A mailing list hardly seems like an efficient method for tracking bugs unless a major part of the efficiency is reducing signal to noise by make it more difficult for non-developer or non-paying users to file bugs
I can't speak for other devs contributing to the project, but I think the mailing list is a great way to do this. Ultimately, what you want is a simple way to track information about reported issues, discuss the details, make it reasonably simple to search for existing issues, and post patches fixing the issue. A mailing list does all of that, without having to deploy (and maintain and curate) a separate system.
Why do you think it's more difficult to report a bug this way, compared to a bug tracker? There's even a "report a bug" link on the project home page, where you can submit a bug report through a simple web form (you need a community account, but every other bug tracker I'm aware of requires that too).
Can you explain why you think a mailing list is less efficient than a bug tracker?
With a mailing list, I can work on the most recent problems, and with my memory, I can work on the problems that most stand out in my memory (either because they affect me personally, or the process of solving them has attracted my background attention). Neither of those seem like good ways to prioritize things.
But with a bug tracker, I can look for old problems that have not had attention paid to them, and pay attention to them.
I certainly agree a mailing list is a good approach, and many bug-tracking systems operate essentially around mailing lists: RT adds a tracking number to the subject line, and Debbugs essentially creates one mailing list per bug.
As an end-user the first thing I want to do before reporting a bug is search and see if it has already been reported or if it is being worked on and when it is expected to be released. If I was told that I had to dig through mailing list I would probably just stop before I even started.
> Can you explain why you think a mailing list is less efficient than a bug tracker?
As a bug reporter, I want a friendly way efficiently search and filter existing bugs based on status, version, subsystem, etc. I also want to be able to subscribe to a specific bug to get updates. Maybe you guys have some way to get all those features from a mailing list, but new users certainly won't have a clue.
As a developer I want to be able to easily tag, filter, assign and triage bugs. Assign priorities and associate them with releases and pull requests. I also want to be able to do high level reporting.