Well, once again I would like to bring up the concept of forum software for Jakarta. The reason I am bringing it up again is that mailing lists are intrusive and spammy. Daily I get flooded with a ton of email that I have absolutely no interest in reading. However if I unsubscribe to the lists than when there is something that I would like to know about or answer, I will miss it. In addition, if I unsubscribe I'm not able to post my own issues. With a mailing list, the communication mechanism is just too intrusive. On a forum I can pick and choose what I want to read and reply to.
As for them being used, its a simple matter of retiring mailing lists for forum software. When we consider that at least 90% of Jakarta users are not Jakarta developers but will often have a question or an important insight, than the folly of communicating only in mailing lists becomes clear. -- Robert Simmons