Hacker News Reader

Admittedly I was being facetious: OP said mailing lists are better than a forum, but for searching the archive you need a forum-like interface anyway.

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Its a bit easier as it can be read-only & static generated. Though there are some attempts to make it possible to reply using the Web interface, like HyperKitty /Mailman 3.

Google? Actually back in the day, gmane was the shiznit.

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