Yes, I too am huddling my cloak against the chill.

As a 'customer' of list servs, here's some experience
By subscribing, the e-mail address is checkable for the claimed identity of the contributor. The option on this Message Board of NOT leaving an e-mail address is not available on a list serv, which requires that contributors be willing to have some exposure of real identity to each other.

A. Unmoderated list servs

A1. Critical thinking list had some hyperverbal contributors who digressed onto anything in the universe, as well as concise professionals; I dumped it because it could sink my e-mail file in hours.
A2. A nutritional epidemiology list died on the vine with at most one contribution a week or even a month.
A3. A joke list, with an anything goes contributions, but with vociferous replies if the crowd didn't like.

B. Moderated list servs, in which your message is previewed by a moderator before it goes out to the whole group.

B1. Ecological economics group had rules about how many contributions per person per month, which meant messages tended to be more rehearsed, and was intended more for intraprofessional exchange rather tahn a support group for new persons who might have many questions.
B2. Listserv on infectious diseases has an archive of old topics and organizes discussions by numerical sequence in a thread, so you know if your are reading reply #3 to something, which is useful lacking the more visual display of threads we see now.
B3. Another infectious disease list offers not only an archive but the option of getting a digest once a day rather than many single messages.

All of the list servs except the joke were designed for the use of professionals, who intended to be around for a while for ongoing in-depth work on topics.
Might want to ask what purposes are to be served (pun intended) and if so where to go to keep the fires of enlightenment burning clean and bright.

Joan