I find the mailing list cumbersome at times too, but my preference is to move
more into Squeak, not out.  Is there a newsreader available for Squeak?  I know
of none.

This is why one of my projects is building a pure domain to help read, search,
manage and participate on the list from within Squeak.  I've a half-baked start
on it and, yes, Thread is a first-class object.

For searching, I plan to index the entire archive of these domain instances
into a Magma repository (which should be made publicly accessible on the
Internet).   For the UI, anyone can write their own or use the included
naked-objects utility (Maui) which, itself, allows for fast and easy
customizations based on individual desires.

 - Chris