qole, with all due respect, if you expected this reaction, why are you surprised then?

I don't see how the mailing lists aren't public? They're published on HTTP hosts, anyone can join. Both tmo and mailing lists provide services to the community, and they are not mutually exclusive.

Yes, the mailing lists are less noisy, can we honestly blame people for not having to filter through copious amounts of responses when they only have limited time available to spend on the subject?

I don't think we should penalise anyone, and we are penalising ourselves, the whole community by having this discussion over and over again.

I honestly believe that communication flows pretty nicely between the current channels. People who have a good grasp of a specific subject do a very good job of either recapping the discussion for the other side or representing an understated opinion in either media.