Would it be useful if we could integrate the documentation system with a discussion forum (like Discourse.org)? Each function can be linked to its own discussion topic, where users and developers can discuss about the function, upvote or downvote it etc. This kind of discussion seems to be a bit more structured than a mailing list discussion.
A more modern forum is nice indeed. It is not strictly better than mailing lists though. So what I would like is a Discourse like interface on top of the mailing list, so we get the features you're talking about without a painful migration and breaking all links to threads in the archives. Mailman 3 does provide this (example:
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org/). I'm keeping an eye on what's going on with Mailman 3 migration of the
python.org provided infrastructure. I think we can do this in the near to medium future. I don't want us to be the guinea pig though:)
I did not suggest replacing the mailing lists with Discourse.
I suggested integrating documentation with Discourse, so that for each function there is a separate discussion topic for this function. For each function on the documentation page there can be a "Feedback" or "Comment" link that goes to the corresponding discussion topic for that function. This way Discourse can be used like a commenting system (similar to Disqus). In the discussion page of the function people can upvote the function (using the "like" feature of Discourse) and can also explain why they think it is important.
This may help building a consensus about which are the important or "core" functions of NumPy. Or maybe it doesn't have to be so complex after all, and mailing list discussions, combined with face-to-face discussions on conferences or online meetings can do it better.
Dashamir