Hi Steven,

> I also don't understand why START_TLS and AUTHINFO need to change
> how the module is interfaced to (separating log in/authentication, etc)

Because once you have used AUTHINFO, STARTTLS is no longer a valid command in a session.
The authentication part is currently delt with in the init function (in nntplib) so it needs to be separated because one could want to first use STARTTLS, and then AUTHINFO. Currently, AUTHINFO is sent just after the initial log in; it is therefore better to have AUTHINFO handled in another function.