I am not sure about modernizing. I am all for developing core applications like mailman, but I fail to see great value in this piece of execution.
Post voting is bad for fact oriented discussions, popularity is a poor indicator for the value of a post. The user interface is cramped, and hides too much of valuable information I would expect to see instantly. Also, the looks are from previous decade (looks like sf.net clone to me) and not very aesthetic.
Sure, this might be a step forward nevertheless, but it is a really small one.
As far as I know, those are configurable features; I'd expect any FOSS project mailing list to turn them off.
One of the goals of mailman is that the same software should be able to handle either a mailing list or a forum, so that people who want the UI of a forum can collaborate with people who want to live in mutt.
To me the huge step here is the RESTful API, assuming it is indeed RESTful. Having access to data that's structured naturally and less like a full-on layout document (HTML) means that any developer can trivially grab the underlying data and do whatever they want with it.
Post voting is bad for fact oriented discussions, popularity is a poor indicator for the value of a post. The user interface is cramped, and hides too much of valuable information I would expect to see instantly. Also, the looks are from previous decade (looks like sf.net clone to me) and not very aesthetic.
Sure, this might be a step forward nevertheless, but it is a really small one.