Re: Terminology discussion threads

[Benjamin Kaduk <[e-mail]>]

On Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 03:41:26PM -0500, Nico Williams wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 14, 2020 at 12:17:21PM -0700, Benjamin Kaduk wrote:
> >                                     [...].  Rather, the departure of many
> > prominent IETF contributors from the membership list of [e-mail] has
> > placed us in a (or, perhaps, excacerbated an existing) situation where the
> > membership of what is nominally the "general IETF discussion list" is not
> > representative of the IETF community.  As someone who is, at times, charged
> > with assessing IETF consensus, I feel that this calls into question the
> > utility of the [e-mail] list for determining consensus.  Personally, I
> > now have significant doubts that the results of discussion on [e-mail]
> > will reflect IETF consensus.  [...]
> 
> That's a problem then, because the RFC publication process for the IETF
> requires IETF-wide Last Calls.  Rather than abandon the list,
> subscribers who are unhappy with certain debates should ignore them.
> 
> Damaging or destroying the IETF's ability to publish RFCs is truly
> extreme, whether intentional or otherwise.  I'm not saying that taking
> destructive steps could never be justified, but I am saying it's
> extreme, and in this case not justified or not yet.

Note that, at present, IETF Last Call discussion on documents occurs on the
[e-mail] list, not the [e-mail] general list.  Perhaps that
reduced some peoples' sense of obligation to remain on [e-mail],
though that is speculation.

-Ben