It's used a surprising amount for academic discussion in my field, especially more informal stuff like which conferences to submit to or follow-ups to recent co

It's used a surprising amount for academic discussion in my field, especially more informal stuff like which conferences to submit to or follow-ups to recent controversies. Basically the discussions that 10 years ago would've happened on a mailing list, or in the comments on a prominent person's blog. Some of that also happens on Twitter, but a somewhat different subset of discussions go there.