On Thu, 2023-04-20 at 14:56 -0700, Kevin Fenzi wrote:
So, I've been using email and lists for... 25+ years now.
Same here…
For me personally (and I think many of the other survivors you mention) we have carefully tuned filters and email clients and can read/reply to lists with ease and forums are new and anoying because you have to read them with the interface the forum has instead of your trusty mail client.
In contrast, I've largely given up on staying on top of mailing lists for years now, so it’s not just an age thing (or maybe it is 🤔). Even with filters in place, the amount landing in say devel@ is just too overwhelming for me – a mailing list is a very coarse thing and I don’t find subject lines helpful to scan visually to trim down the deluge to manageable levels.
That said, for everyone except us, mail lists are much worse for all the reasons you list.
I'm willing to try to learn new tricks and move things to discourse.
I don’t know if using a forum software like Discourse could help, but I guess there’s something to be said about finer-grained “tags” or “topics” – if they are used properly and I don’t see us employing librarians to ensure that 😉. If a “change in venue” would let me stay on top things better, I would be very happy.
Nils