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Yes, I've used them, they're great. Here's an example...
http://www.yabbforum.com/community/
Typically you'll have one or more subject groups, containing one or more
topics, each of which can contain one of more threads.
They can be left to run on their own, or admins can get involved, e.g.
moving threads into more relevent topics. Often people can edit their
own posts for some time after posting. All sorts of privilige settings
are possible, e.g sometimes only admins can start threads, sometimes
anyone can, sometimes it varies by topic.
You can include polls in messages, as well as a certain amount of markup
using UBBcode, a sort of simplified html. (Might be useful for
equations). You get email and optionally personal messaging without
revealing your email address. You get archiving and web access for free
of course, linking and threading of posts, search by author, thread, etc.
To sumarise:
The upside: it is superior to an email list in every possible respect.
The downside: you can't really expect scientists to use any technology
which isn't at least 10 years out of date, so it ain't gonna happen till
about 2010. (Actually we got some of the York lab hooked on wiki after
only about 5 years, but a previous attempt to use wiki a year earlier
failed).
