Why do many open source projects collaborate primarily through mailing lists rather than through, say, forums?  I may be ignorant in my assessment, but I, along with my communication teacher, think mailing lists are rather inefficient:It's hard to reference old messages.  You have to wait until an archiving site picks up the message you want to link to, then look it up.It's hard to reply to messages you haven't received from subscription, since you have to manually copy the sender and message contents.It's impossible to moderate threads of discussion.  Posts cannot be deleted or modified without supernatural powers.It's tricky to keep threads together (namely, to ensure all participants in the conversation are copied/replied to).It's tricky for users to participate in multiple high-volume mailing lists, as they have to subscribe and set up filters (or just be really involved).What real edge do mailing lists have that didn't occur to me?
Why do programmers still use mailing lists?
communication;technology;email
In addition to the because they are used to it arguments, email has a few other huge advantages: You already have an email address, no need to sign up for yet another messageboard account for every project.With a messageboard, you have to actively visit the page and refresh it to see new messages. On the other hand, most people have their email client (Outlook, Mail, Gmail) open all day and it refreshes automatically as soon as a new message comes in.In short, using a messageboard requires me to change my habits in a significant way. On the other hand, mailing lists fit simply & easily into my existing routine, so adoption is much easier.