Adding a forum to the new project site is definitely doable. If enough people really want it, I can add the feature in.
Steven,
Group Server has matching functionality as that of google groups http://groupserver.org/ we were hosting diaspune list on their free service https://diaspune.onlinegroups.net/ They have become a paid service, but the software is Free.
If we do dump Google groups I would like something like Group Server as written by Praveen. Then we only downgrade our mailinglists a little bit.
If this proposal passes we should decide on a suitable mailing list engine somehow, maybe a follow up proposal.
(I still think this is totally unnecessary though :))
The reason I say it is totally unnecessary is that our mailing lists are very low volume and having to install and upkeep some software for those is just plain overkill. Let Google pay for our mailing lists if you hate them so much 
A forum is a good idea when it comes to end users, for example the Ubuntu forums. But I think we should try to use Diaspora itself for that.
A forum is not a good tool for project coordination. Given the lack of people actually doing something, there isn’t much to be coordinated anyway.
It looks to me (which I didn’t express clearly at the start) as though the best thing to do would be to retain a mailing list for developers, as this seems to be a means of discussion and notification with which developers are comfortable, and to set up a forum (preferably on diaspora-project.org) for end user discussions, help with setting up pods, all that type of stuff. As the project grows, and more users sign up, and more people set up pods, I’d expect there to be an exponential growth in need for such a forum, and it would be good if we had one ready and (preferably) self-hosted.
Whether the diaspora-dev mailing list remains on Google groups or moves to another platform would then seem best to be left in the hands of those devs who use it, and the balance of them seems to be to leave things as they are.
I’d suggest open a general help/discussion forum, and closing diaspora-discuss mailing list. Do we need a separate vote for that? Obviously, moderators would be needed for the forum.
Christophe, at the moment we’re using Loomio for project co-ordination, and Github for development co-ordination. This vote is only about the mailing lists, not about shutting down everything in favour of a forum. Don’t worry.
@Praveen Group Server looks like exactly what I had in mind, thanks.
@madamephilo Using Google Groups means it’s not opensource? Just based on the Google Groups I’m a member of, by that standard, the following projects are not opensource:
- Rails
- Ruby
- JRuby
- jQuery
- CarrierWave
- Capybara
- Cucumber
- RSpec
- Compass
- Devise
- Bootstrap CSS framework
- And many more (I’m not going to list them all, the examples above are good enough).
Literally all of those projects meet every definition of Free Software and/or OpenSource, Matz (the creator of the Ruby language) even go an award from the Free Software Foundation for his contributions to Free/Open Source software… but they all use Google Groups for their mailing lists. 
Today I wanted to post a new thread on diaspora-discuss mailing list without a Google account. So I wrote the message and sent it to diaspora-discuss@googlegroups.com but the message didn’t appear on the list.
So much for using non - Google email address for posting to a mailing list.
@petarpetrović , you need to subscribe to the list first - the same way as for any other mailing list Also the first message after your subscription message is sent will have a little delay due to spam control.
It works - I tested it - scroll down some messages below…
Well, I’ve registered previously. OK, waiting for the message to appear…
So guys, it seems that we are divides on this point. As we have a lot more urgent things to do, I propose this :
If someone takes the entire responsibility of new mailing list, that means creation, migration and administration (including spam management, a task to do everyday), it is okay to switch, but else, devs have more important things to do than setting up a tool which already exists and works well.
(I repeat, I am for leaving Google because I think that people can refuse to subscribe because this is Google, but I have no time to run a mailing list. If someone want to do it correctly, he is welcome )
I have a Linode VPS with Debian 6 on it, and I am willing to dedicate my time and energy into running mailing lists. I will only need a domain for it, obviously.
@petarpetrović would you run Group Server? Really wouldn’t want to lose the nice web UI…
The thing that I think is funny about people not trusting Google is that the same people are readily going to trust a single individual instead. At least there are rules on how a corporation can use your data (and some actually follow those rules), but if an individual sells your data it’s not even illegal 
Just a generic comment
As for domain - whoever would run the list I think we can use something like lists.diaspora-project.org … @seantilley-communitymanager ?
@jasonrobinson Well, I can send you the photocopy of my passport if that is your concern, then you can sue me if I sell your data. 
Ontopic, yes, I can set up anything you like, GroupServer, Mailman, whatever the community decides.
@petarpetrović sorry, your message was in the mod queue, didn’t had a chance to check it until now.
@jonnehaß Ah, great. I thought I had my mail server messed up. I guess I should be able to send messages without moderation from now on?
Well, since it is working now and since a lot of people object of migrating off Google, I suggest that we stay there. Or, open the mailing lists at librelist.com.
@petarpetrović wasn’t distrust towards you, was just wondering in general why some people trust single persons more than a regulated collective of single persons - I just think it’s odd. I trust companies better than single persons
And yeah only the first message from your email is moderated.
Librelists.com seems like a decent idea though it has no UI to write messages which is nice about Google Groups. And browsing archives is kind of limited. But at least there would be no hosting to be done.
@jasonrobinson Well, we’re a community after all, we should trust each other because we discuss about important stuff every day and we care for Diaspora*.
Btw, are we switching to something else in the end or not?
I thought about registering diasporum.net and putting a general user forum there, because potential users and podmins are just so more comfortable with forum stuff than mailing lists. We can also host our mailing lists there. I will pay for the server.