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.