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.