On Mon, Aug 07, 2006 at 11:39:51AM +0900, Miles Bader wrote: > "Joe Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > So I really wonder why mailing lists are so common. > > It sort of depends on what you're looking for. > > Some advantages of mailing lists: > > * E-mail generally has a "wider reach" -- it gets past corporate > firewalls, (my company has never allowed external nntp connections), > works even on strange systems, etc.
Point. Then again, if your corporate sysadmins don't want you reading news, they probably don't want you reading mailinglists, either. > * With email, you can use the same MUA you always use, with the > features you're used to. People are _used_ to email, know how to > configure it. OTOH, many MUA's (including Thunderbird, mutt with some patches, pine, Mozilla Mail, MS Outlook Express, and of course gnus (which is more of a news client than a mail client)) can read news just fine[1], with an interface that is almost the same as the mail interface. Outlook Express, which does not support threading in the mail interface, will suddenly support threading for NNTP, too. [1] "just fine" has to be taken with a grain of salt in the context of Outlook Express, obviously -- it doesn't do anything "just fine". > * With a mailing list you get a private copy of every message, without > having to figure out how to setup a nntp server. OTOH, most news clients can be configured to store articles locally in the absense of a local nntp server; additionally, Debian includes "leafnode", a news server that requires almost no configuration and that stores news on your local machine. Personally, I run leafnode on my laptop. -- Fun will now commence -- Seven Of Nine, "Ashes to Ashes", stardate 53679.4 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]