001, Nov 12

586 access problems by earnest, 2001, Nov 28

589 D3e Hypernews vs Hypernews by global, 2002, Feb 11

601 [SYS 32] Broken pipe file Name: /var/opt/openmail/sys/unixmap.out , 2003, Sep 30

608 interest by James Mekpongsatorn, 2004, Apr 19

658 Nice! by Felix, 2007, Oct 22 [Moved]

660 looking for relatives by eugene laliberte, Jul 05, 18:11

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