Two off-the-cuff comments before I mull it over at length.

One is simply that different people like different forms of communication. I know at least one person who gets all her Maemo news and info via twitter and won't post here. It's what works for her. Maybe some people simply prefer a mailing list.

Secondly, could it be that the reason the devs use the mailing is is precisely because this place has become highly user-orientated. In other words, they go there to escape us, and come here to find us when they want us. I am under impression there was a dev-specific IRC channel created recently, too , after #maemo has become a bit too user-focussed for some. (Can't say I noticed - about 95% of #maemo goes over my head so I assume a fair proportion are still devs!)

The question is, are you trying to remove a way for the devs to communicate amongst themselves away from the users? because if so, are you sure that's what they want?