Re: [Ietf-and-github] Adam Roach's No Objection on draft-ietf-git-using-github-05: (with COMMENT)

[Martin Thomson <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, Mar 12, 2020, at 12:31, Adam Roach wrote:
> On 3/11/2020 8:19 PM, Martin Thomson wrote:
> >> Section 3.2:
>    Repositories for private documents MAY
>    be kept private, but only where there is a specific reason for doing
>    so.
> 
> This seems really odd, completely undetectable/unenforceable, and actually
> harmful. It is common practice for editors to just keep their source local and
> only submit the output of such source to the i-d repository; and that’s just
> fine. This seems to say that such users are effectively forbidden to have their
> source equally private but also effectively backed-up and revision-controlled
> by one specific online service. It seems strictly better to allow and even
> encourage this, to prevent a loss of data.
> > I might revise this statement.  As you say, it's meaningless.  But the 
> admonition about operating in secret is probably worth retaining.  How 
> about: https://github.com/ietf-gitwg/using-github/pull/49
> 
> 
> Thanks. The removal of normative language is an improvement, but the 
> guidance appears to be the same. I think there's a difference of 
> perception here. I agree that an open repository is better than a 
> private one; but I also think that a private repository is strictly 
> better than not using an SCM at all, and I'm more concerned about the 
> implications of this language on the second point than the first.

(Weird quoting...)

The advice was intended to be about Working Groups doing official business in private.  Do you think that the new language is wrong in principle, or is it that I've just made a hash of the transcription of the concept?

For reference:
> Maintaining private repositories for Working Group documents is not recommended without specific cause.  For instance, a document that details a security vulnerability might be kept private prior to its initial publication as an Internet-Draft. Once an Internet-Draft is published, repositories SHOULD be made public.