Re: [Gendispatch] I-D Action: draft-eggert-bcp45bis-01.txt

[Lars Eggert <[e-mail]>]

Hi,

On 2021-3-30, at 13:59, Eliot Lear <lear=[e-mail]> wrote:
> I’d prefer to discuss fundamentals before we dispatch this draft.  The first question I think we should ask is this:
> 
> 	• Is there an IETF community, members of which are meant to cross-fertilize ideas, such that end product is the most generally useful? OR
> 	• Are there merely disparate efforts that occasionally interact with one another, who all happen to use roughly the same processes and publication format?

I think neither of these two captures my mental model of the IETF, which is one of several (many?) communities around different technical (or administrative) topics, which are all overlapping one another to some degree or another (the topics and the communities both). The union of all these communities would be "an IETF community", as in your first bullet.

That said, I don't think these differences matter very much, because:

> If one believes the latter, then we might as well dispose of the IETF list in its entirety and perhaps let the IESG advise authors as to which dispatch function they should use, if needs be.  If one believes the former, as I do, then I would rather see the list function to address cross-cutting issues that community members would like to discuss.

draft-eggert-bcp45bis doesn't intend to introduce any changes to the charter of [e-mail] other than those that are already in effect due to the establishment of the last-call list and other lists that have been created since BCP45 we published to be a home for recurring discussion topics. In other words, draft-eggert-bcp45bisit doesn't change the ability for the community to have cross-cutting discussions or to cross-fertilize ideas on the [e-mail] list.

(Part of the cross-fertilization, in the form of last-call reviews, now happens on the last-call list, but that change wasn't introduced by draft-eggert-bcp45bis.)

> Regardless, perhaps better modes for discussion (on the IETF list and elsewhere) need should be considered.  For instance, a general list might best be moderated or curated.  Let it be a bit closer to the IPJ, for instance.

I think draft-nottingham-discussion-recharter makes a pretty convincing case that [e-mail] isn't a general list for the IETF community (= the "union" I mentioned above), and probably hasn't been for quite some time.

Whether we can (re?)create such a "general" discussion forum and what shape it would take are interesting questions, but go far beyond what the purpose of draft-eggert-bcp45bis is.

Thanks,
Lars