On Sun, 2004-05-23 at 11:14, M. Fioretti wrote: > On Sat, May 22, 2004 22:03:55 PM -0400, William M. Quarles > (walrus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote: > > > "Free software is mainly developed on mailing lists. Mailing lists > > have many advantages over other forms of communication, but they > > have two weaknesses: It's difficult to follow discussions in a > > sensible way, and mailing list archives (when they exist) have a > > tendency to disappear over time. > > > > "Several mailing list archives exist, but these are all hidden under > > a web interface. Reading mail that way is not convenient. Reading > > mail as if it were news is convenient. " > > > > I don't know about mailing list archives disappearing over time. The > other "weakness", however, is in idiot mail clients and misguided > users, not in mailing lists. Any decent mail client *supports* > threading, so it makes possible to "to follow discussions in a > sensible way". I personally believe that the choice of a mailing list makes a great deal of sense over a traditional newsgroup in that the amount of spam can be limited in a members-only-post mailing list, whereas any spammer with a news-flooder can post to newsgroups. -- Chris Kloiber
