This bug should be downgraded from important to normal. It turns out that it's not a new problem -- the problem is that slrn does not interpret "$HOME" or "~", so the workaround is to use an absolute path.
At a minimum, the fix should be to give an accurate error message. Ideally, s-lang would be able to read environment variables. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org