the programmers I know prefer to communicate over email, if they're forced to communicate at all. Typically, because this allows them to take the time to get their point across perfectly before sending it.
What they often don't realize is that the recipients of their carefully crafted emails don't read them, or at best, skim them.
For one guy I work with, every email is a PhD thesis. They are WAAAAAYY too long-winded and nobody else even pretends to read them anymore.
I sort of dislike email discussion in many cases because I feel like I need to cover all points and consider all possible replies. Even for areas you know well, simply expressing your points understandably and concisely can take a lot of time and effort, and as you often don't really know exactly which points are important to the recipient, much of that effort might be wasted.
In a face-to-face discussion you can drill down and explore exactly those areas which need exploring... If it's a subject you know well enough to talk about without a lot of offline research, this is often way easier.
What they often don't realize is that the recipients of their carefully crafted emails don't read them, or at best, skim them.
For one guy I work with, every email is a PhD thesis. They are WAAAAAYY too long-winded and nobody else even pretends to read them anymore.