[Python-ideas] Browser for mailing lists

[Ben Finney]

Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> writes:

> Mailing lists, I prefer when I'm highly invested. Just as an RSS
> reader brings blogs I care about into a single interface, mailing
> lists do the same for collaborative communication. Appropriate use of
> filters and "mark all as read" then deals with the volume of traffic.
>
> However, mailing lists are *terrible* if you just want to drop in, ask
> one question & leave again.

Presumably that's because, in order to follow and participate, one needs
to subscribe and receive all the messages in one's email. I agree,
that's not ideal for dropping by and asking a question.

Which is why I prefer NNTP: it is ideal for *both* these purposes. One
can quickly dip into a forum, follow a thread for a while, and
unsubscribe just as easily. On the other hand, for high-commitment
communication, having all the forums together and threaded is excellent.

Having all of this in a single NNTP client interface makes discussion on
dozens of forums much more manageable than either “web forums” (*spit*)
or mailing lists.

> In the meantime, making GMane more discoverable by suggesting it as an
> alternative to subscription in the various list descriptions sounds
> reasonable to me.

GMane survives on sponsorship and donations. If we're sending more and
more people to use that service, perhaps we can suggest supporting them
financially too?

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Ben Finney