You can subscribe via email without any google account by sending a message to <groupname>+subscribe @ googlegroups.com, then it acts just like any other mailing list.

This[1] also used to work, but it's been a while since I've used it. Basically just hits this url:

  http://groups.google.com/group/%(groupname)s/boxsubscribe?email=%(email)s

[1] https://github.com/bsandrow/google-group-join

I don't see a problem here, you can just get a gmail account and read mail however you like still, configuring mail client of choice.

UPDATE: wow, didn't know you can't even read messages without being google-user. Yeah, that's boorish a bit.

UPDATE2: turned out that's not true. You can read google group perfectly fine without signing in: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/tmux-users

so you were misled and confused by google into thinking you need a google account, if only for a while. they try hard to manipulate people. do you see the problem now? yes, you can fight the stream of lies and misdirections, or you can say "thanks, but no, thanks".

Assuming there are only 2 threads, Otherwise, that only shows the public threads.

Yeah, as I understand they just moved from Sourceforge, since signed-in, I also see just 2 threads.

agreed having google account is necessary nowadays =(