You can sign up to be notified about all postings on a given module, no need to start a thread.

I don't know if it's possible to reply to an email and have it appear on the board but it's open source so if you can think it you can make it.

Peronsally I'm happy to see it because I haven't bothered setting up a mailing list but I can see how those who have mightn't like it. Maybe the author of a module should have some control over what cpanforum does for his modules.