As a newby, let me chime in:
Part of the value of the list were the repsonses to the responses but there is another part that I suspect has now been lost too -
Our list archvies! I have been into the list archives lately on several occasions looking for information I thought had been discussed on the list. If we reply privately, I would assume those answers do not get reported for posterity, a terrible thing for archivists to commit.
Nick Gilliam