On Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 9:05 PM Karen Lewellen <klewellen@shellworld.net> wrote:
I started a discussion on the Debian mailing list about your question. One of your points, a decline in email lists, absolutely does not ring true for Debian..there is traffic here daily.
I don't doubt that, but consider the audience. By definition this is a self-selected group already comfortable using email so its members are comfortable with the medium. What you won't hear -- and never will -- is from all the people who are NOT there because they don't like email. But also consider that the issue I raised is not the decline of email lists, but of Linux user groups as we know them. The in-person component. There used to be LUGs scattered around the continent; now the number of ones remaining can be counted on one hand. Beyond the one annual Debconf -- mainly for developers, not end-users -- very few local in-person user events remain. The Toronto one <https://www.nongnu.org/thug/> hasn't updated its website since 2003; heck, its tech is even more legacy than email, IRC. As I indicated, the use of legacy communications (ie,.email) is but one of many reasons for the decline. I stand behind my analysis. - Evan