I haven't read all the posts here yet, but I'll give you my experience with boards. I've been using message boards since the dial up days in the 80's, and it should be noted I don't speak for SA or its developers..
The advantage of a mailing list is that the messages are delivered to your inbox direct. This is great because it means you won't forget to visit a website. A mailing list has a higher bar for entry, usually unintentionally. Bottomfeeders just find them too hard and don't bother subscribing at all. Forums attract bottomfeeders -- the lowest common denominator of netizens. They attract people who see number of posts as a competition, and who post endlessly incessant crap just to increase their post count. You'll see endless "me too" and "lol" posts. You'll see giant, colourful, often flashing banners in sigs, and sometimes animated avatars if the forum software allows it. The signal to noise ratio changes in favour of the noise. On a mailing list, it favours the signal. People think harder before posting to a mailing list. They don't waste time with the "me too"s and the "lol"s. I like forums, and I use many and run my own, but I think in the case of technical support, a forum is less useful and less productive than a mailing list.
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