I have been contemplating the merits of mailing lists and comparing them with those of forums, thinking about whether there exists an alternative which provides the advantages of both. And then I came out with something new which does exactly that. Before I continue, allow me to quickly and partially list the advantages of each. If you're really impatient and prefer examples, head to the "usage example" at the bottom of the mail and skip the rest. Advantages of mailing lists: - Integrated with your mailing client - Filters - Work offline - Builtin PGP support - several others I haven't mentioned, but most of them stem from #1 Advantages of forums: - Far Better organized: They Have topics and sub-topics. While a seperate mailing list is required for each topic and subtopics do not exist. - New users get to see all threads immediately, while in mailing lists, a new user gets an empty list at first. - Posts can be edited (this may be a dis-advantage sometimes) - Far better moderation: Threads can be locked or removed at any time. Now, here's my proposal which provides all of the advantages I mentioned above. Instead of a mailing list, let there be an IMAP/POP account, let us call it imap@debian.org. However, it isn't a normal IMAP account: - It is public, and not a traditional private imap account. - It accepts all logins, regardless of the password typed. - It is read-only, users cannot directly modify it. - Users can only use it to read, they cannot send mails as imap@debian.org - It serves as the "forum". - The topics and sub-topics are simply folders and sub-folders. - In order to read the "forum", one simply adds the imap account to one's mail client. - In order to post something new, one simply replies to the relevant post (The FROM is one's own mail, and not imap@debian.org) This provides all the advantages of forums mentioned above PLUS all the advantages of mailing lists. That is: - Far Better organized: They Have topics and sub-topics. While a seperate mailing list is required for each topic and subtopics do not exist. - New users get to see all threads immediately, while in mailing lists, a new user gets an empty list at first. - (Optional)Posts can be edited (this may be a dis-advantage sometimes) - (Optional)Far better moderation: Threads can be locked or removed at any time. - Integrated with your mailing client - Filters - Work offline - Builtin PGP support - several others I haven't mentioned, but most of them stem from #1 ***Usage example*** Bob wants to participate in Debian discussions. Bob opens up Thunderbird and adds a new account: imap@debian.org. Bob's mailing client immediately populates the account with all the posts. Also, the account's inbox is divided into folders: Debian-user, debian-announce, etc. Bob can freely browse offline, etc. Now, Bob decides to send an email, he simply hits Reply, and makes sure the "from" is bob@example.com (It is, Thunderbord does this automatically for him because bob@example.com is his default account) Bob simply types his reply and sends it. Shortly after, imap@debian.org gets a new entry - bob's post. And everyone who's listening to imap@debian.org sees it, including bob himself.
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