nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ ls .slrnrc
.slrnrc
nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ ls .jnewsrc
ls: cannot access '.jnewsrc': No such file or directory
nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ slrn
slrn 1.0.3

Loading /usr/share/slrn/slang/slrn.sl
Reading startup file /etc/news/slrn.rc.
Reading startup file /home/nicholas/.slrnrc.
Using newsrc file /home/nicholas/.jnewsrc for server mordor.saundersconsulting.tech.slrn fatal error:

Unable to open /home/nicholas/.jnewsrc.
If you want to create /home/nicholas/.jnewsrc, add command line options:
   -f /home/nicholas/.jnewsrc --create

nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ slrn -f /home/nicholas/.jnewsrc --create
slrn 1.0.3

Loading /usr/share/slrn/slang/slrn.sl
Reading startup file /etc/news/slrn.rc.
Reading startup file /home/nicholas/.slrnrc.
Using newsrc file /home/nicholas/.jnewsrc for server mordor.saundersconsulting.tech.
Connecting to host mordor.saundersconsulting.tech ...
Unable to make connection. Giving up.

Run-Time Error
slrn fatal error:
Failed to initialize server.
nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ hostname
mordor.saundersconsulting.tech
nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 23.10
Release:	23.10
Codename:	mantic
nicholas@mordor:~$