[Cryptography] Can we move this list to an online forum please?

[Devin Reade]

--On Tuesday, December 24, 2013 04:40:16 PM -0500 Greg
<greg at kinostudios.com> wrote:

> Forums are simply superior to mailing lists in almost all respects
> (perhaps all).

I strongly disagree with this and intensely dislike forums.  I have the
displeasure of using them in a number of professional contexts
and find them *much* less useful than a mailing list.

- Rather than receiving email when there is actually traffic, in order
  to keep current I have to remember to go visit that particular forum.
  If its something with regular traffic then one *may* be in the habit
  of visiting that forum every day, however if it is bursty then there is
the
  tendancy to forget about the forum for a while in times of low traffic,
  only to find that you are all of a sudden beind by hundreds of messages.

- A quick check of my inbox hierarchy shows that I'm subscribed to 
  about 50 different technical mailing lists.  Why should I have to
  go and visit 50 different web sites on a regular basis just to 
  wade through a high latency web interface to try to see what's
  new and interesting?  Using a mail client gives me *local*, low-latency
  access to that data using my client of choice.

- The search features of my mail client and server far out-perform
  the browse/search functionality of most forum software that I've
  been forced to use.  Not to mention being faster.

- I happen to *like* that this mailing list is moderated.  It significantly
  improves the signal-to-noise ratio.  Forums are not without their 
  spam problems, either.  If you prefer unmoderated discussions, they
  exist elsewhere.  (Aside:  Thanks, moderators, for your ongoing
  efforts.)

- Moderation not only reduces the amount of cruft, but also keeps us on
  topic.  I would really prefer that this not degrade into a bunch of
  posts on "what does it mean when my web browser says it doesn't trust
  a site" or "how can I hack <insert_latest_game_here>?"

> - Easier and faster to administer and moderate

Speaking as someone who has run email lists for years and also
on occasion acted as a forum moderator in a number of contexts,
I find email lists are less work on both the administration and
moderation side.

[Note:  While some of the following may sound harsh, it is not intended
as a personal attack.]

> - We don't have to wait for emails to be approved and show up

Approvals usually happen within hours.  In a moderated forum, I do 
not see that as a problem, and again I'd prefer moderation to a 
free-for-all.

> - Conversations are organized better

Try an email client that is smart enough to understand threads.
The only time there is a problem is when someone hijacks a thread,
and using a web forum won't help you there.

> - Emoticons [...] Stars [...]  Badges [...] Bells [...] whistles 

I prefer content to flash.  I consider this a professional
information source, not Facebook.  Who needs 'likes' and such?

It aint' broke.  Don't "fix" it.

Devin