[OT] combined forum and mailinglist (Re: Why not use forum?)

[Arnout Engelen]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 02:48:27PM -0400, Kevin Dean wrote:
> Some people REALLY like mailing lists and some people REALLY like
> fora and never the twain shall meet. :P

Personally, I don't believe this: to me, it sounds entirely feasible to
create a 'discussion thread respository' which can be accessed with a
web forum interface, a mailinglist interface or an NNTP client. I fail
to see the fundamental difference.

(of course, there's already gatewaying software like GMANE, some forums
already have quite extensive mail features and some mailinglist
softwares have added some interactivity to their 'archive'. I don't feel
I've seen it 'done right' yet, though, with a central 'message
repository' and several interfaces which are all 'first class citizens'.

As a hobby project, I started implementing this. I'm currently thinking
of a Java web app with a Hibernate database (postgres/mysql), and
Subethamail serves as an inspiration. This is *way* pre-alpha, but if 
anyone would like to cooperate, drop me a note :).


Arnout