The Trisquel forum has served for several years already, using some Drupal forum module. However, it has many issues:
Using a mailing list makes the posts as quickly accessible as one's email provider can muster. I find that to be plenty responsive. Don't downplay the email aspect for compatibility with free software either -- prioritizing access via a computer that is not a free software device (a "smartphone") is painfully ironic in the context of discussions intended for use by people discussing a totally free software operating system.
Only some HTML can be used for post formatting, not Markdown or even BBCode.
I think that's good. I want to read what people have to say, not what fancy stuff people pull off in formatting.
It is "non-standard" in the sense that most people are not used to a forum that is embedded within Drupal.
You are claiming to speak for what "most people" are used to but providing no evidence of how you arrive at your conclusion that you're accurately summarizing their views.
It could look better, more readable (some texts are quite small), and with a less distracting background.
Style strikes me as inconsequential both because with a mailing list gateway I can make the posts look as I wish (including getting proper threading information) without altering anyone else's ability to do the same, and because style strikes me as entirely subjective.
I know you guys are very attached to mailing lists, so I'll warn you already that those forum software are not intended to be used with e-mail.
I don't think taking away something we're attached to is going to make for a good suggestion. I prefer more priority be given to what is being said, what you say we're "attached to", and directly addressing the irony of favoring changes that benefit non-free computers for forums meant to discuss a totally free software OS.
I understand that users use what I'd call trackers (what you call "smartphones") and making it nicer for that audience to become aware of software freedom should be a goal. Therefore I'll offer a tip for how you could reframe your suggestion: Consider providing a set of changes specified as a CSS stylesheet for the forums. This, in theory, would let the posts become formatted differently and perhaps increase ease-of-use on a variety of screen sizes (including tablets and phones) while keeping other aspects as-is (such as not touching the mailing list gateway, not requiring big changes to the underlying software, and not prioritizing things that ought not be viewed as so important when compared with free software compatibility). CSS can do quite a bit these days (the CSS Zen Garden is remarkable in how different a site can look given only a change in stylesheet), you might be able to get what you're looking for without doing anything but supplying one CSS file (no Javascript needed, no add-ons or plug-ins either).
