I posted a comment on their blog about this, not sure if it went through though (old IE version here at work...)

I think they WAY overstate the difficulty of setting up a Google Group. I just did it in 2-3 steps.... All of the "settings", "more settings" and "permissions" they describe all work JUST FINE as defaults.

Not only that, it is free....

They talk about filling out a Captcha as "difficult", but I have a hard time seeing how filling out credit card details is any easier

I personally don't think this would have got any attention if it wasn't out of the 37Signals shop.

As a P.S., did you notice how they display the Google Groups signup with form validation errors? ....