>But people without desire to use nntp would just continue to use the
>webforum interface, right?  I'm not sure I quite understand why there
>is a learning curve here.

We're merging three forum sets and the managers/moderators of two of those haven't dealt with NNTP integration to date.  Users on the NNTP side aren't authenticated like they are on the web side so from a moderator and administrator viewpoint, there are things to learn when it comes to controlling spam, etc. when it comes from NNTP.

>Aha.  But the three fora (suseforums.net, suselinuxsupport.de and the
>openSUSE support forums at forums.novell.com) will all be merging onto
>a Novell-run/-owned site = "forums.opensuse.org" ?

Not quite.  Novell has agreed to host the infrastructure because we have a full data center with an IT group and I have a budget for hardware/software purchases.  We also have a daily full backup system for MySQL.   It was just logical that Novell host the infrastructure.  To say that Novell "owns" the site isn't correct.    Ownership is a full collaboration of the administrators/staff the made up the individual forums.  I have no more say in what happens than Keith or Vir@s.