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.
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but newsgroups can be member-restricted as well.
