Re: How about a private usenet server...
I fear we may be stumbling into the realm of feature creep, but…
As a (now former) fellow usenet contributor, I am curious, Nick, as to whether you will be posting an RFD for uk.comp.media.the-register or perhaps uk.media.web.the-register to uk.net.news.announce? ;-)
Certainly, once upon a time, the perfect webforum <-> usenet gateway was the golden treasure that we were all searching for…
(I see that there is (if it is still working, I know Lars (of Gmane) ran out of spare time) <http://gwene.org/about.php>, which might be sort of relevant for anyone who might want to try to bolt something together?