This compares to google groups where not only are discussions I’m involved with emailed to my inbox but I also get an abridge summary of the days posts. Ideal if I want to keep a watching brief on large projects like the Google Wave API.

I agree that in general less techy users seem to prefer the web interface offered by forums and devs prefer text in inbox offered by email.

In the former, the mailing list certainly seems the best solution. The archives are publicly available (and googleable) online, and since the people on the list are generally very much technically minded, it works well. It also gives great potential for “lurkers” who will (hopefully) one day turn into posters.

With NVu, there was a greater mix of non-technical users as well as developers and so on. I think that the list was archived, but even so the few same questions came around every week. In the end, they set up a forum as well.
I think that the main advantage of the forum is that the search and the threads are all in one place. I means that new members of the community don’t have to know where you go to search the archives, you can see it in front of you.

On balance, I think Steve was right with his suggestion of Google Groups (or a similar system allowing web and email interfaces). This allows the non-technical users to have a familiar interface with features such as search easily discoverable, while having an interface that more technical users might be used to.

- I can get at the archives offline. This is important because sometimes I’m working on a train and need an answer to a question that is available in those archives. Of course, this only works once there has been reasonable activity on the list.

- They are more easily searchable (interestingly you note that forums are more easily searchable, so we disagree there). Mail clients allow you to search on many more parameters than a typical forum does and specialist mail archive sites such as http://www.markmail.com provide event more power

- It’s easy to search across multiple mailing lists either using specialist search sites or a web search engine (many forum tools do not make it easy for search engines to index them).

- I can us powerful email filters to ensure that important posts come to my attention. For example, I have filters that flag mails that contain my name – that’s how I can be subscribed to something like 40 project lists yet still answer any email that says something like “I wonder if Ross has any memory of this”.

- I can use those email filters to help manage my information overload from too many lists.

It’s true that users sometimes prefer forums. It’s easier to dip and, ask your question and dive out again (although to be fair subscribing/unsubscribing to mail lists is very easy once you know how). Unfortunately, the ease of dive in/dive out is actually detrimental to most projects. The goal is to build a self supporting community and as you say in this post a mail list makes one feel more involved with the community and therefore more likely to contribute.

It is my considered opinion that forums are exclusive, not inclusive. This is because a new contributor has to actively seek to engage with the community, whereas on a mailing list they can passively watch and learn. It’s kind of like standing on the edge of the dancefloor (mail lists), sooner or later you will be drawn onto the floor my a song you like, but stand outside the building (forums) and you can’t hear the music and will never get to dance.