Starting a discussion via email is possible again

Yup, that worked.

What is not possible, though, is to reply via email to a discussion that you yourself started via email -- not until someone else posts an answer. This is because the forums do not send back an email notification of a discussion you've started, so there's no way to reply.

Sometimes it can be useful, though, to be able to do this -- for instance if you realize you've forgotten some important info in the original question.