Email usage (Was: Fully functional email address)

[Jay Daley <[e-mail]>]

> On 16 Jun 2025, at 12:36, Salz, Rich <rsalz=[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> Regular surveys of the IETF community have shown that while other forms of communication are also desired, “kids these days” don’t have any particular distaste for email.  The issue is more about the amount of it, rather than just using it. IIRC Jay talked about it in a plenary and at the WGchairs forum, but I don’t have any good links other than the 2024 community survey.

The IETF Community Survey 2024 does indeed talk about this, in a number of places:

Q26a. "Do any of the following hinder or deter you from participating in the IETF?" includes "The reliance on email and mailing lists" as one of the statements.  Overall this is not a hindrance but those from Africa and those 18-24 years old do regard it as such.  To a lesser degree, so do new participants and people from the other regions that have a smaller number of participants. 

The commentary in the survey is:

> 42. The reliance on email and mailing lists is not considered much of a hindrance except for participants under 24 and participants from Africa. This is likely due to those two demographics having a much higher use of phones than laptops and the sub-optimal experience of using email on phones. In the IETF context, this may be worsened by the various email formatting styles of IETF participants (e.g. lines manually wrapped at 78 characters per line) that are difficult to read on mobile devices.


Q22. "How do you prefer to be informed of IETF activities?" includes "Email announcements" as an option.  This comes out as the preferred option by a long way and with a relatively tight spread by age.  Even for younger people, the other options are still a way behind. 

Q24. "How do you prefer to participate in the discussions and decisions of the IETF?" includes "IETF Mailing lists" as an option.  This again comes out as the preferred option by a long way.  However, for younger participants and new participants, issue trackers and remote meeting participation are just as popular.

Jay

-- 
Jay Daley
IETF Executive Director
[e-mail]