What does the “Mailing List mode” do? How does it affect my notifications?
The only information given to me in the UI is:
This setting overrides the activity summary.
Muted topics and categories are not included in these emails.
AI-generated summary
In this discussion about “Mailing List mode” in Discourse, users explore its functionality and implications. kuba-orlik asks what the mode does and how it affects notifications, noting it overrides activity summaries and excludes muted topics. steko explains that in this mode, users receive one email per post—like traditional mailing lists—ideal for those preferring email interaction over visiting the forum. watchmanmonitor adds it’s useful for closed systems where all users should see all content, but less suitable for public forums due to potential email overload. kuba-orlik asks if users can avoid receiving emails about their own posts; fefrei confirms this is a common request but not yet implemented. watchmanmonitor notes that watching a topic avoids receiving your own posts, but acknowledges the debate around whether users prefer or dislike seeing their own posts echoed. fefrei suggests limiting echo to posts made via email, since web users already see their posts go through—watchmanmonitor calls this a promising compromise. Jo-Erlend_Schinstad asks if users can reply via email and have replies appear as normal comments; steko confirms yes, if “email reply support” is configured, linking to setup instructions. Jo-Erlend_Schinstad expresses excitement, calling it a powerful dual-use system if it works well in practice.
In mailing list mode you will receive one email per post, as happens with traditional mailing lists. This is desirable if you prefer to interact via email, without visiting the forum website.
or, you might set it as default if you want your end users to get regular notices of all traffic in all categories, by default.
Useful for closed systems with known sets of users who should be seeing all content. Not as great for public forums, where so much email might be a turn off.
Cool! When enabled, is there a way to prevent it from sending me email notification about my own messages?
This has been a very common feature request, but hasn’t been implemented yet 
hilariously, if you’re just “watching” a topic, you’ll get all the emails, with context, and you won’t get your own posts.
There’s really no winning that battle.. as many people hate getting their own posts, as worry their post didn’t go through if they didn’t see it echo’d back.
It’d have to be a per-user preference, and I can’t guess if it’s better to have it off or on by default (though on seems better, since people are more likely to act on “I wish I didn’t get my own posts” than they are to guess they could turn on an option to "get my own posts)
there’s many topics on meta about this already, though, no clear winner.
Looking at your post, I was starting to wonder…
Would limiting echoing to posts made via mail make sense? There, some confirmation is nice – on the web, you already saw your post go through.
The Felix, that’s the first suggestion I remember reading which can really help cut through the debate. Nice.
Does this also mean users can also respond to posts by email and it’ll appear as if added as a normal comment though Discourse?
Yes, provided you configure “email reply support” appropriately:
Wow, that sounds awesome. It depends on well it works in practice, of course, but if it can really be usable as a mailing list system as well as a commenting system, that’s pretty fantastic.