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.