
Ask HN: Why do dev communities still use mailing lists? - kevinSuttle
Just wondering, as I see this all the time.
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cauterized
Because it's a push rather than a pull medium (you don't have to remember to
check it) but asynchronous (you don't have to check it immediately). And one
that everyone already has access to (you don't have to create Yet Another
Account on Yet Another Service to keep up with questions, answers, and new
development).

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kevinsimper
I understand what you mean and I fell the same that malling list is just not
that pleasing and feels old, but nothing have solved it yet. Discourse is on
the way, but still a bit difficult to host yourself and hosted to expensive.

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tumdum_
Because mailing lists are _simple_ and modern webapps are _easy_.

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aprdm
Because they work and have worked for ever.. same with IRC.

Also, not needing to create yet another account is a big plus

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kevinSuttle
Why not GitHub issues? No this is not a satirical question.

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stephenr
Why not?

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iDemonix
Because nowadays there are tools just to make sure the tools are making the
tools that monitor the tools are monitoring the tools correctly.

In short: there's a web app for seemingly everything nowadays, but devs stick
to mailing lists. In my opinion, mailing lists are very old school, not the
easiest to wade/search through and most new programmers are baffled by them
(or at least by how to post to them).

You could argue, though, that most new people just use things like
StackOverflow nowadays...

~~~
brudgers
_most new programmers are baffled by them (or at least by how to post to
them)._

That may not be a bug.

~~~
iDemonix
Then new programmers will stick to stack overflow and the likes, and mailing
lists will slowly decline. Not a bad thing in my opinion as I'm not a mailing
list fan (as is obvious from my first reply).

~~~
brudgers
StackOverflow is better suited to teach new programmers the ways of the world
than a stable open source project with a small team of core developers
volunteering their time.

To put it another way, good open source projects are good often because the
team is experienced and focused.

