I don’t think there’s much point worrying about people we “lost” when transitioning to Discourse. Sure, there are 630 people in the Google Group and only 250 have signed up for Discourse, but that doesn’t really mean much. There are only 130 in the Google Group that were receiving any kind of email notifications, the other 500 would only see posts if they checked the web forum, which they can still do without having a Discourse account. You only need an account to post. Most of those that we “lost” either don’t know that we switched (so clearly weren’t paying a whole lot of attention to the forum anyway), or haven’t had the need/desire to create a new account. In any case, I don’t think the reduction in the number of forum accounts is a big deal.
I wholeheartedly am against moving the admin list to discourse. I don’t miss emails from the admin list. I miss updates from Discourse all the time. For instance, I didn’t get the notification for this thread.
Summary, I think we need to leave the admin list where it is.
Given that the discourse email issue was a technical glitch and not a feature, does that change how you feel @Kez?
Discourse is the next universe of usability for me. I enjoyed reading the mailing list but only would have used such a medium in an emergency. I would support consolidating any MakeICT related communications through Discourse.
Trysten, I can’t share your enthusiasm for Discourse. My primary communication interface is email and the email interface to Discourse has been consistently sketchy or broken. Maybe it can eventually be fixed, but so far it has been a definite step backwards for me.
Curt
Assuming that the emails will be sent properly from now on, what’s one thing that would make Discourse better for you @curt.gridley?
I wondered the same thing. Some users prefer to connect to forums by email only. They get all threads sent to their inboxes where they can categorize and organize them. They interface entirely through email. They rely on the email system working. There are drawbacks imo, but it really comes down to personal preference.
Here was the thread where i asked the same question:
As long as I can depend on the email interface, I’m ok with it. And that’s all I ask of it really.
It would then neither add nor subtract from my experience.
Curt, i heard them talking about you on NPR the other day. The Gridley Bump! Nice! 
I think once email is ironed out (and it sounds like it might be) and I’ve applied the dark theme I may like discource better. Email alerts from certain categories, but not from everything. I don’t need to know when the kiln firings are, or when the new classes are posted. If I do, I know where to look. but when someone posts a question in the ERP lab… Boom. email.
See, I must be the super different one here, I want every email from everything. I don’t ever want to have to visit the site, because I don’t have time to do that and I don’t want to. 
Hey I got this email!
I have created a new category here called “inner workings” where we can talk about things like bylaws, policies, running the organization… basically the inner workings. I will cross-post important topics so they’re in both places, the admin list and here. There are people who prefer this forum, there are people who prefer the admin list, I don’t want anyone left out.
If you’d like to join, send me a message or reply here. I added about 50 people just for fun.
That kinda sounds like a terrible idea.
you should just move Admin to Discourse so it’s all in one place.
We should definitely not move the admin list to discourse.
Kez Cook
Board Member
MakeICT
Why is discourse unsatisfactory? Is there something about it that, if changed, would make it more usable for you? You should be able to use email exclusively to interact with talk.makeict.org. Is there some extra feature that would sway you?
It should make cookies. Delicious chocolate chip cookies… perhaps esd safe cookies
We have a reflow oven for that 
Actually I’m quite pleased. Good work!
@trysten Trysten, you asked something and I forgot to answer. Sorry.
I want every single post in my email. And so far, that’s not happening. There’s still posts I’m missing so there’s conversations I’m missing and so discourse is not a good option for the admin list. In my opinion.
Thanks,
Kez