# Discourse vs. email -- Pros & Cons
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 14, 2016, 11:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232 "2016-12-14T11:50:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 11:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/1 "2016-12-14T11:50:50Z")
I hope I selected the right category for my discussion.
Here it is: I want to introduce Discourse at work.
I work in scientific research and I feel Discourse can help us organize things better.
Before I do, I want to be prepared for inevitable questions about the “use case” for Discourse.
Questions such as (but not limited to):
1. Why do we need Discourse? We are using email right now and that keeps people informed.
2. What advantages can we expect from using Discourse? What does it bring that we do not have right now?
3. Doesn’t this introduce redundancy? Like people discussing things in Discourse that are really meant for email and vice versa?
If you have arguments for the one over the other then I would be happy to hear them from you.
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@JagWaugh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JagWaugh)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 12:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/2 "2016-12-14T12:27:36Z")
I think the answer is “It depends on how your organisation is using email”.
One of the advantages of a platform like Discourse is that it provides what you might call “discretionary pull”, meaning that individual users can choose to pay attention to the full range of topics and categories on Discourse, with as much or as little notification as they see fit. Email is, in comparison, an explicit push technology.
I think of Discourse as sort of halfway between Email and Chat, but how useful it will turn out to be will depend on the discipline of your users, and what other central information storage mechanism you use.
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/3 "2016-12-14T13:43:47Z")
Thanks, Andrew.
I can think of a possible Pro for Discourse: by cleverly organizing categories into “fields op interest” you get a much better separation and overview of topics.
Modern mail clients let you organize topics into folders and/or tag them.
But I suspect that a well layed-out list of categories, targeted towards your audience, give a much better and cleaner look and user experience.
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### Author:  [@JagWaugh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JagWaugh)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/4 "2016-12-14T13:53:22Z")
I think the key point is the discretionary aspect:
- With an email system the user has to **guess** that there might be someone who has information that they **might** be interested in, then **contact** that person and **ask** to be included in the to: list. If it turns out that that information source **isn’t** what they are interested in, then they need to **ask** to be **removed** from the to: list.
- With Discourse, the end user can **see** what is going on in the system, and make an **informed** decision about what categories and topics are available (and to which they have access), and **chooses** to **follow** them, or **not** , and can change that at any time they choose.
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 2:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/5 "2016-12-14T14:06:11Z")
Excellent point!
This goes especially for scientific research, where students and researchers need to follow several interdisciplinary fields related to their current research.
This is a definite Pro for Discourse.
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### Author:  [@steef](https://meta.discourse.org/u/steef)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 5:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/6 "2016-12-14T17:27:00Z")
I went through a similar thing, trying to convince my fellow scouting leaders to use Discourse. We were (and still are mostly for now) using e-mail for group-wide communication, leader teams usually use a WhatsApp group or something like that for small talk.
My strongest motivations were:
- Archive-ability (excuse my english)
Lots of information simply got lost over the years. Trying to find minutes from meetings held a few years ago? Might as well give up. Lots of resources for (new) contributors are all over the place and nobody has everything, let alone the newest version. Add a search function and life has never been this great.
- Contact management
People come and go in scouting groups, there are _always_ some people missing out on an e-mail being sent. I can imagine this is less of an issue in a company or research group setting, and if you use mailing lists or something similar it’ll be a non-issue. Another pro of Discourse is that new people can find discussions from before their time easily.
- Flexible private messaging
It’s easy to quickly set up a private discussion with certain people or groups, no need to look up addresses or whatnot.
- Discussion tools
Polls, wikis, media integration, uploads and whatnot are simple things in Discourse and a lot harder to implement properly using e-mail.
As far as your point 3 goes, _do you really need e-mail_? In my ideal world we’d use Discourse for everything and only e-mail when communicating to the outside (members, parents etc.)
Good luck!
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/7 "2016-12-14T17:35:03Z")
Thanks, steef. This makes an interesting read.
I particularly like the point you made in Contact management – new people can find discussions from before their time easily.
That is important in scientific research. Once the budget has dried up, people are gone in an instant. Discourse will then prove to be valuable source of information.
Thanks again!
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/8 "2016-12-14T17:37:59Z")
I’ll write a more extensive reply to this in a bit, as this is a common question we ought to have a canonical answer for. In the meantime:
> [@STiNGER](#):
>
> 1. Doesn’t this introduce redundancy? Like people discussing things in Discourse that are really meant for email and vice versa?
Not quite sure what you mean by that. Could you write up a little scenario that exemplifies this problem?
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/9 "2016-12-14T18:12:13Z")
Sure, Erland.
In our research facility, people are accustomed to inform each other by mail.
We use a couple of mailinglists to sent the same message to multiple recipients.
That’s our primary means of communication.
People respond to email quickly, and are implicitely expected to do so.
It is possible that management objects to Discourse, because it would defer attention from email to Discourse. Also, it introduces the question when to write an email and when to post in Discourse.
I am not saying management will object, but I need to be prepared with solid arguments to counter them in case they do.
That’s the object of this discussion, to anticipate objections and gather as much arguments as possible.
I want to present a “use case” for our facility that leaves one question open: “can we afford NOT to choose Discourse?”
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/10 "2016-12-14T18:18:47Z")
> [@STiNGER](#):
>
> We use a couple of mailinglists to sent the same message to multiple recipients.
