For tech support they're perfect. Such platforms are perfect for discussions about the patch or how to apply the patch. But if your trying to debug a kernel be

For tech support they're perfect. Such platforms are perfect for discussions about the patch or how to apply the patch. But if your trying to debug a kernel because sound is chopping or you've introduced a critical bug in your code; mail-lists allow you get straight to the point. Development machines may not have access to a web browser. Your still required to register an account and have the resources available to browse the site. If for whatever reason that discourse instance disappears you then loose everything. How would I obtain all the data? Email only requires an small amount of data, so you can craft replies where-ever and it keeps a hard copy. Regardless if you have internet or not, no email server you can still access previous threads.