I'm not a fan of IRC too old and clunky(not to mention I find it extemely hard to follow multiple conversations. NNTP is old and outdated as well and I'm not a fan of subscribing to Yahoo Groups. And Maillists keep clogging up my mail box, but a lot of discussions go on there, so I use them. I believe the maillists were originally for users to communicate problems with the developers, which is the easiest way for developers to keep up.
Personally, I prefer WebForums, but their only downfall(which a lot of people don't like) is you have to keep checking the site for new posts, or set alerts to notify you of updates to topics or new topics.
I know the FedoraForum.org website has some way where they've incorporated a couple newgroups into their forum http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=50 They probably set a email address up to catch newgroup posts and filter them directly into the database.