I haven't really found that, and I tend to have a pretty high tolerance for mailing-list noise. A huge percentage of this mailing list lately has been: 1) having the same arguments/flamewars in circles about language policy that we were having a year ago (and two years ago, and three years ago, even largely with the same people); and 2) bickering about whether English-Wikipedia disputes are on-topic for this list. Oh, and what song to use on the foundation answering machine.
-Mark
Well, if the same problem is circulating around for years, it just means it is not being addressed properly.
Concerning the technology, for me mailing lists is smth from the stone age (early 1990s?) as compared with for example php-based forum discussions.
Cheers, Yaroslav