Re: Bad/Good ideas and damage control by experienced participants

[Miles Fidelman <[e-mail]>]

Keith Moore wrote:
> On 6/22/22 13:04, Tim Bray wrote:
>
>> The below from Tom Petch captures my opinion.  I have sympathy with 
>> more or less all the notes from all the factions in this discussion, 
>> which instantly stops when they say or imply “… and that’s why it’s 
>> OK to be rude.” 
> I also believe that Tom's advice is good advice.
>
> In case I'm one of the people whom you think is saying or implying 
> "... and that's why it's OK to be rude", I wish to clarify that I 
> don't believe that at all.  Rather, I believe "rudeness" is extremely 
> subjective, and that it's unfair for a small group of people 
> (regardless of their positions) to impose their subjective criteria on 
> discussion participants.  I don't object to specific, 
> narrowly-tailored criteria that have been discussed and gained IETF 
> Consensus.
>
> I also believe, separately, that trying to police "rudeness" is both 
> counterproductive and inconsistent with consensus-making. If you want 
> to encourage better behavior, for some meaning of "better", the best 
> way to do that is by example.   Note that reasonable people can have 
> different ideas on what "better" is.
>
> Keith
>
> And for what it's worth, I regard the casting of the discussion points 
> as either for or against rudeness, as at least potentially rude, or 
> more specifically inappropriate, as a presumption of ill intent.   But 
> I'd prefer to assume that such characterizations are merely 
> misunderstandings.
>
Good point.  Assumptions of ill intent, can be far more damaging than 
actual ill intent.

Miles

-- 
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.  .... Yogi Berra

Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why.  ... unknown