You can simply have those lists post to Discourse categories and (depending on preferences and such) they’ll get an email.
The ability to have access to old archives in a readable format seems pretty compelling. New people can quickly find old reports, announcements, and discussions all in the very same interface that new ones exist. Finding an old discussion in an email archive is nightmarish.
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/11 "2016-12-14T19:25:15Z")
Absolutely, Jay.
I have been impressed with Discourse’s search function from day one.
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> You can simply have those lists post to Discourse categories and (depending on preferences and such) they’ll get an email.
I am not sure if I understand what you mean. Are you referring to Discourse’s ability to post and reply from email?
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/12 "2016-12-14T19:26:23Z")
Right. And Discourse can act a lot like a mailing list, so people who are afraid of using the web could continue to treat it like a mailing list.
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/13 "2016-12-14T19:32:20Z")
Right. I am going to look deeper into Discourse’s post/reply from email features.
Thanks Jay!
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### Author:  [@JagWaugh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JagWaugh)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/14 "2016-12-14T19:41:51Z")
Simply mention to management that they won’t have to spend more money on an email archiving system, or expand the SAN/NAS so that everybody can keep their own private copy of the notes from a staff meeting in 2001 where it was discussed what kind of coffee machines should be purchased for the lounge.
You’ll still have the personal copy squirrels, but the sentient beings will soon realise that is a lot simpler to just trust the central repository.
> [@pfaffman](#):
>
> The ability to have access to old archives in a readable format seems pretty compelling. New people can quickly find old reports, announcements, and discussions all in the very same interface that new ones exist. Finding an old discussion in an email archive is nightmarish.
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/15 "2016-12-14T20:07:55Z")
I like your view on this.
Perhaps I should change my approach. Instead of “defending” Discourse in the comparison Discourse vs. email, I should focus on Discourse being the logical progression from email. That is a far more ambitious approach.
That will certainly get their attention. I need to emphasize what email cannot do, and Discourse excels at “natively”.
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/16 "2016-12-14T20:28:53Z")
I shared some thoughts on this subject here:
> [@Discourse and Email Lists (like Google Groups)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-and-email-lists-like-google-groups/39915):
>
> Some reasons to consider using Discourse for you community instead of email lists Discoverability of content is much easier in Discourse Searching through email list discussions is tricky, especially those that began prior to you being added to the list. People generally do not consider emails as unique resources they can link to, so discovery by cross reference is minimal or non-existent. In Discourse, you simply start by skimming topics. It is more natural to link to another post, so discov…
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/17 "2016-12-14T20:37:56Z")
Just what I needed – thanks, David!
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### Author:  [@Remah](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Remah)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/18 "2016-12-14T20:44:11Z")
I would be emphasizing the difference in workflow for a **discussion** in either medium.
There is a fundamental difference between emails that do not require any further interaction other than reading the email - or deciding not to read it because of the title and who it came from - and emails that lead to further interaction.
As soon as you start a discussion with email, the interface becomes very cumbersome:
- Discourse retains the benefits of [asynchronous](http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-advisor/questions/synchronous-asynchronous-learning.php) communications while allowing the appropriation of many benefits from more synchronous/immediate communications such as text chat.
- Discussion continuity in emails is assisted by appending the contents of previous emails to the current response. But this is a massive duplication of data. I don’t mean massive in the sense of very large, but the frequent accumulation of small duplications which is rather like death by a thousand cuts.
- Email doesn’t really work if there are more than two people talking at the same time. So collaboration is restricted by the limitation of the email interface. Think about this example: when you have more than two people in the conversation, how do you work out what each person is responding to? You normally have to read the start of the appended message to see where they were in the conversation - most of us do this without even thinking about it but it remains another small cut. I can think of many email discussions where confusion has reigned when any of us assumed that others were a) up-to-the-moment and b) had read all other responses.
- Email doesn’t have features to handle mutating discussions. When there are changes in context, content, subject or recipients there is no easy way to see what has happened. Each change creates a disjunction. For example, a change in topic should be signalled by a change in the email subject line. But if that happens then most email clients, which only allow an email to be in one conversation, will create a new “conversation” using that new subject.
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### Author:  [@STiNGER](https://meta.discourse.org/u/STiNGER)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2016, 9:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/19 "2016-12-14T21:00:28Z")
Interesting observations, Mark.
I certainly experience the lack of features in email to handle mutating discussions.
For instance, people tend to use my latest reply to them to start a whole new topic. Of which the topic itself has nothing to do with my latest reply. Subject and message are now completely out of sync. It is as if they use my latest reply as a bookmark for my email address.
Now try to find back the true content of that specific mail a year from now. That gives a hole new experience of the word “hell”.
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232/20 "2016-12-15T13:54:03Z")
Thanks for all the insightful comments thus far. I’ve tried to distill the arguments presented into a canonical topic:
> [@Using Discourse instead of an email mailing list](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-mailing-lists/54298):
>
> bookmark This topic explains the advantages of using Discourse over traditional email mailing lists for group conversations and community management. person_raising_hand Required user level: All users Discourse is a modern platform designed for group conversations that offers significant advantages over traditional email mailing lists. While email remains effective for one-on-one or small group communications, Discourse excels at handling larger, ongoing discussions. Here’s why you shoul…
Let’s continue this discussion there. I’m entirely open to additions.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-vs-email-pros-cons/54232.md?page=2)