No I much prefer email groups to online forums or Reddit. Easy to register, just send a subscribe message. Trolls can be ignored or banned by the list administrators.
I am subscribed to several specific interest email lists. The information I get there is typically much better than what I find online.
> No I much prefer email groups to online forums or Reddit. Easy to register, just send a subscribe message. Trolls can be ignored or banned by the list administrators.
Do you also prefer email lists over a moderated newsgroup? If so, why?
A moderated newsgroup would be OK; I tend to treat email and news (back in the usenet heyday) in a pretty similar way. Both are text-based messages coming to an inbox where my client application can sort/filter/present them to me in a way that I like. I find the experience of a listserv/mailman style email list and a newsgroup to be pretty similar. The key in both cases is that the protocol is open, I choose the client, and I choose how to manage the messages (beyond any moderation that may exist).
Why can't an email list be moderated? I've seen several that very much were.
OTOH your own moderation by just ignoring certain senders may be relatively efficient even if nobody actually controls the list server, and the whole thing is just a bunch of peer-to-peer messages with CC large headers.
They can be. There are (at least) two ways to do it, one is to have a moderator review and approve messages before they get sent on to the list members. This might be done for a while for new members until they demonstrate good faith participation, or for posts with attachments, etc.
The other is banning members if they misbehave.
Neither approach is foolproof, and ultimately it's up to the list members to ignore any messages they don't like. One difference with online forums is that it's not possible to recall or delete a message after it's been sent out.
I am subscribed to several specific interest email lists. The information I get there is typically much better than what I find online.