Re: [Gendispatch] Ending [e-mail]

[Eric Rescorla <[e-mail]>]

On Sat, Apr 3, 2021 at 12:58 PM Andrew Campling
<[e-mail]> wrote:

>
> On 03/04/2021 16:13, Stephen Farrell <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> > Hiya.
>
> > On 03/04/2021 15:48, Salz, Rich wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> *   I've been thinking about writing an I-D proposing to shut down
> >> [e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>.
> >>
> >> Strongly opposed.
> >
> >Same here. Closing [e-mail] is an awful idea that I hope is quickly
> dropped.
> >
> >>
> >> Public discourse is messy.  Humans often suck.  Such is the price we
> >> have to pay. Shutting down this venue would only force it somewhere
> >> else, or perhaps underground.
> >
> >That, and [e-mail] IMO fulfils many purposes, not all written down
> - just as one minor example, one can often get a useful impression of a
> posting from the set of previous postings from the same author - I think
> such "features" would be very likely missed should that list be closed and
> we'd end up with all sorts of gaps that'd need filling.
> >
> > A few related thoughts:
> >
> >- I don't find it hard to process [e-mail] mails, and anyone can
> unsubscribe, and I don't find the content to be "toxic" - it's frequently
> irritating and often boring but not much more than that.
> >
> >- It's a bit sad that people on all sides of most of the non-technical
> discussion on that list seem to be notably more absolutist than was the
> case some years back. A bit more tolerance of the imperfections of
> ourselves and esp. others might help some.
> >
> >- In contrast to absolutism perhaps increasing, I see no change in our
> collective willingness to re-state opinions and regurgitate arguments over
> the years - that seems the same since I started reading IETF mails:-)
>
>
> This is to note for the record that I'm also strongly opposed to the idea
> of shutting down [e-mail].  As others have stated, the community
> does appear to be pretty fragmented anyway and closing down this list would
> reinforce the increasing separation of the many IETF silos.  This will make
> it even harder for potential new participants to join fully and
> effectively, adding yet another barrier to inhibit progress in improving
> the overall diversity of the community.


I find this to be a somewhat surprising suggestion. Subscribing to
[e-mail] seems like about the last thing I would advise a new
participant to do -- at least if I wanted them to continue to participate

-Ekr