Another difference: a USENET discussion inherently takes place within
the context of one or more newsgroups, whereas a message in an email
discussion that is mostly taking place outside the context of any list
might cc a list that only has a peripheral interest in the discussion
- because people on the list need to know.
With respect, this is getting very fanciful. How often is that likely
to
happen?
How often depends on the list and how its used. But it's not
"fanciful". For instance, when I was on IESG it was common to Cc a WG
mailing list on a communication that was actually directed to someone
else, say the IETF secretary.
(And surely you'd Bcc the list in that circumstance, anyway?)
A person might do so, but not "surely". Knowing that the list was
copied might be useful to the other recipients of the message.
Are we in danger of not doing anything because we can't do everything?
I don't think so. I just don't want to see us discourage valuable uses
of lists.
Keith