response 15 of 24:

May 10 13:11 UTC 2018

Incidently, deleting ~/.cfdir and accessing the conferences with Fronttalk
only without using logging in to BT on the web appears to solve the FT read
marker file ("participation file" in BT docs) problem.

response 17 of 24:

May 10 23:59 UTC 2018

resp:16 Re. FT, I think you're right. Re. compile options, I will continue
experimenting. I should figure out how to run Apache on my Slackware box so
I can try out options that require root authorization.

To summarize what I have found for others who are experiencing crashes on the
BT web interface and/or FT from the shell (`bbs`) not remembering which items
you've read: BT and FT are having file permission-related problems when
trying to save or read user status data. It's not yet clear whether this is
a code problem or a configuration problem, but there is a work-around:

1. Rename or delete the subdirectory .cfdir in your home directory. If 
renaming, the new name can be anything other than ".cfdir". If deleting 
you will have to first delete all the files in the subdirectory or use 
`rm -rf`. If your .cfdir subdirectory contains the files .cflist and/or 
.cfonce, you might want to save copies of them in order to restore your 
conference hotlist and configuration.

2. Choose one interface, shell or web, and stick with it. If you want to 
access the conferences from your shell account (with the command `bbs`), 
do not log in to the web interface (though you can still read 
conferences on the web in anonymous mode). If you want to participate in 
conferences via the web, do not use the shell interface.

3. If you choose the shell interface, run `bbs` and read at least one 
item in the Agora conference then quit. FT will automatically (re)create 
subdirectory .cfdir in your home directory. If you saved copies of 
.cflist and/or .cfonce in step 1., copy/move them into your new .cfdir 
subdirectory to restore your hotlist and FT configuration.

4. If you choose the web interface, open the web page, log in, and use 
the system as normal. If you had a hotlist, you will have to recreate 
it.

Other than having to give up one of the conference interfaces, the 
biggest draw-back to the workaround is that your reading history will be 
lost and you will have to catch-up on all the old conferences.

response 19 of 24:

Apr 24 22:33 UTC 2019

resp:18
The Backtalk (shell interface) BROWSE command shows that Politics conference
item 123 doesn't exist. Probably deleted by the original poster.

response 23 of 24:

May 4 14:56 UTC 2019

2nd pass of response 21:  I encountered the backtalk crash error.  I
walked through the investigation above and came up with the following
...

Current state
(1) fronttalk (cli) creates the ~/.cfdir directory 
    with mode 755 and ownership <user>:people.

(2) fronttalk (cli) creates files under ~/.cfdir 
    with mode 644 and ownership <user>:people.

(3) backtalk (web) creates files under ~/.cfdir
    with mode 644 and ownership cfadm:people.

(4) Backtalk (web) logon & use results in crash errors if ~/.cfdir
    or any file below are not rwx for backtalk (web).
    I.E. files created by fronttalk (cli).

Work-a-round * 
(1) Manually change the mode of ~/.cfdir so backtalk (web) can access:
    $ chmod 777 ~/.cfdir

    *  Yes, some bad user can now delete or change the 666 files.
       Not really much at stake here (backup if concerned).

(2) To make files under ~/.cfdir accessible to fronttalk (cli) 
    and backtalk (web)
    change ownership to <user>:people and mode set to 666.
    Users cannot set mode to 666 on files owned by cfadm.
    Users can replace these files instead per below.

    Script to do this: talk-fix.bash
    #!/usr/local/bin/bash
    mkdir ~/.cfdir/ZTMP
    find  ~/.cfdir -type f -user cfadm -exec cp {} ~/.cfdir/ZTMP \;
    find  ~/.cfdir/ZTMP -type f -exec mv -f {} ~/.cfdir \;
    find  ~/.cfdir -type f -exec chmod 666 {} +
    rmdir ~/.cfdir/ZTMP

(3) Rerun the script before using of fronttalk (cli) 
    if backtalk (web) was used previously.

    Rerun the script after using fronttalk (cli) 
    if backtalk (web) will be used subsequently.

    Or only use either the cli or web interface as discussed above.

Fixes that seem needed
(1) backtalk (web) should create ~/.cfdir if missing with ownership 
    <user>:people.

    Or at least: 
    /etc/skel should include .cfdir so it is present for backtalk (web).
    That is, the user does not need to open fronttalk (cli) in order 
    for creation of ~/.cfdir.
 
(2) backtalk (web) should create files with ownership <user>:people.

I will update again if I learn more.