[toomuchtodo]

Mailing lists are superior for async communications IMHO for endeavors such as this. Nothing needs to be addressed immediately (and as everyone is a volunteer, realistic expectations should be set for response latency; email helps that, Slack/Discord does not), and the mailing list archive is a natural log of conversations and decisions that are open and accessible (Free Slack only keeps 10k lines of conversation history if I recall). A mailing list is also free (can be, not always, but can be), and does not require a chat client installed.

[paulcarroty]

Mailing lists was superior in 90's-00's, now when discourse/slack/discord/etc exists there's no reason to use ML except nostalgia. Parsing tons of new emails isn't easy.

Also I'm prefer to avoid Google services 'cause privacy issues.

[liability]

I soured on discord/slack/etc when their absurdly bad performance caused my laptop to get so hot it probably neutered me.

Seriously though, those services are fine on a powerful tower PC plugged into the wall, but if you're on the move on battery power, they are unbearable.

[StavrosK]

Try https://cancel.fm/ripcord/, if you want to give them a try.

[hombre_fatal]

I like the combo of regular forum (Xenforo, Discourse, etc) and chat (Discord, Slack, etc). Unlike mailing lists, modern forums are actually usable, fun to use, and appealing. And chat provides a place for more conversational community-building.

For example, the Elm community has both. The Discourse forum is technical and business-only yet there's a clean record of these discussions. The Slack chat is where I hang out, get to know people, and participate in more relaxed chit chat about Elm, webdev, and building applications.

Elm used to just have a mailing list but it was obsoleted and shut down with the creation of the Slack group and Discourse forum which were far more popular.

[elkos]

Well discourse forum and matrix chat bridged to IRC through riot.im works very effectively in our open source community.

[dfc]

What do you mean when you say "modern forums are fun to use"? I ask in 100% good faith and I am not being snarky.

[hombre_fatal]

They have all sorts of modern features more conducive to discussion and community-building like notifications that someone @mention/replied to you and even editing your post -- features that people generally like. If you don't think that's "fun", fair enough, but I also enumerated other benefits like their broader appeal.

Any community that only has a mailing list could benefit from experimenting with a proper forum. I've seen this experiment broaden a community time and time again as you move away from only selecting for the type of person who likes mailing lists. And notice that HN isn't a mailing list either.

For example, I would imagine that the sort of people interested in high-quality ebooks extend beyond mailing list loving super-techies. Even a subreddit would be a nice option.

[dfc]

My question was simply about how much fun you experience using modern forums. I have never edited a post and thought it was fun.

Some people might say it's useful and others might say it encourages people to comment first and possibly focus on polishing the comment second.

[TylerE]

For start... they aren't a freaking mailing list?

E-mail sucks.

[Shorel]

It is bearable when using an efficient client like Ripcord.

[StavrosK]

You don't know how much I agree. I used Ripcord the other day and forgot software could just be fast. Slack feels like a boulder in comparison.

It's not very full-featured yet, but it's so fantastic I want to pay for it. It's a shame the companies themselves don't offer clients like it.

[kkarakk]

Counterpoint: Old mailing list conversations are difficult to parse and encourage a "ignore it until the issue goes away" mentality if no one is enforcing a reply rate.

Mailing lists only really work for corporations imo

[toomuchtodo]

We're talking open source/free/non-profits here. No reply rate should be enforced unless by project owners (their time, their project, their rules). Some issues should be ignored until they go away. I myself ignore issues from some folks who engage me in my role as an open source tooling maintainer, after I have exhausted my patience working with them and they are not receptive to polite discussion.

> Mailing lists only really work for corporations imo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_kernel_mailing_list

We've steered off topic though. Feel free to email me if you want to chat further on the topic.

[ngold]

Fascinating subject. It seems like the difference between slack/discord and email, is the difference between a water cooler conversation and an actual sit down meeting.

[jolmg]

There's also IRC for water cooler conversations in an open protocol.

[zucker42]

> Feel free to email me if you want to chat further on the topic.

Is there any way we can contact you on slack or discord instead?