Even though I don't feel strongly about this functionality, the way the vote itself was presented bothers me. Clearly, if you want an email thread to be treated as a public topic that all responses automatically stick to, then you're a communist and trying to take away people's freedom. Never mind that you can still send private emails to someone.
I think there are a lot of valid arguments for and against, and for me it boils down to the fact that this is an ASF project, and should stick to what the ASF has set up, irrespective of what other open source projects or lists do. But it seems like a bit of a cheap shot to go after the Godwin's law vote.
