Re: [DNSOP] draft-schanzen-gns and draft-ietf-dns-alt-tld

[Joe Abley <[e-mail]>]

On Aug 1, 2022, at 15:58, Ben Schwartz <bemasc=[e-mail]> wrote:

> I think we already have such a mechanism: ICANN.  People who want unique registrations can acquire them via the existing ICANN and registry processes.

I think we have been around and around these arguments at the ietf and in various parts of the icann community so many times that there's hardly any point in taking another run at them.

My observation from being in variously in middle and on the edges of several of these discussion is that there is no clear consensus around any of this: no consensus that there is a problem to solve, no consensus on what a solution would look like to any particular problem and no consensus about the proper venue for any architectural or governance decision that might hope to implement any particular solution. 

We have had proposals in ICANN ACs, questions considered by the ICANN board, proposals in working groups at the IETF and now proposals in the ISE queue.

While it seems entirely reasonable that an independent submission might have something to say (there is no shortage of individual opinions) I think it would be unfortunate if a document that wound up in the RFC series gave the impression that it contained something resembling an IETF position or community consensus when it didn't because there isn't one. 

I appreciate independent-stream boilerplate and other cautionary notes within the document ought to be able to make this clear, but I have my doubts about whether that clarity be obvious in practice to anybody making reference to the document.

[If I was on the IESG giving advice to the ISE I would argue that this disconnect between individual opinion and the clear lack of group consensus represented a conflict. I am not on the IESG, however, for which everybody can be thankful, hence the brackets around this paragraph.]

Perhaps it would be a kindness for someone to write a document that said that there was no consensus around any of this. Such a document might provide some incentive to stop trying to find some and we can all move on with our lives. 


Joe