I note that no one is stepping up to take over the task of trying to deal with the mailing lists.
But more importantly, while all these suggestions on how to deal with spam and other issues are interesting and informative they are all ignoring the main point of the email. If DragonFly is to continue on as a viable project it needs to attract new participants who are not just willing to help with running a mail server, but with actually contributing to the project by porting software - whether it be just getting packages working, creating new packages, or getting things like Bluetooth and Nvidia working on Dragonfly. Regardless of what we all think, email is dead to the newer generation of developers and a requirement to use an email list to join DragonFly merely ensures that any younger developers looking for an opensource opportunity look elsewhere. And the reality is there are lots of other opportunties - the problem isn't just Linux but even Microsoft is now a welcoming opensource place for many things (they have many opensource projects that welcome outside contributions, including even now a proper terminal, and none require joining a mailing list - they are even shortly including Python with Windows, set up so that typing python at a command line will automatically take the user to the Windows Store to prompt the user to install it if necessary). While not related to opensource, Apple provides a good example of the death of email and the shift to the web. For a long time Apple operated several mailing lists for developers of software that runs on macOS and a couple of years ago Apple announced that they would be shutting down the mailing lists and that everyone should move to the webforums. There was much angst and wailing, and when Apple didn't reconsider equivalent mailing lists were set up on groups.io. Those mailing lists are dead with no one posting to them. Everyone moved to the web and continued on with life because email wasn't as essential as they all claimed.
