public-inbox spawned around the following ideas
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* Public, non-real-time, archivable communication is essential to
  Free and Open Source software development.

* Contributing to Free and Open Source projects should not require the
  use of non-Free/non-Open Source services or software.

* Graphical user interfaces should not be required for text-based
  communication.

See http://public-inbox.org/design_notes.txt for our implementation notes.