everyone is on here, there's nobody hiding away posting things from a hole, they are physically online.
samantics. there's no difference in the "presence" aspect, IMO. you've got to be online somewhere to originate an NNTP post or email message.
With a forum like this, it is also going into cloud computing,
That statement assumes that cloud computing is a good thing; I happen to disagree. Strongly.
For instance, if my email service provider goes away, i've at least got my archived email on my computer, directly under my physical control. If this forum server goes away, this body of knowledge is gone. This is not a hypothetical situation - what was the cell phone service who lost all user data not too long ago?
accessible from anywhere with any hardware, from anyone's computer
ever heard of webmail?
I'm not arguing for dismantling the forum in favor of an email list; I'm just saying, there are existing solutions that I feel are better, even if they're not new or buzzword-laden.
-j