Looking at the https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ#Still_no_luck._Where_can_I_ask_for_help? section:
The link for "(try and search the archive first)" points to a domain that times out.
http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.org.wikimedia.mediawiki
The subscribe page for the maillist at https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l points to a different URL:
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/mediawiki-l/
Which is the correctlink?