Spotnet is a protocol on top of Usenet

Usenet

Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...

, providing a decentralized alternative to usenet indexing websites, and the NZB

NZB

NZB is an XML-based file format for retrieving posts from NNTP servers. The format was conceived by the developers of the Newzbin.com Usenet Index. NZB is effective when used with search-capable websites. These websites create NZB files out of what is needed to be downloaded...

 format in general.

Clients

Spotnet articles are placed in a textgroup, which can be headered using any Usenet client, but in order to get the full experience you need a client that is compatible with the protocol, for example:

• Spotnet (.NET)
• Spotweb (PHP)
• Spotlite (C)
• µSpotted (.NET)
• SpotGrit (.NET)

Besides searching, most of these clients also have functionality for commenting on these spots, as well as adding new ones to the index. Other clients just implement the protocol, without the community-features:

• URD (PHP)
• BinReader (C++)

Technical details

Spotnet is a XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

-based format, placed in the header of usenet articles. This RSA signed XML contains metadata

Metadata

The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...

 about a post (a group articles) usually found in a .NFO

.nfo

.nfo is a commonly used three-letter filename extension of ASCII or extended ASCII text files that accompany other files and contain information about them. Such NFO files can be viewed with text editors or dedicated NFO viewers...

 file, like a description/genre/format, but also references to an accompanying image and zipped NZB file elsewhere on usenet.

The Message-ID

Message-ID

Message-ID is a unique identifier for a digital message, most commonly a globally unique identifier used in email and Usenet newsgroups.Message-IDs are required to have a specific format which is a subset of an email address and to be globally unique...

 of such an article can serve as a link to the full post (similar to Magnet URI), because it indirectly references all required articles. These links can be spread on media like Twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, without the need for a central server hosting them. For a full specification of the protocol see the Spotnet Wiki.

See also

• NNTP
• Newsgroup
  Newsgroup
  A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
  
  
• Newsreader (Usenet)
• List of Usenet newsreaders
• Comparison of Usenet newsreaders
  Comparison of Usenet newsreaders
  This is a Comparison of Usenet Newsreaders.-External links:*...