Aside of the protocols used, SMTP/POP or NNTP, what is the big difference between a newsgroup and a mailing list? :)
You're not using a true news client so the main differences aren't apparent to you.
Two major differences come to mind:
a) When I wish to review newsgroup posts I have to fireup my newsclient and fetch the new headers. It therefore takes an action on your part to go find new posts etc.
With a mailing list, I don't have to do this since I check my mail all the time and mailing list mail will come along with it. As a result, without having to specifically do any extra checking I see list mail.
b) Newsgroup messages aren't stored on your machine unless you expressly do so. For busy lists, newsgroups can be very convenient. You simply download the headers, scan them and download only those messages you want. You can even watch a thread and have your newsreader automatically download the messages for it while only downloading headers for the other threads. You can also do the reverse in that you can easily prevent message bodies for a particular thread from being downloaded.
So all in all, the user has a lot more control and this is ideal in the setting of a very high volume post discussion group in which the user wishes to look out for things that may interest him and at the same time, those interesting things aren't too common.
For example the beta list for my mailserver is very busy. Sometimes up to 500 posts in a day. I do check the list daily during some periods and may read only a few of those many messages. I'd go nuts downloading all those messages by e-mail to read only 1% of them, so if it were only offered as a mailing list, I wouldn't be subscribed. I've long unsubscribed from a few mailing lists, not because they were completely useless. It's just that it's not worth download all those messages to find the occasional thread of interest. I'd much prefer newsgroups.
For these lists, it doesn't matter for me since I read all the message or at least scan their content.
IMO, message boards are awful solution and suites only the fleeting visitor and takes the problem to the other extreme.
I had once heard mention of mirroring list traffic to an NNTP server but I don't know what happened there. This would offer the best of both worlds. The subscriber chooses what he wants to do. Of course the NNTP server would have to be private and secured in some way to control posts and subscriptions. Perhaps the server should be read only. If you wish to post, you post to the list server.
-- allie_M
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