Email Lists

Email lists are something that I am quite familiar with. At my work, we have a series of email lists on outlook relating to various topics.
I browsed through Topica and discovered that it was a lot like the email lists I use at work except at work, the email lists are heavily monitored and there are strict rules relating to content.
I am also a frequent subscriber to various email lists like Ticketek and various internet shopping websites that inform me when tickets are available for purchase or when they have a big sale in there online stores.

The advantage of communicating by email lists is that it is very simple. You can email information to people who are interested and who want to read it.
The main disadvantage of email lists are that some posts may steer off topic and become offensive to other readers.

The main advantage of discussion boards are that they are often more specific with each post being able to be named to related directly to the topic.
The main disadvantage is that you don’t get an immediate response and you may have to keep checking back to see if anyone has responded to your post.