I would personally have to vote against this. Years ago, we created a
forum for our software product's users. Even though we had a prominent
link on our website, and promoted it via email, it simply rarely got
used. The reason was that people had to make a conscious effort to go
to the website and view it. So, questions rarely got answered, and
thus, people rarely bothered posting them.

After a couple years of this, we dropped the forum and created a Yahoo
Group instead. What a difference! People immediately started using the
group, and it was always at the forefront of everyone's minds because
everything came into their email.

While I agree that Yahoo's search functionality is lacking, I love
everything else about Yahoo Groups.

-Joe