ruminations on the recent flame war

stev@ftp.com Thu, 02 March 1995 15:51 UTC

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Date: Thu, 02 Mar 1995 10:50:22 -0500
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Subject: ruminations on the recent flame war
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(ensign, are the shields still up? . . . . )


having watched this for awhile, it is clear to me that there are
several things to consider . . . . 


1) over time, several people have tried to "fix" the Sun RPC/XDR
problem. each of them have tried to fix the problem within the
constraints of 1602, usually resetting the clock to the begining.

2) some people who have tried to "help" seem to have hurt.

3) the IESG does not respond well to "threats" or "ultimatums" from outsiders.

4) the IESG does not respond well to "threats" or "ultimatums"
from insiders. (before you start, i tried this last year and lost
with phil gross.)

5) people on the IESG seem to be busy with their day jobs, and, in
their own ways, seem to be trying to do the best thing for the community.

6) people on the IESG understand politics, and alot seem to be pretty
good at playing that game (myself included).


based on these things, it is clear to me that the IESG needs to be
made up of "team players" rather than "young turks". i have seen some
good proposals lose in the last 18 months based on the way they were
presented.  i have also seem some bad ideas move thru without problem
due to the way they were presented. this may be the "Wrong
Thing(tm)", but we would be stupid to deny the truth. while we are
not at the point of having a cult of personality in the IESG, we do
need to recognize who we are dealing with.

at this point, it is only one month, and probably only one meeting
until danvers. at this point, bickering, while possibly cathartic, is
probably not productive.

it is clear to me that the current IESG is not a team, and as such
will not be productive on issues that involve "camps of armed
troops".  i would imagine that the best thing we can currently do for
our community would be to step back and allow vint and company to
continue dealing with Sun, and for us to try to move along to
subjects that we stand a chance of dealing with productively.