discordia was initiated exactly with the idea in mind to improve
certain aspects of online communication and to work around
disadvantages of lists. while i a sympathetic to discordia, i hardly
find the time to follow discussions there, while i have no problem
following lists such as Spectre, Rohrpost, Xchange, Nettime, or the
Sarai Reader-list, because i can read those when i'm somewhere
offline.
i also believe that the issue of reading and being online/offline is
very important for lists. with the Spectre list (and, in the past,
the original Syndicate list) we find that a lot of people with
unstable modem connections are dependent on a 'light' channel.
personally, i also like the mix between synchronicity and
asynchronicity on lists which you get by people being present at
different times, entering different speeds into the communication;
this is also the result of different types and speeds of connection
to the net, and the result of personal choices. (some people see
e-mail as it is coming in, all the time, while others - incl. myself
- only check their mailboxes occasionally over the day in order to
avoid the constant distraction.)