I don't think Jaffa's comment was too out-of-line -- there's a lot of truth in it. But, I also have no problem with deprecating the mailing list in order to cohesify community-related communications. I like the mailing list format better, but coming here to perform community tasks takes just about the same amount of time. (And, yes, tmo -- regardless of the tools it provides -- is much more difficult to track than the mailing list.)

Tim

P.S. No, I'm not back. That is, unless I have to come here for community-related discussion instead of my Inbox.