wikitech-l
wikitech-l is a mailing list for the MediaWiki development community. The threads tend to get rather lengthy as people debate implementation options; often the conversations devolve into bikeshedding over insignificant details. Most of the lengthy discussions concerning the most fundamental aspects of MediaWiki development take place on wikitech-l rather than places like MediaZilla, although the final debates leading to the ultimate decisions on architecture issues are usually made at synchronous communication venues such as IRC or in-person meetings. Occasionally, someone breaches etiquette, usually by wording a criticism harshly, and dozens of posts follow, debating how bad the etiquette breach was and whether people are overreacting.
Occasionally an off-topic thread is launched by someone attempting to spam the listserv with his own theory of ethics or communication techniques, ostensibly as a proposal for adoption by the development community; these tend to attract dozens of comments by people interested in such meta-issues, without resulting in any new policies or practices being agreed upon.