Email Lists

What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?

You have a record on your hard drive with an email list, while with a discussion board, you have have to go to the website to view old messages.

You only have to send an email to post a message on an email list. With a discussion board you have to go to the website, sign in, and post the message there.

Neither email list or discussion board guarantee an immediate answer, but a message to a discussion board will probably get a faster response, since email lists are usually sent at specific intervals, often daily or weekly.

A list can be set to forward messages individually, but in that case you may receive an annoying volume of emails from that source. An individual message on a discussion board, because it must be actively sought out, is not potentially annoying in that way.

However, because in that sense an email list is passive, and a discussion board active, a message to an email list is more certain to come to the individual's notice, despite fluctuating levels of interest in the topic. Because the messages are usually bundled into one regularly delivered email, the individual receives all the information from the group. In a discussion board important information may be passed over. Of course, if you don't read it, it won't make any difference.

Are there certain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

Because email lists are more regular, less immediate, but leave a permanent individual record, they are more suited to more formal, longstanding groups. They enable you to stay informed, with no more effort required than the reading of the regular email. Because everyone is receiving the same information, they help to keep a group together, but because all communications are directed to the entire group, they cannot easily be personalised and particular.

Discussion boards are more suited to faster paced, more ephemeral discussions, of a less formal nature. A topic is raised, it usually attracts only some, not all of the group, the topic is exhausted, and not revived, leaving no individual record of the discussion.