Message boards are inherently easier for some people to use, mailing lists are inherently easier for others. Personally, I subscribe to both, and actually enjoy the way the Empeg BBS is laid out as it presently stands (I liked it so much, I bought the software for a project I was working on myself )

Mailing lists, because they don't show immediate results in real-time (and you don't have a sense that "this message has already been replied to" tend to long and convoluted and torn off-track in several different directions. When that happens on a BBS, it is obvious to the user immediately, by looking at the threading tree at the bottom of the message they're reading.

Here's hoping the BBS stays just the way it is... albeit with more users.

D