

Why do projects still use mailing lists for support? - lhnn

Mailing lists seem to be less easy to navigate and search, and the hierarchy of messages is more confusing than a message board. You can't add keyword indeces, and the UI is often worse.<p>If people want a minimalist interface or an email interface to a support and discussion website, I'm sure an API could be built for an otherwise full-featured site.
======
spooneybarger
I hate discussion sites. I vastly prefer email where I get it all sent to me,
can have it stored for easy reference, searching etc.

I would ask if you go to discussion site style, why have a site at all? Why
not just have a standard tag people use on stackoverflow?

------
mindcrime
W-w-what?!?? C'mon... yet one more username/password to remember, yet one more
(different) set of navigation idioms (no two discussion / forum sites are
layed out the same), little or no ability to view content offline,
inconsistent or non-existent ability to tag / filter / route messages per my
own needs... forums are a _horrible_ mechanism for support, compared to email.
With email, the messages are delivered to my email client using credentials
that are already configured, are available for review anywhere (once
downloaded), are threaded according to well understood mechanisms, and can be
filtered, tagged, sorted, etc. any way I like.

As far as I'm concerned, the question should be "why would any project _not_
use email for support?"

~~~
lhnn
Fair enough. With OAuth these days, you wouldn't need a separate username /
password, but your point stands.

I do believe sites have much better mechanisms for sorting and searching
compared to the web-interfaces of mailing lists.

Therefore, my next question could be, "why are mailing list web interfaces so
horrendous compared to sites?"

~~~
mindcrime
_I do believe sites have much better mechanisms for sorting and searching
compared to the web-interfaces of mailing lists._

If you're talking about using, for example, the web interface for Yahoo Groups
or something, then maybe yeah. But if you're having the messages delivered to
your email, and reading it with either GMail or a standalone client like
Thunderbird, I think email wins on "searchability." I personally haven't found
most forum sites to have terribly good search.

 _"why are mailing list web interfaces so horrendous compared to sites?"_

Good question. :-)

